June/July 2010: From Italy to Bulgaria
The Hosting Centre - Pro Rodopi Art Centre (Bostina, Bulgaria)
Pro Rodopi Art Centre is a residential centre for performing artists. In an ideal environment, it facilitates the whole processes of the creation of an independent cultural project - from forming an idea to distributing the product to larger audience, including international touring.
 
In June-July 2010, the centre organized the 10-day international residential project 'Parallel Realities' with the participation of ten artists from Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Norway, Greece, and Germany/Italy, including Katharina Trabert from OZU. The aim was to develop short individual art pieces loosely based on the theme of the residencies, and to encourage collaboration between the participating artists without this being obligatory. The open form of the residency created a very creative and friendly working environment. The results of the stay were presented to a small audience in a successful itinerary performance around the residency building.

The project was a pilot and Pro Rodopi Art Centre would like to further develop the concept of international artists gathering to work individually and with the possibility of creative cross-pollination.
(Petar Todorov, Pro Rodopi Art Centre)
 
The Artist - Katharina Trabert, OZU (Monteleone Sabino, Italy)
It was my first time in Bulgaria and I was stunned by the beauty of the Rodopi mountains where we got together, 10 artists with different cultural backgrounds and even more varied artistic practices.
Rather than creating a work I was interested to use this time to get to know the place and imagine what could be a project to develop within TEH in the future, connecting to the area of Smolyan. In all of our regions, the development of tourism is an important topic and I developed a project in which our centres and artists would collaborate with other professionals in order to develop a new and creative approach to natural and cultural heritage interpretation.
For the performance I chose a site in which I put the idea into practice, involving the fellow artists from the group to tell me their spontaneous interpretation of that site, which I then transformed into a 15 minute piece.
The setting of the residency was perfect as all was cared for, the atmosphere warm and creative and the surroundings beautiful and inspiring.
(Katharina Trabert, OZU)
 
 
June/July 2010: From France to Sweden
The Hosting Centre - Not Quite (Fengersfors, Sweden)
This summer Marta Jonville was the first artist in residence at Not Quite in Sweden. Not Quite is located in the countryside and as a small community of artists based in the village we wish to animate the local context through collaborations with artists from different disciplines. The match was made because Marta has experience with AIR programmes and other than making her own work could help us in the development of our programme.
Her stay and the different activities ranging from creation, workshops and exhibitions, but also her fresh view on what makes up our daily life, made it possible for us to gain new perspectives: provoked by locals’ reactions to Marta’s workshop with Not Quite artists on the theme of ‘performance and public space’ down by the lake, we reflected on art and performance in the public space and the role and possible limits of Not Quite in Fengersfors. We also discovered new sites that we had never considered for artistic use until Marta appropriated them for her work and she had a great idea of what we could do with the old factory fence that creates a boarder between the centre and the village. Many people were curious about Marta’s work and one piece was sold.
(Karl Hallberg, Not Quite)
 
The Artist - Marta Jonville from TNT (Bordeaux, France)
I arrived at Not Quite in the end of June and stayed for one month. The place is beautiful, an industrial building lost in Dalsland, pure countryside that opens the mind to imagination and creativity. There are many facilities for artists here: ceramics, iron and wood studios.

I chose to join my practice of performance with ceramics, training almost every day to throw clay on a mechanic potter's wheel, trying to move towards poetry with pottery through a meditation created by repetition.
The final presentation was a performance in the garden, but there was also a photo exhibition with pictures I made in residency in Tabacka Kulturfabrik, Kosice (TEH member) last year, and a workshop with other artists from Not Quite.
(Marta Jonville, TNT)


Want to know more about AIR? Contact: Katharina Trabert at katharina.trabert[a]gmail.com