About the residencies
The Art Encounters Foundation launches a residency program dedicated to the young artists, to take place in 2017. Its purpose is to stimulate creativity, encourage the exploration of artistic practices in collaboration with the local artistic environment, facilitate cultural exchange, and establish a vivid, meaningful dialogue between the communities and actors from different cultural fields.
Given the recent appointment of Timișoara as European Capital of Culture 2021 and the organization in 2017 of the second edition of the Timișoara Art Encounters biennial, Timișoara is on the right track for becoming a major focus point of the national and regional artistic interest. The rich cultural calendar announced by the program proposed for 2021, with national and cross-border exchanges and cultural mobilities, is based on creating bridges across cities, people and domains, capable of sustaining the long-term cultural development of the city. At the same time, the Art Encounters biennial, which will take place between September 30 and November 5, 2017, will comprise a series of exhibitions focused on Romanian Contemporary Art, lectures and workshops, and will be preceded in the spring and summer months by an intense activity of research carried out in Timișoara by invited curators and artists.
The artist-in-residence program founded by the Art Encounters Foundation aims to become a permanent platform for experiments, production and dialogue for young Romanian artists.
The artists who participated in the 2015 Art Encounters residency program are: Bogdan Armanu & Silvia Amancei, Biroul de Cercetări Melodramatice (Irina Gheorghe and Alina Popa), Mihut Boșcu-Kafchin, Alex Mirutziu.
Calendar
Benefits
Application and selection process
Selection results
Calendar
- January – March
- April – June
- September – November
The duration of each residency is of minimum 5 weeks and maximum 12 weeks.
Benefits
During the residency program, the Art Encounters Foundation will provide:
- accommodation in Timișoara (for the artist and one extra person);
- per diem, amounting to 450 RON per week;
- studio;
- technical assistance for production, if required;
- coverage of production cost, depending on the project, up to a maximum of 4000 RON;
- meetings with artists, curators and art historians depending on the proposed project and the particular interest of each artist-in-residence;
- the possibility, but not the obligation of a public presentation of the project or the artist’s previous artistic activity during an artist talk;
- logistic support for organizing an exhibition in Timișoara, if so desired.
Application and selection process
Eligibility and requirements
The age limit for applicants is 40 years.
During the residency period, the artist must spend at least 80% of his/her time in Timișoara. If the proposed project requires travelling for research outside Timișoara, amendments to the above requirement can be made.
How to apply and selection process
For January – March 2017 and April-July 2017, the period for submitting the application starts on October 10, 2016 and closes on November 30, 2016.
The dates for the September-November session will be announced later on.
The applications shall be sent by email, at contact@artencounters.ro, and must contain the following attachments:
- resume (2 pages maximum);
- cover letter that should include information regarding the chosen period for the residency, the project to be carried out and the type of studio needed (2 pages maximum);
- portfolio.
The residency program can accommodate only one artist at a time in each of the mentioned periods.
The resident will be selected by the Artistic Board of the Foundation, whose members are: Magda Radu (curator and art historian), Dan Perjovschi (artist), Cosmin Haiaș (artist), Cristina Olteanu (Executive Director of the Foundation) and Ovidiu Șandor (President of the Art Encounters Foundation).
The selection process focuses both on the submitted project – the rigor of the artistic concept and the chosen method to put it into practice, and the applicant’s previous experience and the way in which he/she could benefit from the residency program.
Selection results
Raluca Croitoru, a young artist living and working in Bucharest and Rotterdam, was chosen to be the artist in residence during January-March, 2017. Raluca has a Bachelor Degree in Dynamic Image and Photography at the National University of Arts Bucharest (2013) and she holds a Master Cum Laude degree in Fine Arts at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (2016).
Her project for the residency program intends to combine elements from the official scoring systems for dance with information gathered from contemporary statistics in order to investigate, in a performative manner, work and leisure in today’s society. The theoretical part, in which the artist will conduct her research starting from the dance manuals published in the 16-18th century in Europe, will be completed by a practical application, as explained by Raluca: “I’m interested in observing and translating participatory, small social actions, that we perform in everyday life and that lie at the basis of global economic systems. Experienced directly, either by observers or by participants, they represent contemporary forms of social dance.”
The results of the selection for the April-June 2017 artist-in-residence program will be announced by the end of February.
Liliana Basarab, an artist who started her practice in Iasi, and now works and lives in Bucharest, was chosen to be the artist in residence during April – June 2017. Liliana uses a variety of means of expression, including performance, sculpture, drawing and video. After graduating from the University of Arts in Iasi, she was selected for the Pavilion artist in residence program in Paris. Since then, she has taken part in residency programs all over the world, from Finland to the USA.
„We might stand up or we might fall down” is based on ceramic works that illustrate familiar objects like shoes, bottles, football players, all deformed or malformed, as a result of accidents or errors. Liliana intends to continue her project during the Art Encounters residency program, aiming to create instances in which people interact with that kind of objects. The artist is used to think in terms of space and time and is fascinated about research and development, going beyond the physical aspect of the creative process. On this project, Liliana intends to work together with the local community and relate to the public, while exploring the idea of an extended performance.
