Artist in residence, K.A.I.R., brings foreign inspiration to Košice

Within the European Capital of Culture project, Košice 2013 non-profit making organisation created a specific international programme of residential stays for young artists from around the world, called K.A.I.R. (Košice Artist in Residence).

The programme offers the opportunity to live and work for three months in the inspirational environment of Košice, to implement arts projects, cooperate with representatives from the local cultural scene and present the results of their stays to the wide public. At the same time, it allows artists from Eastern Slovakia to travel to countries such as Germany, Moldova or Ukraine, and also stay there for three months.

“K.A.I.R. started in Spring 2011 and since then, we in Košice have welcomed twelve artists from nine European countries and one North American country. At the same time, we sent seven Eastern Slovakia artists to five European countries,” said Ludwig Henne, Cultural Manager from Leipzig, Germany, who was sent to Slovakia by The Robert Bosch Foundation. He has been in Košice since August 2010 and started to run the programme of artist residencies. As a matter of interest, he clarified that all foreign artists spent a total of 1,080 productive and creative days in the metropolis of Eastern Slovakia whilst arriving and departing artists have travelled more than 23,000km within the last year. Ludwig Henne’s mission in Košice ends in July 2012 and he is passing the baton as K.A.I.R Project Manager to Adéla Foldynová from the Czech Republic.

According to Foldynová, interest in artist residencies in Košice is growing as 2013 is approaching. “Whilst last year we had more than 350 applications from artists and we could only select three, we expect that this year this will significantly increase. In total, we may accept as many as 12 artists from around the world but, at the same time, this is the maximum we can afford in Košice next year,” said Adéla Foldynová. We have so far agreed residencies from France, Germany, Japan, Ukraine and Moldova, but the doors are still open to artists from all around the world. They are selected by an international committee which evaluates whether they could contribute to the local cultural scene and, at the same time, whether they are open to cooperation with the inhabitants of the city and region. “In Košice, we have only had painters so far, but by the end of the year we will also have dancers and are also considering residencies for writers. We are open to all types of art and we would also like to try new forms which we hope people will like,” she added.

A residential stay by the young Moldovan artist, Vadim Tzigansj, is currently coming to an end and this residence took place thanks to cooperation with the Moldovan institution, Oberliht Association, from Chisinau. He will introduce his creations and experience from his three month stay in Košice in the atelier in Tabačka on 25th July at 19.00hrs. On the other hand, two Slovak artists – Michal Holý and Paula Ďurinová – travelled to Chisinau and their residencies also end this month.

There has been a new K.A.I.R. resident in Košice since the middle of June 2012; Susken Rosenthal is an experienced German artist, curator and arts director, supported by the Goethe Institute in Bratislava. She mainly works with space, architecture and the countryside and she has already exhibited in many places in Europe and the United States of America. In the second half of the year, five more artists will arrive in Košice, from which two are an artistic couple. Argentinian Julia Mensch, with a project documenting her grandfather’s journey to the Soviet Union in 1973, German painter Bastian Muhr and the Dutch Mathijs Lieshout who, in Košice, will present his installations within the Moonride Festival, and two dancers from Russia and Belarus, Inna Aslamova and Daria Buzovkina.

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