Country Focus: Spain – Changing Landscapes, New Residency Opportunities

Date:  Friday 29 September
Time: 14:00 – 18:00
Location: Instituto Cervantes, Domplein 3, 3512 JC, Utrecht
Language: English

At the forefront of climate change, landscapes in rural Spain are undergoing rapid transformations, as severe droughts pose a threat to local ecosystems and their habitability. In response, creatives and cultural spaces in these regions are creating strategies to make a positive impact. What role do residencies play in the sparsely populated and increasingly dry Spanish countryside? In our programme, we will highlight several residencies in such contexts opening their spaces up to artists from other parts of the world, providing opportunities to collaborate and engage with local surroundings.
 
To better understand what this engagement can look like, as well as get to know the challenges and opportunities emerging with these developments, DutchCulture presents a new edition of Country Focus: Spain – Changing Landscapes, New Residency Opportunities, in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes in Utrecht, the Netherlands Embassy in Madrid and DutchCulture | TransArtists. This event also presents a mapping of artist residencies in Spain on TransArtists.org, with an emphasis on rural areas. Throughout the programme, representatives from the Spanish cultural sector will share their experiences with residency programs that address and potentially counter these challenges.

Programme
14:00 - 14:05 Welcome by Kirsten van den Hul (DutchCulture) and Alberto Gascón Gonzalo (Instituto Cervantes Utrecht)
14:05 - 14:10 Introduction by Simon de Leeuw (DutchCulture)
14.10 - 14.35 Keynote by geographer Rosa Cerarols (Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona) + a presentation of the residency Konvent (Barcelona)
14.35 - 14.50 Presentation of the residencies AADK, Murcia (Hanna Szabó) and MAL, Los Santos de Maimona (Andrés García Vidal)
14.50 - 15.05 Panel conversation with Rosa Cerarols, Hanna Rita Szabó and Andrés García Vidal: How to design residency experiences that interact with the environment?
15.05 - 15.20 Musical performance by Ysa Bermejo
15.20 - 15.30 Break
15.30 - 16:15 Break-out sessions: How to find and fund your residency? by Mondriaan Fund, K.F. Hein Fonds or TransArtists
16:15 – 16:30 Closing + questions
16:30 Start networking moment

Keynote: Rosa Cerarols
Rosa Cerarols is a cultural geographer working at Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. In addition to her work as a cultural geographer, Cerarols conducts research in the field of Geohumanities, is a cultural activist and the co-founder of Konvent at Cal Rosal (Berguedà, Catalonia) – a contemporary cultural centre located in an old convent of nuns in an industrial river colony.

Hanna Rita Szabó
Hanna Rita Szabó is an Amsterdam-based cultural manager and content writer. She has collaborated with various initiatives in Budapest (HU) and has worked with AADK Spain's team since 2018, having been an all-around manager of the platform until January 2023 and maintaining close ties with AADK ever since. Szabó relocated to Amsterdam in December 2022 to pursue her studies in nonviolent communication.

Andrés García Vidal
Andrés García Vidal is an artist and sound recordist who works within the frame of sound studies and focuses on aural and oral culture. From an interest in audio’s intrusive scope and its capacity to “break into” he explores specific territories through the notion of noise, speech and memory. He has participated in several residencies, such as VI Programa de Investigación y Producción (C3A, Córdoba, ES, 2022), El Horizonte del Desierto (MAL, Los Santos de Maimona, ES, 2021), and Programa de Producción Uava-C3A (Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, C3A, Córdoba, ES, 2018).

Ysa Bermejo
Spanish singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Ysa Bermejo began her solo career in 2021 joining forces with the Greek-Czech producer Okkio in the city of Rotterdam, NL. They crafted a unique sound that blends contemporary elements such as hip-hop, R&B, and electronic music while drawing inspiration from the rich traditions of Latin and Spanish music. Bermejo's project delivers a strong energy that is gaining momentum, drawing the attention of relevant festivals, blogs, and playlists across Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

Bermejo was recently selected to participate in the well-known showcase POPRONDE 2023 in the Netherlands, solidifying her position as an emerging artist to watch.

KFHein - Travel Stipend
With its travel stipend, the KFHein Fund wants to support and encourage artists and designers from the province of Utrecht in their artistic development by making a trip possible. The travel stipend is intended as part of the financing of a trip or residency abroad for the artistic development of the artist or designer. The impact that the journey can have on the artist's work is central. The travel stipend can cover a maximum of 50% of the costs, the other 50% must be financed by the artist or designer from other sources. Rixt Wieringa will present the conditions in more detail.

The Mondriaan Fund - Artist Project
Do you want to complete a concrete plan within a specific working period? Are you contemplating an apprenticeship or a working period in the Netherlands or another country? If so, you may be eligible for an Artist Project grant. Artist Project grants are for visual artists who want to execute a specific plan, tied to a clearly defined working period. This can also be a collaborative project with one or more other parties. Advisor Douke IJsselstein will elaborate during the break-out sessions and answer all your questions!

TransArtists
DutchCulture | TransArtists combines and shares knowledge and experience on artist-in-residence programmes and other international opportunities for creative professionals to temporarily stay and work elsewhere. Our goal is to make the enormous worldwide residential art labyrinth accessible and usable to artists through our website, workshops, AiR collection, research and projects. To do this, we usually cooperate with a wide range of partners in all world regions. Heidi Vogels will present the database as well as the mapping of Spanish residencies.

Are you interested to know more about artist residencies and their challenges? Our research intern Nick Verginis has written three essays on the subject as part of his master’s degree programme in Cultural Leadership at the University of Groningen. His research focuses on the role of hosts of artist residencies in Southern Europe.