Call for application
Today, in the light of the disturbing events we are all living through, it is important to speak and understand correctly the ecology and the environment in which we live. Environmental issues have not ceased to be important since romantics of the XVIII century with their call for return to nature, emphasized the industrialization of the world and rightly predicted the consequences of the industrial system of mass production which required uncontrolled growth of energy using fossil fuels. The future then is our history. The consequences of this philosophy of production, profit and exploitation are clearly seen and they weigh heavily from now until the breath of the most exposed classes and categories on the periphery of the world and decision-making.
We have reached a point where emergency is the normality. It is true that we are trying to turn our heads back one more time to nature, with the difference now that it is no longer there, nature as we have conceived it does not exist anymore, and it took something as simple as a virus to remind us what we knew; that the earth and the environment are alive, we are organisms within other organisms, and the place where we breathe is the organism with which we live without clear boundaries separating each other (queer ecology theory). We need to be aware that the inside and outside does not exist. If they were true as concepts, then a virus or something else would not be able to infect and reproduce endlessly in living beings. Biological boundaries like geographical ones are constructs of the mind, everything has been and is interconnected.
The second edition of the INFRARED Art Residency comes with an open call dedicated to pressing environmental issues. It is essential to be able to share and testify each person’s intimate experience. Considering the number of population per square meter, Kosovo is one of those developing countries with very high levels of polluted air, also with a significant shortage of waste management, the use of sustainable energy technologies and a high concentration of the most sensitive social categories in extreme difficulty. This situation is answered by an insincere awareness that denies and pukes the problem constantly.
The reality, precisely which we avoid, consists of microscopic grains of poisons and plastics, the fact that we are unable to see it with the naked eye does not mean that it is less dangerous.
INFRARED Art Residency has been developed based on the nature of the Infrared light which is generally invisible to the human eye, but that can be felt as heat and can only be seen under certain circumstances with special equipment. In the same line of thought, the methodology of Infrared Art Residency aims to identify different issues each year that concern the community. Therefore, INFRARED is also a thematic residency that includes all types of approaches, for the purpose of residence beyond artistic development. In this way INFRARED through artistic residencies aims to create a public dialogue on certain issues.
The second edition of INFRARED will address topics related to pressing environmental issues using art as a form to tackle and address such issues. Artists of all genders are invited to contribute to the topic of pressing environmental issues.
16 participants will be selected to be part of the 5-day program within the residency which will be held at the beginning of July, while 8 of them will be selected to be part of the INFRARED Art Residency. The residency will be held during September-October, offering the opportunity for an open space studio in Prishtina for those who will be selected. They will be supported to produce an artwork and they will be part of the collective exhibition after the residence.
Alongside the residency program, artists will continue to work individually, explore and realize their concepts independently. For this INFRARED runs a one-to-one mentoring scheme, as an optional add-on to the residency program. The process until the final realization of the works is overviewed by the mentor and curator of the exhibition Blerta Hoçia.
About the curator
Blerta Hoçia (1984 Tiranë) is an artist and curator from Albania, living in Pristina.
She completed her degree in Painting Techniques at the Academy of Florence, Italy. Previously she was curator at Miza Gallery, an artist-run space in Tirana and Head of the Archive at Marubi National Museum of Photography.
She has curated several exhibitions among them, SOFT MEAL Miza Gallery (2015), LONG LIVE Marubi Museum (2017), ONCE UPON A TIME AND NEVER AGAIN Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo (2019) OPEN CITY Nuit Blanche Prizren (2019)
She is an artist with several personal and collective exhibitions.
Her solo exhibitions include THE DEMIURGE, Siena Italy (2012), IN THE ABSENCE OF EXTERNAL FORCES DO NOT POSSESS MY OWN FORM Magma Florence, Italy (2013) and I THOUGHT OF YOU SO HARD Zeta Galeri, Tiranë (2016). She has participated in numerous collective exhibitions and art fairs, among them EMERGENZ, Berlin (2013), SUPERMARKET Stockholm (2015), PARALLEL VIENNA (2017), ARDHJE, Tiranë (2014, 2019) and MUSLIM MULLIQI PRIZE, Prishtinë (2018).
In her artistic practice she focuses on the creative process of memory, how we deal with it in the intimate and as a society. Her work tends to create an ideal dialogue with the past. She works with personal archives as well as with digital or analog public archives.
Who can apply?
Shtatëmbëdhjetë is dedicated to bringing together artists of all genders and backgrounds, groups and collectives from all over Kosovo. We welcome applications from artists working in a wide range of creative disciplines, including: animation, architecture, performing arts, visual arts, design, dramaturgy, film, photography, literature, new media, music, performance, painting, ceramics, sculpture, print, textile, dance, video art, drawing and those who practice a range of creative disciplines. The residency is suited towards creative individuals, groups, collectives at various stages in their careers – up to the age of 30.
How can you become part of the INFRARED Art Residency?
To become part of the INFRARED Residency, you must complete the online application form and attach the accompanying documents in the form by June 1, 2020. https://forms.gle/LGKjc2uq3GHpp3zD7
For questions related to the residency and application form you can write to us at [email protected].
INFRARED on pressing environmental issues project is implemented by Foundation Shtatëmbëdhjetë and is financially supported by Prince Claus Fund and Goethe-Institut.
