escapists and jet-setters: residencies and sustainability

8/10/2019 Escapists and Jet-Setters: Residencies and Sustainability

1/8 Autumn

Escapists and Jet-Setters:Residencies and Sustainabilityby Laura Kenins


2/8 Residencies

Artist residencies have become so commonplacethat we rarely think to question their origins ortheir uture. Subscribe to any art mailing list andevery week brings a new crop o application dead-lines or residencies, estivals and various short-term projects, in Japan, Brooklyn, Newound-land, Berlin and Albertaseemingly indicatinga world o possibilitiesin spaces that range romgleaming purpose-built artist colonies to one-off

projects to punk enterprises in backyards and sheds.Some are urban, while others appeal to a desire toget away rom it all and work in beautiul natu-

ral environments.

Te underlying message in these calls or ap-plications appears to be that we need to getout o our communities and countries to work,that being an artist means being constantlyon the move. A recently established websitecalledRate My Artist Residencypresents an il-lusion o criticality, while encouraging resi-dencies to be thought o as a product by in-

viting readers to fill in multiple-choice quest-ions with answers ranging rom I had the timeo my lie, everyone apply now! to Please,give me my money and time back. And art-

ists, many o whom worry about the environ-ment, oil dependency and consumerism, ofenseem to have a blind spot or how these issues

play out in their own practices.Sustainability is a ashionable word these

days. Many residencies already speak o theirinterest in sustainability, which ofen trans-lates to energy-efficient windows and low-flushtoilets being installed in studios and artist ac-commodations. But what i we think o sus-tainability in a wider sense? Not just residen-cies but numerous aspects o the art worldrequire travel or temporary events: estivals,installations, symposia and other projects o-

ten act as, or incorporate, short-term residen-cies, with artists setting up or a period o timein a place some distance rom home, workingon, presenting, or installing a project. Arethese events sustainable or the planet, localecosystems, the local or wider community, orartists own careers?

We can trace artist residencies appeal back tothe th-century Romantic idea o heading intonatureits no surprise that some of the worldsfirst artist colonies were ounded in Caspar Da-

vid Friedrich-era Germany, along with Franceand the Netherlands, in the s. In Canada,a love o the landscape has had a hold on ourcollective imagination since the Group o Seven,and perhaps it is the same orce that drives pres-ent-day artists to seek out residencies in placeslike the Banff Centre, Fogo Island and DawsonCitys Klondike Institute o Art and Culture.

Te idea o the artist colony emerged in theearly th century alongside Romanticism, andthe idea o artists going into the wilderness orto a place ree rom societal restraints persistsin todays residencies, whether they be urbanor rural. In those days, and up through theearly th century, artists ofen settled ora period o years or decades. Te notion othe colony suggests Hakim Beys emporaryAutonomous Zone, a space set apart rom or-mal control and structure. Tese early artistcolonies were established as utopias o sorts,a place where experiencing natural beauty andcreating work could be artists primary con-

cerns. In these spaces, artists could be ree rommany o the usual restraints o everyday lie andeveryday behaviour. Much like these colonies,todays residency centre is a sort o permanenttemporary community where individual mem-bers may change, but one can always find a com-munity o artists .W

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...more, more, moreseems to be a dominantphilosophy andgreenwashing hasbecome more andmore prevalent.

Many residencies and programs explicitlystate their interest in the environment: the program o the Caetani Cultural Centrein Vernon, BC, sought a rtists working onthemes o nature, conservation and social is-sues; the organization that runs Newound-lands Fogo Island residency states an interestin geotourisma type o tourism meant tosustain a community, heritage and the envi-ronment. Te Banff Centre ollows nationaland international sustainability codes withinits acilities and has run environmentallyocused programs, including a programon technology and recycling.

While many residencies may incorporateconcerns about environmental sustainabilityinto their mandates and programs, there areother questions worth asking: where do artistscome rom to attend residencies, and how dothey get there? Residencies like Fogo Islandare situated in remote, environmentally sen-sitive areas and encourage artists to considerthis act in their work; residencies can also beound in many other isolated places aroundthe world, like the hal -dozen or so in ruralIceland. But rather than bringing in g roupso artists to reflect on the landscape, wouldntthe responsible choice be to limit access to asew people as possible?

