Art residencies: reflections on cultural mobility

How have the artistic residences in the last two decades become opportunities for cultural mobility?

Cultural mobility does not only concerns the artists but also more and more socio-professional categories, inviting them to participate in collaborative and multidisciplinary projects; Scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and engineers are, among others, invited to collaborate nationally and internationally with artists, designers, art historians, curators …

Nowadays, the residences constitute an incredible international network with active programs in more than 110 countries of the world and form extremely important local networks in parallel that connect cultures, knowledge, and ideas from all over the world with the surrounding environment. The residences are a source of opportunities for artists and creatives who want to travel and take advantage of that time to develop an artistic project supported by local professionals and aimed at a new public.

With the almost exponential evolution of the number of residency programs in the world since 2010, subsidies, scholarships, and varied supports have emerged that warrant the right to mobility of all “artistic citizens”. National, international, public, and private supports, with the will to democratize the culture and create long-term international relations, are made more accessible than ever thanks to the new media and the computerization of candidacies.

Artists need to travel, discover new places, new inspirations, new people who think differently and who make their critical spirit grow. It is not a coincidence if the number of residences went from 1500 in 2014 to more than 2500 in 5 years. Art spaces also need to receive artists who present new disciplines and concepts to feed their own local creation. Local, national, international, research, production, curatorial, or socio-cultural residences, each participates in cultural mobility and the circulation of knowledge.

Artists In Residence Television is a Web TV dedicated to artistic residencies, created in 2016 by Alexandra Christev and Vladimir de Vaumas, which promotes the creation of audiovisual content on residency programs and cultural mobility. Since September 2017, Artists In Residence TV visited more than 230 residences between Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. The challenge is to interview 300 art residency programs in two years and create a short video about each one.

Lugar a Dudas is a cultural center dedicated to contemporary arts, that has been hosting national and international artists since 2006 in the city of Cali, Colombia. Organizing projects and initiatives from the intersection of disciplines, from theater to music, through the visual and living arts, to activist and social projects, Lugar a Dudas has become the cultural and artistic meeting place of South Colombia and it has been built as a bridge with the rest of the world, actively participating in dialogue and socio-cultural exchange.

Artistic Residences, Reflections on Cultural Mobility

May 31st, 17h en Lugar A Dudas

Direction: Calle 15 Norte # 8n – 41 , 7600100 Cali

Contact: info@artistsinresidencetv.com