-
Art Residencies
A total of 11 residencies was realized within the project. There was 9 residencies organized for
foreign artist in Ústí nad Labem and 2 residencies organized for Czech artists in Iceland.
9 residencies of foreign artists in the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts
2 residencies of Czech artists in partner institution at Iceland
2 residencies of Czech artists working on the production of artworks for public space at Skaftfell Centre for Visual Art in East Iceland. The time frames for these residencies will be based on the possibilities of both the collaborating Icelandic institution and the residency participants. The selection of the artists for the individual residencies will depend on the specific focus of the art projects they are preparing. These residencies, which will be organised between June 2022 and September 2023, will be an important tool for developing the creative concepts of the individual artists as well as of the project GARDENING OF SOUL: IN FIVE CHAPTERS as a whole. The Czech artists on the residencies will be invited to work on a case study in Seydisfjördur, revolving around recent dramatic changes to both public and private open space in the town: in December 2020, three large landslides hit the small town of Seydisfjördur in East Iceland, the home of the Skaftfell. While nobody was hurt, fourteen houses were destroyed. Because of the incident, the municipality must now significantly rethink the town’s layout and how the residential, industrial, and recreational areas are distributed. The landscape and townscape are therefore undergoing visually and structurally significant changes. The Skaftfell proposes to look at this large-scale shaping of the town’s open spaces and the mountains surrounding the town as a form of radical gardening. The Skaftfell would like to encourage the project artists to address the challenges of remaking one’s sense of home in public and private space after a natural disaster. The artists from Czech Republic will be invited to spend time at Skaftfell as artists in residence (two months each), to research the context, and to produce new artwork, which will be shown in Seydisfjördur and at international group exhibition in the Ústí nad Labem House of Arts together with artwork created on the shared topic by local artist.