25 Years : Hosting International Artists’ Residencies in London Artists’ International Hosting 25years Hosting International Artists’ Residencies in London Acme Studios 25years Hosting International Artists’ Residencies in London Supporting international artists and cultural organisations 25 Years – Hosting International Artists’ Residencies A catalogue record for this book is available from in London has been published to celebrate and the British Library record the 25th anniversary of Acme Studios International Residencies Programme ISBN 978-0-9566739-2-3 Published June 2012 by Acme Studios All rights reserved. No part of this publication 44 Copperfield Road may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system London E3 4RR or transmitted in any form or by any means, www.acme.org.uk electrical, mechanical or otherwise, without first seeking the permission of the copyright owners 25 Years – Hosting International Artists’ Residencies and the publishers. in London © Acme Studios and the authors Photographs © Acme Studios with the exception on Edited by Acme Studios the following pages of: Designed by Cara Gallardo Weil, Area 15, 35 Brigita Ozolins Printed by ArtQuarters Press 16, 45 Moz Bulbeck 18, 59, 60, 61 Margarida Gouveia 20 Carla Filipe 21 Tom Polo 29 Evelyne Lohm, Landis & Gyr Stiftung 30, 31 Marc Latzel 32, 33 Judith Albert 37 Fiona Hall and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery 38, 39 Daniel Crooks and Anna Schwartz Gallery 42, 43 Thomas Kilpper and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012 44 Tina Isabella Hild and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012 49 Klara Kristalova and Alison Jacques Gallery 51 Fredrik Söderberg 54, 55 Alberto Venzago 56, 57 Eva Maria Gisler 62 Pedro Magalhães 71 Sam George 73 Keith H. Doyle and Evann Siebens Contents Message from Res Artis 04 Foreword 05 Acknowledgements 08 Acme Studios International Residencies Programme 1987-2012 11 Art Speed: The Time and Space of the International Residency 19 Acme Studios and International Residencies Programme History 1972-2012 22 Location Map 26 London Residencies Landis & Gyr Stiftung 28 Australia Council for the Arts 34 Hessische Kulturstiftung 40 Iaspis 46 Aargauer Kuratorium 52 Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 58 Québec Studio 64 Acme Studios’ Associate Artist Residencies 70 Artists 1987-2012 76 Message from Res Artis It is a pleasure for Res Artis to participate in programmes. Their history, as an organisation celebrating twenty-five years of Acme Studios’ that has always kept the needs of artists at the International Residencies Programme. As an forefront, is inspirational for the many emerging international network supporting the efforts of programmes that join our organisation. Seeing residency programmes worldwide, our members Acme’s proven success at achieving sustainability range widely in their capacity to serve the needs by establishing meaningful partnerships that have of artists and cultural organisations. Given been developed organically, from the bottom up, this breadth, it has been a great asset for our keeps many new organisations, particularly those organisation to have longtime members such as that start out as artist-run initiatives, focused on Acme who provide great depth and stability to their original impetus – to answer to the needs our field. of artists. In fact, given the rapid growth of the field during the We congratulate Acme on their first twenty-five last twenty years, Acme is considered a pioneer, years of hosting international residencies and offering a variety of services to international artists look to them to help pave the way for our field to by having established long-term relationships with continue to develop worldwide. various global partners. And this is one of the great lessons Acme has provided: the establishment of Dr Mario A. Caro President stable partnerships that nurture sustainability, both Res Artis: Worldwide Network of Artist Residencies for the particular needs of the organisation as well as the sector overall. This is no small lesson. Acme has not only demonstrated its success, they have become a model for other residencies around the globe. We have come to depend on Acme’s generosity and leadership, demonstrated by their enthusiastic participation in our conferences and various other 4 Foreword Formed by recent graduates in London in 1972, Our partners’ belief in the value of culture is Acme Studios is a London-based charity providing made public, on an international stage, through affordable studios, living space, residencies and their residency programmes. These assist them awards for artists in economic need. Acme is to achieve their ambitions and wider strategic recognised as the leading studio organisation goals, implementing and developing their national in England and through its nationally-strategic cultural policies within an international context. advisory and advocacy roles continues to make a Working with Acme enables them to establish significant contribution to the development and and sustain residencies, where a long-term sustainability of the affordable studios sector. commitment