The Changing Landscape of Artist Residencies

Clara Che Wei Peh

Artist residencies are programmes that provide artists, curators and researchers the opportunity to live and work beyond their existing loci. Many residencies provide accommodation, a working space and often, a monthly stipend. They aim to facilitate a conducive environment for artists-in-residence to focus on their research and creative process. This has often translated into an invitation for artists to experience a temporary displacement of geographical locations, supporting them to travel abroad and encounter unfamiliar environments, different cultures and forge new connections.

Then came 2020 and COVID-19. The pandemic brought with it travel bans, nationwide lockdowns and increasing health risks across the globe, forcing residency programmes to cease, postpone or rapidly adapt to the new conditions brought on by the pandemic.

Indonesian artist Elia Nurvista was participating in a six-week residency at Sa Sa Art Projects in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in March 2020, when she found herself stranded in isolation due to the sudden halt of international flights. The pandemic situation in Southeast Asia had escalated rapidly. Originally intending to continue her research in Prague, Czech Republic, immediately after her time in Cambodia, Nurvista’s residency in Europe was postponed indefinitely. Like many artists, Nurvista had planned much of her year around the international residencies she was scheduled to attend. As the global art cycle came to a stop, artists scrambled to adapt to new circumstances, without the international connectivity and fluid movement that the art world had become accustomed. Similarly, residency programmes were challenged to respond rapidly and flexibly, to imagine different ways of engaging and facilitating artistic research and production that could go on in these unusual times.

Opening Up to the Local Community

In direct response to the impossibility of travel, many programmes decided to pivot to refocus resources towards local artists. Not only did this mitigate issues surrounding cross-border travelling, but it also provided much needed support for artists whose livelihoods were threatened by uncertainties brought on by the pandemic.

Sa Sa Art Projects had run a residency programme welcoming Southeast Asian artists alongside their Cambodian counterparts. Lyno Vuth, Founder, shared that the organisation aims to “nurture connections between the artist community in Cambodia and the wider region to form lasting relationships.” With the pandemic, Sa Sa Art Projects maintained its physical residency’s structure through working with young Cambodian artists, while introducing new flexibilities such as work-fromhome options, and a choice between online and virtual events, depending on fluctuating conditions of safety. In Hanoi, Vietnam, ba-bau AIR converted its spaces, which previously accommodated foreign artists during their stay, into studio spaces for local artists. Since its founding in 2019, ba-bau has been hosting micro-residencies in collaboration with arts organisations such as Mat Tran Ensemble, live.make.share and Á Space, to connect international artists with the Vietnamese art scene. In particular, ba-bau was able to give support to Vietnamese artists who had returned from abroad due to the pandemic and were looking for opportunities to be plugged in to the local scene. Through studio takeover programmes and short-term residencies, ba-bau continues to host artists and facilitate their public programme, including open studio events. Thao-Linh Dinh, Founder and Director of ba-bau, says that the organisation remains committed to its mission of forging connections, be it within the local arts scene or with the global network. When borders reopen, the programme will be able to reintegrate the physical presence of international artists into its ongoing events.

ba-bau AIR Artist-inResidence, Minh-Hoang Nguyen Open Studio event, February 2021. Image courtesy of ba-bau AIR.

A comparable strategy was adopted by Tentacles Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand, a self-sustaining non-profit organisation. In view of the pandemic, they similarly transformed their spaces, typically reserved for international artists-in-residence, into working and storage spaces.

Ruang Kongsi, a collective-run artists space and community library in Penang, Malaysia, decided to open up their space to host artist residencies for the first time during the pandemic. In the first week of Malaysia’s lockdown, Ruang Kongsi members attended an online Arts Community Catch-Up hosted by Penang Art District. During the session, attendees raised concerns regarding the precarious situations some artists faced due to severe disruptions to their livelihoods. Driven by their mission to make spaces accessible, Ruang Kongsi decided to offer up their spaces to artists through the format of a residency programme. Initially focused on providing physical space, the programme also evolved into an online residency format, as members of the collective continued to meet online on a biweekly basis to conduct reading groups and discussions. “We hope it will encourage other institutions and spaces to similarly offer their support to the community in this pandemic,” says Okui Lala, artist and member of the Ruang Kongsi collective. “I think the pandemic has made us all think beyond ourselves and about how to work together by sharing resources.”

Moving into the Virtual Chatroom

Adapting the programme for an online format is another strategy adopted by residency organisers, aimed to continue facilitating artistic and cultural exchanges across borders. Virtual residencies not only mitigate the impossibilities of travel but are also able to prompt new modes of collaboration and mentorship.

