Gathering by land, sea and screen, North AiR artists and network partners invite you to join talks and open discussions, probing the future of artists’ residency in a time of ecological breakdown.
Sharing learning from the North AiR pilot residency exchange, artists George Ridgeway (UK) and Maija Annikki Savolainen (FI) will open up their research and practices, developed through residency exchange with organisations in Scotland; Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Taigh Chearsabhagh with University of the Highlands and Islands, Timespan, and Finland; MUSTARINDA , KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre and The Bioart Society, and with the localised ecologies of Northern Scotland and Finland.
At this point of convergence (in London/at the end of the pilot programme), the discussion will raise questions; how can the arts support a shift to a post-fossil future? What role do remote and rural residencies offer in a time of climate breakdown? How can we collectively question and act on the enduring colonial and corporate legacies of extraction and exploitation of such environments? The discussion will be supported by curators, and future network partner, Anna Santomauro from Arts Catalyst.
Bringing together the artists’ experiences on residency with these questions this event will act as a point of (re)constitution, evaluation and provocation with/in other centres, towards future network activities and a community of practice in this area.
Wednesday 6 November 2019, 6PM
This event is free and un-ticketed
For information on disabled access at the Finnish Institute in London visit their website.
North AiR : Expanding Entanglements is a residency and research cooperation spanning six residency/ arts organisations in Scotland and Finland supported by The Finnish Institute in London. Each partner fosters long term enquiries into its role and response-ability within the ecological crisis and together we look towards a post-fossil culture with a trans disciplinary approach. As a key part of this research cooperation we pool our resources and networks to think beyond dominant artist exchange models and look to question the role of artists’ residency in a time of climate breakdown.
George Ridgway (b. 1992) lives and works between Glasgow, Scotland and Shaftesbury, England. Recent exhibitions and projects include: For this, have this, Hatch Farm, Wiltshire, 2019, Togæther, Lumsden Weekender, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, 2018; Say What I am Called, part of Glasgow International Festival, Glasgow, 2018; WITHKIN, Melbury Abbas, Dorset, September 2017, ThreeWorks, Weymouth, September 2017, Fort Bravo, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, 2016/17; MONO, UR3GL, Madrid, 2016.
Maija Annikki Savolainen (b. 1980) gained a Master of Arts in Photography from Aalto University in 2014. With a background in biology, her work combines natural science and art. She has exhibited widely in Finland and abroad, including: Solarophytes, ISSP Gallery, Riga, 2017, Preesens / Presenceness, Titanik-gallery, Turku, 2017, and Basic photography, SIC, Helsinki, 2016. Her photobook, When the Sense of Belonging is Bound to a System of Movement, won the Nordic Dummy Award 2013 and was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2014. In 2014 Savolainen was a nominee of Fotofinlandia prize. She is one of the founders of Maanantai-collective,and is part of Futures, 2019 with the European Photography Platform.