sees an accumulation in the value of each programme. Acme’s core activity of studio provision contributes to the development of art practice, and the wider At its heart this programme is about the visual arts ecology, by supporting professional development and strength of our partnerships. artists at the most fundamental level of research, Each relationship is founded not only on a shared development and production. Over the last forty journey but also on imagining the potential for years we have helped more than 5,000 artists and future development. All is underpinned by a at any one time nearly a quarter of our studios are mutual belief in the value of supporting artists, occupied by artists from overseas. in trusting them and investing in their creative risk-taking. International partnerships are a vitally important part of our work and this summer Our programme continually evolves as we look sees the 25th anniversary of our International to embrace new partners; we disseminate our Residencies Programme. Managed on behalf of activities and participate in debate through our international partners, this programme has conferences and publications, evidencing our provided practical, professional and social support aim to provide the best service to organisations for nearly 400 visiting artists, enabling them to and their artists. We are therefore delighted to challenge and develop their practice through announce our most recent collaboration with the major work/live residencies embedded in London’s Canada Council for the Arts who will begin sending vibrant cultural life. artists to us in September 2012. The programme is seen as a major residency Our 25th anniversary is a time to celebrate the facilitator, enabling governments, cultural agencies achievements of our programme, to acknowledge and foundations to award artists with residencies and affirm the shared vision we have with in London for periods of three, six or twelve our long-term partners and to reflect on the months. We currently work with organisations social, economic and cultural changes we have from Australia, Canada (2), Germany, Sweden witnessed. To mark this occasion, and to unite our and Switzerland (2). Building on the success and international colleagues in a collaborative project, reputation of this programme we have recently we have created this publication to record what has added our own Associate Artist Residencies to been achieved, exploring lines of enquiry around enable individual artists to apply directly to Acme the purpose, need and evolution of international for residencies in London. residency programmes. 5 Our partners have contributed with their own of the slowest and most dominant process of the statements, outlining their visions and programmes, programming of art for display; this ‘art speed’, and have selected for study those artists who which the residency permits, is closely aligned to exemplify in different ways the value of their the pace of thinking and thus highly conducive to residencies. We hope this diversity truly reflects the the creative process itself. extraordinary range of talent and personalities who have stayed in London and made their presence We would like to thank Dr Mario Caro, President known through visual, performing and applied arts, of Res Artis for his opening message in this literature and music. publication. We very much value our membership of Res Artis and recognise its vital contribution to These artists have each come to explore and the future development and health of international experience London, and each has reflected residencies. the city we know in different ways; some quite obliquely, others fixing upon a fragment or detail It is also the place here to pay tribute to Acme staff that may until now have eluded us. The artist’s members. To Julia Lancaster, who assumed the capacity both to reveal what we have overlooked day-to-day running of the programme from 2001 and to re-present something utterly familiar in an until 2008, handing over to Lea O’Loughlin who unexpected form continues to delight and astonish. became the programme’s first full-time manager. This vital exchange adds yet another dimension Lea has been ably assisted recently, in particular to the residency programme; we share our city with the compilation of this publication, by Jennie with them and they return it to us, in their work, Ryerson. enriched and in a new light. It is beyond the scope of this publication to provide In this publication Nav Haq’s insightful essay, a detailed twenty-five-year history of twelve Art Speed: The Time and Space of the International international residency programmes in dozens Residency, sets the residency in the context of of East London locations, supporting hundreds of the exponential growth and internationalisation artists. In the next pages we provide a time line and of the visual arts at every level. The value of the historical commentary for the development of the residency is that it can release the artist to a international residency programme, our appraisal of period of introspection in a new and stimulating the programme’s significance and our ambitions for environment.