Budapest-based curators and art historiansMaja and Reuben Fowkes have been research-ing and speaking on ecology and contempo-rary art or a decade. Te Fowkes turn a rarecritical eye to the sustainability o the artworlds practices. In their text Te EcologicalFootprint o Contemporary Art, looking atestivals, conerences and biennales, they write:

Te international gatherings o the art worldare resource intensive, relying on an invisible

hinterland that stretches across the globe.Tese events are usually short term and requiremany people travelling by plane, both parti-cipants and audiences, as well as the transport-ation o artworks, and the production o newartworks. Residencies, although generallylonger in duration, have many o the sametransportation requirements.

Te Fowkes writing asks questions that areeasy to ignore, like whether we really need an-other biennale or residency on a remote wind-swept island somewhere, or whether an artworkabout sustainability is itsel sustainable. In agreater sense, the Fowkes are looking at how

insidious the ideologies o our unsustainableeconomic system have become in the art world,where more, more, more seems to be a domi-nant philosophy and greenwashing has be-come more and more prevalent. Greenwashingin the art world can take the orm o boastingo recycled-paper exhibition catalogues, waterconservation practices in a residency centre,or the invitation o artists dealing with envi-ronmental issues to join a program, but green-washing ignores the root questions o whe-ther these things were necessary in the firstplace, or how they were initiated. For instance,was a large paper catalogue necessary? Should

the residency centre have been built in an en-vironmentally sensitive area? Does the artistneed to travel or his or her work to convey amessage to the wider public? In a article,the Fowkes mention a need to move away romwhat they call a growth-programmed idealin the art world to the appreciation o dema-

terialised art practices that have virtual ly noenvironmental impact.

Te Fowkes are also interested in the mate-rial sense o sustainability in artworks them-selves, researching land art, perormance, artthat uses minimal materials or natural mate-rials, and work o an ephemeral nature. In aremote area, an artist working with toxic mate-rials might damage the ecosystem, so some re-mote residencies explicitly state concerns over

what materials artists use. urning away roma ocus on production can eliminate most othese concerns. And similarly, ephemeral proj-ects, providing due consideration or the en-

vironment, provide another option or resi-dency and travelling artists to minimize theimpact o their practices.

Polish curator Sebastian Cichocki has cre-ated another alternative to the production-based residency, called Te Site Residency,

which he runs on the Swedish island o Got-land. He says that the rightening thingabout residency programs is that they arebased on a wrong belie that the artist is somekind o elevated being. Afer spending sometime in a space, the artist absorbs the spaceand can deliver an object. Inspired by thesite-specific works and institutional critiqueso the s and s, Te Site Residencyorbids its artists rom making anything.Instead, they experience the site and latertransmit their experience to a ghostwriter,who produces a text about the residency. Ci-chockis anti-production residency worksas a critique o biennale art, where curators

grab a big-name international artist andhave them work or two weeks on a superfi-cial project. In contrast, at Te Site Residen-cy, the artists only job is experiencing.

Nova Scotias White Rabbit residency alsoaims to ollow a model o minima l-impactproduction. Held each August since

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4/8 ResidenciesEscapists and Jet-Setters...

on a arm in Upper Economy, NS, WhiteRabbit brings together a group o artists whoofen return each summer. Te residencysorganizers encourage artists to work with thenatural materials on the property. Accordingto Andrew Maize, one o the organizers, therule is, i youre working with anything thatis not natural, not going to break down nat-urally, you have to take it with you when yougo. Tough White Rabbit is increasinglyreceiving national and international appli-cations, the majority o its artists come romHaliax or have some ties to Nova Scotia.

While materia ls are one concern, the im-pact o travelling on the artists themselves isanother consideration or the sustainabilityo residencies. In the Europe o budget air-lines, a Budapest artist can conceivably fly inor a weekend in Warsaw, spend the next inSpain, the ollowing in Finland, and never

pay more than or a ticket. European pro-grams have given rise to a class o residencyartists: people who may have no permanentaddress, but spend three months here or twomonths there at residencies across the conti-nent or world. Sociologist and writer PaulaBialski calls these artists privileged nomads

who highlight a sort o labour flexibi lity. Es-pecia lly or young artists , it seems easier toreceive travel grant unding than productiongrants, especially rom the Canada Councilor the Arts. While this can be exciting atfirst, it may not be sustainable in the longterm. Given the choice to receive undingto work at home, in their own studios, manyartists might eventually choose this optioninstead. Te situation in Europe is similarto the one in Canada , where international

projects sometimes seem to have boundless

undi ng but ofen exclude applicants romthe country where the program takes place.At the May edition o the annual Inter-