Virtual 360KONNECT: Emerging Arts Leaders Residency, is led by Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and the ASEAN Foundation through KONNECT ASEAN, an ASEAN Foundation arts and cultural programme funded by the Republic of Korea. The initiative supports cultural exchange between emerging artists and cultural practitioners from ASEAN and the Republic of Korea. The open call was launched in August 2020 and selected artists were paired to collaborate over the period of one month, to define, explore and present their research surrounding the theme of international cultural cooperation and exchange during the pandemic.

Mac Andre Arboleda, based in the Philippines, participated in Virtual 360Konnect, as well as ASEF’s other virtual residency, ‘Virtual Workings’, held in partnership with the Japan Foundation, Bangkok, between January to February 2021. In comparison to Virtual 360Konnect, Virtual Workings focused on emerging curators, while similarly pairing participating artists with a collaborator. Arboleda and his partner, Celene Sakurako, also received mentorship from Professor Amareswar Galla, Director, International Institute for the Inclusive Museum, Australia/India/USA, as part of the programme.

Screenshot of Zoom calls between Arboleda and partnered artist, Sarah Koo. Image courtesy of the artists and ASEF.

Reflecting upon his experiences across both residencies, Arboleda says, “Initially, it was hard to expect much because I wasn’t sure how [the organisers] would translate a physical experience online”. Through the format of an artist pairing, Mac collaborated with South Korean artist Sarah Koo on a researchbased collaborative zine project titled ‘Artists in Panic’, which looked at how Filipino artists and collectives used art-making to respond to the crisis. Given the programme’s distanced nature, Arbodela felt that he was less able to connect and interact with the other participants. During Virtual Workings, however, the mentorship component allowed Arboleda and his partner, Sakurako, to receive guidance throughout the

programme and network with other participants. Arboleda suggested that remote residencies may be most suitable for research-focused projects and digital-based art practices, but without the dedicated, purpose-driven space usually provided by physical residencies, participants are limited in their abilities to expand beyond existing modes of working.

Similarly incorporating elements of mentorship and network building, GlobalGRACE launched its Philippines AiR (Artists in Residence) programme for young LGBTQ+ artists in April this year. The programme will run for a period of three months, and 15 selected artists will receive support and mentorship from experienced artists and practitioners in the LGBTQ+ community. The outcome is a virtual exhibition and a documentary film that archives the process of putting it together.

To resist cancelling residencies offered to their previously selected international artists, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (NTU CCA) Singapore launched a new remote residency programme, ‘Residencies Rewired’, which ran from December 2020 to February 2021. The programme extended the Centre’s imagination of the remote residency to connect participating artists to Singapore through young artists and researchers, who acted as the artist’s local liaison. This newly imagined initiative, driven by the Centre’s commitment to support artistic research, fostered collaboration beyond borders and facilitated site-specific engagements with Singapore and Southeast Asia, despite challenges posed by the pandemic.

Through an open call, the residency empowered artists to interview and select their own local counterpart, with whom they worked closely throughout the project. "With Residencies Rewired, we translated the residency from the full-on physical encounter with a place to a relational experience enacted through a close collaboration with a local research agent,” says Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies, NTU CCA Singapore. “In essence, it was an experiment with remote entanglements and distanced agencies." Even without physically visiting Singapore, the seven participating artists were able to access local archives, conduct fieldwork and develop a familiarity with the city-state, through their liaisons. Parallel to its remote programme, NTU CCA Singapore continued to host local artists in its physical studios.

Screenshot of Residencies Insights: Residencies Rewired Session #2, livestreamed on Facebook, 23 February 2021.

New International Residencies

While residency programmes refocused on the local and digital over the last year, the format of international in-person residencies continue to demonstrate their relevance in facilitating cross-border cultural exchanges as institutions begin to look forward to a post-pandemic world.

Singapore Art Museum will begin to host its brand new residency programme in July 2021, inviting local and international practitioners and organisations to take part. The European Union Delegation to Singapore, in partnership with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), hosted by NTU CCA Singapore, announced its ‘Studio Residencies in the EU for Southeast Asian Artists (SEA AiR)’ programme in March 2021. SEA AiR will facilitate selected emerging Singapore and Southeast Asian artists to complete a residency at European host institutions for up to three months. Artists will be given a studio, accommodation and regional research trip opportunities, culminating in the presentation of a new work upon their return.

Residency programmes are shifting from stop-gap measures to address the immediate precarities artists were exposed to, and exacerbated by the pandemic to adopting longer-term strategies for meaningful artistic exchange. Although physical immersions will remain a key feature of many residencies, the regional arts landscape will likely observe a steady rise in virtual and hybrid models, as they have proven their flexibilities and effectiveness in the past year. As artists, curators and cultural practitioners continue to adapt, new methods of exposures and collaborations will undoubtedly emerge, pushing forward the reimagination of the global arts infrastructure.