Residences - economic models of the near future or utopian islands in turbulent times?Artist-in-Residence Program MeetFactory, Goethe Institute in Prague and ARE present:

Can artist residencies create a parallel economical, housing and income realities for the cultural workers? Is an artist-in-residency an “economic migrant” (a term that is so often associated current immigration crisis) par excellence? Is an idea of such a migrant actually a model for the ideal worker / producer of the post-migration age? Connecting this to the rapidly changing psychogeography and mental map of Europe - what economic models can be designed with regard to artistic mobility contexts, and may they be an inspiration for other economic sectors?

Guests:
Öykü Özsoy (TR), curator and theoretician 
Kassandras (GR), hybrid cultural space 
Marie Fol (NL), program manager TransArtists | DutchCulture
Pavel Sterec (CZ), artist

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Öykü Özsoy is an independent curator and writer based in Istanbul. Before she worked as the project director and curator of FULL Art Prize, the first contemporary art prize for artists from Turkey under 40 years old, in 2002-2012, she was working as a programme coordinator at Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center. In 2005-2010 she was director of Istanbul Residency Program, realizing more than 120 residencies with art projects in the city. As a fellow of the International Museum Programme of the Federal Cultural Foundation at the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum Ludwigshafen she curated the project “HACK and the CITY” (2014) as well as the exhibition “Are you talking to me?” (2015). Her curatorial practice broadly explores questions of participation, especially in relation to knowledge production.

Kassandras is a hybrid space situated in an un-finished building in Athen's Votanikos district. A space where contemporary practices can find a ground for (cross) breeding and experimentation in a given environment, that of Greece today. Facilitates encounters between creative practitioners, local and international, encourage an exchange of competences and trans-disciplinary collaborations, while offering support throughout the process. Kassandras has been established by Anne Davidian, a cultural producer working across contemporary art and social innovation; and Matthieu Prat, founder of the Diplomates Studios, working across the disciplines of architecture, design and visual arts.

Marie Fol is the programme manager of TransArtists at DutchCulture, Centre for International Cooperation (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). TransArtists is the international platform for artist mobility, offering expertise and services about artist-in-residence programs as well as other cultural opportunities for artists to stay and work elsewhere since 1997.   Marie has served the organisation since 2010 and was named programme manager in 2015. Previously she has been working as executive editor of TransArtists.org, and as coordinator or assistant on large European projects on the mobility of artists (ON-AIR) and on art and sustainability (GALA). Marie previously collaborated with the cultural mobility information network On the Move (2011-2013) and she currently serves on the advisory board of TransCultural Exchange. Marie holds a Master’s in European Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), where her research focused on integration policies in the European Union.

Pavel Sterec studied at several studios at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and is currently a student in the Studio of Photography at the Prague School of Applied Arts. From 2015, he is a professor of the Intermedia Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts BUT in Brno. His work is based on personal or social encounters and situations, which the author transforms into conceptual installations. They can be characterized by their interest to reinterpret mythical, transcendent and cultural links and natural phenomena in the context of current thinking, as well as by engaged criticism of the social and political status quo. His work Sterec presented at numerous exhibitions mainly in Central and Eastern European context, and also participated in several prestigious residencies, such as Zamek Ujazdowski A-I-R Laboratory in Warsaw or MQ in Vienna.