ormat Symposium o the Nida Art Colonyin Nida, Lithuania, artists, curators and cri-tics gathered to discuss the theme o criticaltourism. Nida, a tourist town on the Curon-ian Spit, a narrow sandbar in the Baltic Sea,has been loved by artists and tourists or hund-reds o years. One question that continuallysuraced throughout the symposium was whe-ther the artist is really more than a tourist dur-ing a residency. Ramunas Povilanskas, a pro-essor rom the nearby Klaipda University,

discussed the bubble o the colonys com-munity and suggested ways to integrate thatbubble into the community o locals or tour-ists. While artists come to rural colonies ortheir evocative backdrop, they seldom con-sider themselves tourists, despite being attract-ed to venues or similar reasons that touristsare, and usually par ticipating in some kindo tourist-like activities (visits to local monu-ments, museums, and so on) at some point ina residency.

Perhaps i artists were thought o as a sorto tourist, it would open new possibil ities orconsidering the prolieration o artist residen-

cies and travel-based projects. At the sympo-sium, Bill Aitchison, a London-based artist,discussed how it is impossible to really expe-rience the point o view o a local during aresidency o a ew weeks. Instead, Aitchison

proposed becoming an expert at being a tour-ist, leading to his project Te our of All ours

in which the artist first toured and researchedtourists at a perormance estival in Dubrovnik,Croatia, and then prepared a guided tour oguided tours in Stuttgart, Germany. woother London-based artists, Sam Skinner andMarkus Soukup, afer being accepted to thesymposium, decided to critique artist tourismby staying home and participating throughSkype, presenting a video postcard thatreflected on artist tourism. Te most criticalthing Skinner and Soukup could do, theythought, was to not travel. All travel has animpact, they noted, and not just an environ-mental one. In their video, they reflected ontourism, artist gentrification and the impactartists and cultural producers have on a place.Citing conflicts in Berlin between long-termresidents and the oreign artist s who havemoved in, one o the artists recalled mixedeelings about his role as a temporary residento Berlin in the past. Skinner and Soukupasked whether artists can resist taking on therole o tourist, and what possibilities thereare or artists work to travel without requir-ing travel by the artists themselves.

In their research on art and ecology, Majaand Reuben Fowkes try to ta ke into accountthat there are possible benefits in the art worldsresource-intensive activities, a v iew held byAlberta artist Peter von iesenhausen (also apast mentoring artist at the White Rabbit res-idency). Von iesenhausens work, primarilyin sculpture, installation and land art, usual-ly deals with environmental themes. Livingin rural Demmitt, north o Grande Prairie,AB, von iesenhausen travels requently orresidencies, exhibitions and projects. Speakingrom oronto, he comments, I I had to stayat home and live in the orest like I do, I would

have no artistic practice.A networked art world necessarily requirestravel, especially or artists living outside majorcentres. Te possibilities and connections out-

weigh the impact: even i an artist is workinghal-heartedly on a directionless series o oil

paintings at a residency, perhaps that residen-cy will result in proessional relationships orcreative revelations that surace years later.

Von iesenhausen points out how artists canhighlight environmental problems, notingthe resourcestravel, equipment and crewthat go into the production o one Edward

European programshave given rise to a classof residency artists:people who may haveno permanent address,but spend three months

here or two monthsthere at residenciesacross the continentor world.

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...If our main reasonsfor travel for festivals orresidencies is to connectwith other artists or tohave time and spaceaway from our other

responsibilities, so wecan work, do we reallyneed to go to the otherside of the globe? Arethere not other artistscloser to home withwhom we can connect?

Burtynsky image versus the impact Burtyn-skys work has on viewers awareness o environ-mental issues. Yes, there is guilt that goes with[travel], he says, but there is also obligation.

In our correspondence, Maja and ReubenFowkes noted the importance o consideringcommunity in weighing the benefits againstthe negative effects o travel. On each occa-sion you have to decide whether the flight, orthe use o other carbon intensive resources,can be justifiedon the other side o the equa-tion is the benefit that ace-to-ace communi-cation can bring, which might be seen as animportant actor i we take into account thedimension o social sustainability, in additionto purely environmental considerations, they

write, commenting that ewer and longer resi-dencies would be more viable than residency-hopping.

