6 ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE SELECTED FOR HYDRA PACE RESIDENCY
Out of the 30 submissions received in response to the international open call, the international jury, composed of representatives of the partners of the international Hydra PACE – Platform for Artistic Collaboration and Exchange programme, has selected six artists from Slovakia, Palestine and Slovenia to take part in international residencies in the above-mentioned countries. The project is supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation. The residency program of KAIR Košice Artist Residence is supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council.
Hydra PACE – Platform for Artistic Collaboration and Exchange is the collaboration of three partners from Slovenia (DobraVaga Gallery, part of Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture, Ljubljana), Slovakia (international artist-in-residence program K.A.I.R. Košice Artist in Residence, Košice) and Palestine (Ramallah Municipality, Ramallah). The project aims to form a growing network of existing and new international artist-in-residence programs for established and emerging artists. The idea for the art residencies project evolved on the threshold of the pandemic crisis that challenged us to reconsider and redesign numerous projects and programs, including art residencies. Hydra PACE is thus offering a model of concurrent international residencies, with an emphasis on combined and flexible live–online activities for artists to network, collaborate, exchange practices and experience different social, political, and cultural contexts.
At the end of January 2021, the open call for visual or interdisciplinary artists, living and working in Slovenia, Palestine, or Slovakia, to take part in a two-month residency in selected cities, concluded. The jury deliberated on the 30 submissions received in two phases: preselection and final selection. The latter was carried out by Anja Zver (Head of the Visual Arts Program at Kino Šiška and the DobraVaga Gallery), Sally Abu Bakr (Director of the Culture and Social Affairs Department at the Ramallah Municipality) and Zuzana Kotiková (Manager of KAIR Košice Artist in Residence) with Petra Housková (Project Manager of KAIR Košice Artist in Residence). The preselection teams also included Ajda Ana Kocutar, Urška Aplinc, Rea Vogrinčič (all DobraVaga Gallery), Yazid Anani (Ramallah Municipality), and Anna Mária Trávničková and Tatiana Takáčová (both KAIR Košice Artist in Residence).
The selected artists are Michaela Nagyidaiová (Slovakia) and Abed Alrahman Shabaneh (Palestine) for the DobraVaga residency, Nežka Zamar (Slovenia) and Mohammed Al Hawayri (Palestine) for the KAIR, Košice residency, and Jana Zatvarnická (Slovakia) and Đejmi Hadrović (Slovenia) for the Ramallah residency. You
can read their presentations here.
Each residency includes a separate apartment and artist studio free of charge, an artist fee of 1,000 €, per diems, material costs (limited), travel costs (limited), accommodation and travel costs for the final meeting in Ramallah.
All six artists will begin collaborating with the partner organizations prior to arrival, with the two-month residency taking place in June and July. All participating artists and representatives of the partners will also attend a final meeting in Ramallah in August.
The aim of the partners is to develop and design a sustainable and stable model of adaptable art residencies for ever-changing circumstances. The project is supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation and takes place from December 2020 to August 2021.
About the Partners
DobraVaga, Ljubljana, Slovenia
DobraVaga is a venue in the wonderful environment of the central city marketplace, which is the work of world-famous Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik. It is an exhibition and project space, commercial gallery and open studio of various contemporary artistic practices, styles and content. The program places an emphasis on the aesthetic reflections of the younger generation of artists, the generation that represents the junction of possibilities and abilities, explorations and current contexts of artistic production in contemporary times. DobraVaga also includes a public zine library and reading room, inviting browsing and exploration.
The Ramallah Municipality, Ramallah, Palestine
In 2017, the Ramallah Municipality established an artist-in-residence program titled Mamarat – Paths. The international artist-in-residence program aims to connect local visual scenes with the international scene and targets young established artists in cooperation with different European partners.
K.A.I.R., Košice, Slovakia
K.A.I.R. Košice Artist in Residence is an international residency program for artists from all over the world and in all artistic disciplines and expressions. Artists have the chance to work in the inspiring environment of Košice’s singular cultural surroundings in order to realize art projects, collaborate with the agile local art scene and present themselves to the local and national public.
Hydra PACE ID Card
Name: Hydra PACE – Platform for Artistic Collaboration and Exchange
Partners: DobraVaga (part of the Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture), Ljubljana, Slovenia; K.A.I.R., Košice, Slovakia; Ramallah Municipality, Ramallah, Palestine
Project duration: December 2020–August 2021 (9 months)
E (general, press): info@dobravaga.si
Supported by: Anna Lindh Foundation and European Union