The Nodar Artist Residency Program for 2008 is about to start and will happen in four different modules between March and October. In this year’s residencies 15 artists from different origins and artist backgrounds were chosen by the selection committee to develop their own projects in the Nodar region. The Nodar Artist Residency Center, located in a rural mountain community of Portugal, organizes and produces the development of multidisciplinary artistic projects (mainly in the areas of sound, visual and intermedia arts) from both local and international artists, followed by public presentations in the region. The resident artists are encouraged to establish interactions with the place, its inhabitants, geographic space and memory.
Regarding this year’s projects it is worth mentioning an important presence of sound artists (7) who will develop their personal approaches to the local acoustical heritage and environment, both natural and human. For instance, Viv Corringham and Pali Meursault will deal with different notions of “sound walks” whereas Duncan Whitley will work with field recordings of a local football team to create a site-specific sound installation. Another interesting example is the project proposed by the Austrian musician Noid, a collective musical performance to happen simultaneously in several points of a mountain near Nodar, that will deal with a notion of balancing the performed sounds with the landscape sounds, without destroying what is already present.
One the other hand, an emphasis was given to projects that question and problematize the local social reality, through artistic reflections to be made together with the local communities. We believe that, together with the documentation of the local rural heritage, it is of utmost importance to provoke a free and uncompromised discussion (as it is, by definition, the artistic approach) about the reality and the tension aspects that it involves. In this regard, are worth mentioning the projects to be developed by Francisco Janes, Christine Niehoff and Cédric Anglaret.
Last but not the least, several parallel actions will be developed in each residency, namely in cooperation with the local schools. A final presentation of the artistic works will happen on the last Saturday of each residency module.
Artist residencies calendar for 2008:
31 March – 20 April
John Grzinich (USA / Estonia)*
Toomas Thetloff (Estonia)*
Evelyn Müürsepp (Estonia)*
* Artists invited under a cooperation agreement with the Estonian organization MoKS (http://www.moks.ee)
2 – 21 June
Cédric Anglaret (France)
Christine Niehoff (Germany)
Samuel Ripault (a.k.a. Pali Meursault) (France)
28 July – 16 August
Francisco Janes (Portugal)
Jurate Jarulyte Weiss (Lithuania)
Lezli Rubin-Kunda (Israel)
Viv Corringham (UK)
5 – 25 October
Arnold Haberl (a.k.a. Noid) (Austria) + guests
Wolfgang Dorninger (Austria)
Andrea Brandão (Portugal)
Duncan Whitley (UK)
Link to the complete artist residencies program (artists and projects), here.