Finnish artist Jussi Kivi also deals with en-vironmental themes in his practice, workingwith installation, mapping and photographyas the Romantic Geographic Society. As anartist, Kivi avoids air travel and aims to pri-marily work regionally, completing recent proj-ects in Estonia, Latvia and elsewhere in Fin-land. Kivi is especially concerned with thelack o thought that artists show in relationto the effects o travel while they take pridein their environmental consciousness. He

writes: People take pla nes li ke they takethe bus this is real ly symbolic o modernliestyles, reflecting the idea that we can, andshould, be constantly on the move and be ableto reach the other side o the world in a mattero hours whenever we eel the need.

Kivi also notes the irony o the same insti-tutions that promote sustainability encourag-ing groups o visitors rom around the world.

In Finland, both art institutions and the gov-ernment are beginning to grow conscious othe unsustainablein various sensesaspectso the residency system. Te Finnish minis-ter o culture recently announced plans tolimit support or Finnish artists at residenciesabroad. Another remote residency Kivi is con-nected with, Mustarinda, towards the northo Finlandinitially designed primarily orthe benefit o artists in Finlands major citiesconcerns itsel with environmental sustain-ability, and is beg inning to consider whereartists travel rom and how they get there intheir consideration or residencies.

Doesnt it sound much better to say youspent the last three months in a remote Ice-landic village, or rural urkey, than in Mont-real or Winnipeg? Tis begs the question: iour main reasons or travel to estivals or res-idencies are to connect with other artists orto have time and space away rom our otherresponsibilities so we can work, do we reallyneed to go to the other side o the globe? Arethere not other artists closer to home with

whom we can connect?Perhaps looking to the past can give us

some ideas o how to create a more sustaina-ble residency system, when the complications

o long-distance travel orced people to stayor longer periods or travel shorter distances.We can learn rom locally-ocused, minimal-impact projects, such as White Rabbit, abouthow to live where we do. We can use materi-als at hand, like at Mildreds Lane, in North-eastern Pennsylvania, where artists come to

work together in the living museum o ahome, and residents consider alternate wayso living in every part o their day, rom theirart practices to making dinner.

And, finally, we can look at why arts und-ingand prevailing attitudessuggest wemust go elsewhere to create or show our work,

wherever home is. I th-century artists helda romantic view o the white male artist goinginto the wild to paint and live the simple lie,todays evolution has the semi-nomadic jet-setting artist with a ull passport or Air Milescard flying off to live a simple lie, wheresomeone else takes care o lies boring detailsoutside the studiowhether this simple lietakes place in Berlin or rural Newoundlandbut just or a short time, beore real li e, or thenext glamorous destination, calls. By lookingdeeper into how and why we travel or art andtravel to make art, we can work towards build-ing a more sustainable system o residenciesand artist travel.

Laura Kenins is a n artist and writer based in Riga,Latvia . She has written about ar ts and culture forCanadian Art,Visual A rts News, Akimbo.ca,

Tis Magazine, Te Coastand others. She recentlycompleted her first artist residency in artu, Estonia.

Endnotes

Nina Lbbren,Rural Artists Colonies in Europe,(Manchester: Manchester UniversityPress, ), .

Lbbren,Rural Artists Colonies in Europe, . Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Te Ecological

Footprint o Contemporary Art, ranslocal.org,www.translocal.org/ootprint/index.htm.

Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Reclaim Happiness: Artand Ecolog y Unbound,Artecontexto (), .

Sebastian Cichocki, Nothing is old, neither noth-ing is new: A lecture on the site-as-an-exhibitionexperience (lecture, Inter-ormat Symposium, NidaArt Colony, Nida, Lithuania, May , ).

Paula Bialski, in ransient Spaces: Te ouristSyndrome, ed. Marina Sorbello and Antje Weitzel(Berlin, ), .

Tis raises urther questions: How much can onecontribute to a community in two months? When

we invest resources in sending artists elsewhere, whatis the community at home missing?

Peter von iesenhausen, interview with the author,May , .

Hanna Ojamo, aiteilijaresidenssien lakkautta-minen huolestuttava signaali [Closing Down oArtist Residencies is a Worrying Sign], Suomenaiteilijaseura[Artists' Association o Finland],May , , accessed June , , www.artists.fi/tietoa_toiminnasta/ajankohtaista/taiteilijaresidens-sien_lakkauttaminen_huolestuttava_signaali..news.

Jussi Kivi, interview with the author, May , . Te inverse is that sometimes, in ar-flung areas,

there is an awkwardly colonial relationship by whichresidencies court oreign artists under the guise oenlightening the locals. Do the permanent residentsin these places really require an artist resident romNorth America or Germany to educate themabout art?


8/8 ResidenciesEscapists and Jetsetters

escapists and jet-setters: residencies and sustainability

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