ROTTERDAM PILOT
We are very excited to announce the start of the espaço agora now pilot in Rotterdam, the first espaço agora now city hub worldwide. This 10 month pilot will take place from November 2023 until September 2024. Read more about it here:
WHAT IS A RESIDENCY?
Our first publication gives distinctive perspectives of artists in our network about our values. We focus on values because we want to facilitate conversations about what residency means for all of us and dialogue about how we relate to each other.
artists
There are many amazing artists in our growing network. Meet some of them below. Each has a distinctive view and gives a perspective on how they might use an espaço agora now residency.
Photography by Maarten Mooijman
Aart Strootman
“I would see if it is workable to make an instrument deliberately 10 or 12 metres long and see what this does to sound.”
Photography by Ruth Cook
Hussina Raja
“I would use the space, use materials, use canvases – use all kinds of options available … Being in a larger space would make me think bigger”
Photography by Stephen Wright
Patricia Okenwa
“I think there would be conversations to be started with people I find interesting or people I want to return to and new people. The outcomes would end up being a multitude of new seedlings. ”
Photography by Marianne Kortbani
Maya Zbib
“I think as a community of practitioners it is a beautiful opportunity to raise our children closer to the studio.”
Photography by Vladimir Opsenica
Branko Miliskovic
“If I go to Argentina, for instance, I probably wouldn’t go with a prescribed concept in my head. I would allow myself to be there in the space, see what would happen, and discover my territory.”
Photography by Sebastian Arpesella
Amparo González Sola
“I would bring my own process of research to a different place and I would open it, to let it be affected by the context”
Photography by Tiago de Jesus Brás
Raquel André
“I could invite other artists to think together with me but also the public – the space brings that possibility.”
Photography by Alessandro Sala
Rodrigo Batista
“I would make a production of open and public content. I would invite people to give public lectures about these themes. How can the content leave the spectrum of the art piece – which is inaccessible to the public?”
Photography by Kurt van der Elst
Jamie Man
“For me, meeting other artists or other collaborators quite often comes out of chance encounters … COVID really cut off that possibility so I would use the time and space to create those encounters.”
Photography by Heartefact
Andrej Nosov
“An important part of the residency would be to discover the community and environment where I go to work. The other thing would be to make a connection to that space between my practice and what I think, hope and imagine, and the existing structures in that space”
Artists programme
Since espaço agora now’s inception we have held conversations with artists to understand their needs and hopes for a new kind of development space. espaço agora now is on a ‘with’ rather than a ‘for’ basis and is co-designed with the input and leadership of artists.
Soon we will share news about the first residencies we will be offering to artists.
We host:
Monthly online gatherings
for the global network
Speed CONNECT roulettes (online)
for artists to network across borders and forge new collaborations
Knowledge sharing LABS
Join The Network
Are you an artist who would like to be a part of our network?
Register your interest below
Knowledge
An important question we have been asking since the beginning of this project is “what is a residency?”. In 2021 we mapped hundreds of residency spaces for performing arts globally, longlisted 86 in all continents (less Antarctica) and shortlisted 20 with the goal of learning as well as understanding how espaço agora now could differentiate and complement existing models.
During the research we identified 11 differentiating features of espaço agora now:
+ International network of artistic residencies
+ Shared ownership
+ Arts faculty
+ Intrinsic public engagement
+ Interdisciplinary
+ Focus on mid-career artists
+ Large scale spaces
+ Paid residencies
+ Process-based residencies
+ Families welcome
+ Long and flexible residency periods
When comparing all the residency spaces with espaço agora now’s main elements, the findings showed that there was no single space with the same 11 features.
In February 2022 we gathered with our artist community to discuss what a residency is and what it can be. We explored ideas around the concepts of time, displacement, mobility, residencies post-pandemic, inhabiting territory, and reciprocity. Together with Argentinian choreographer Amparo González Sola we asked questions including: How can we think in a way of creating through residencies beyond intensive and hyper concentrated modes? How do we relate with questions of displacement in moments when displacement has consequences in ecology?
If you are interested in reading the research or if you would like to share with us what your views of a residency are, email us [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!
Dust
2020
Andrej Boleslavský, Mária Júdová and Patricia Okenwa