KulttuuriKauppila welcomes in June Scotland-based artist George Ridgway to Ii as part of North AiR: Expanding Entanglements residency pilot of the Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW), Taigh Chearsabhagh and Timespan from Scotland and Mustarinda, Bioart Society and KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre from Finland. The residency programme supported by the Finnish Institute in London aims to reconsider conventional artist exchange models and question the role of artists’ residency in this time of climate breakdown.
Scotland-based artist George Ridgway and Finland-based artist Maija Annikki Savolainen were selected through an open call to undertake a new and innovative residency programme set up by North AiR, a research network of six organisations spanning Scotland and Finland.
The selected artists will travel by land and sea to the partner organisations in the respective countries. The artists will research within local ecosystems and landscapes for one month at each location, for a sustained period of three months in 2019.
This significant residency pilot does not seek final outcomes or artworks, rather applied and expansive research by the artists. Utilising innovative, embodied methodologies and situated research/process-based enquiries, as demonstrated in the artists’ practices to date, the programme is unprecedented in its direct response and action around urgent issues within an international context.
Photo: Björn Kröger