open call – air blekinge 2023

AIR Blekinge offers artists place and resources for artistic development. Our aim is to establish long-term collaborations between artists and different actors in the region with its starting point during the residency.

Our focus area is the Baltic Region where we have a longstanding network and collaboration area. The residence is based in Ronneby, Sweden. Two artists from the Baltic Sea region will be selected to live and work at AIR Blekinge during a month, with the possibility of a later return for collaborations or exhibitions. One artist from Blekinge will also be selected to participate in the residency and share studio.

Through travels you will explore the county with its towns, cities, nature and archipelago and meet with representatives from different organizations and institutions, to provide new contexts, starting points or conceptual directions. There are studios, exhibition localities and workshop facilities in different medias available. We want to be a catalyst for new art productions in the Baltic Sea region.

Disciplines: Visual Arts

Location: The residence is based in Ronneby in the County of Blekinge in the South East archipelago of Sweden. Collaboration partners Konst i Blekinge and Kulturcentrum Ronneby konsthall.

Dates: September 18th – October 13th 2023

Eligibility two artists: Visual artists based in, temporary based in, or have connections to, the Baltic Sea Region and Scandinavian countries. Eligble countries in the extended Baltic Sea geography: Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Artists can apply separately or together as a duo. Support: a stipend, travel, studio and accommodation and if agreed upon also production funds to experiment and try out works already on location in Blekinge.

Eligibility one artist: Visual artist in Blekinge based in, or with close connections to, Blekinge.

Support: a stipend/fee and shared studio.

Future collaborations: Konst i Blekinge has a grounded network in South East Sweden, as well as nationally and with collaborators in art institutions around the Baltic Sea. Possible exhibitions in the future.

WE EXPECT YOU AS AN ARTIST TO

• Be active part of meetings/visits arranged with actors around the region.

• Present your work for artists and cultural workers in the region in an informal setting.

• Arrange a workshop or program involving the local audience during your stay if it is part of your artistic proposal.

• Propose your first ideas for future projects in Blekinge.

• Get interviewed in in our Art Podcast, or publish a digital online art work at www.konstiblekinge.se

• If you are an artist based in, or with close connections to, Blekinge, we expect you to be present during meetings, share studio and spend time with the artists travelling to the area.

• The artists who receive the residency AIR Blekinge should book and pay for their own travel as soon as they get the decision

THEMATIC CONCEPTS FOR THE RESIDENCE

We will especially look upon artists who work in the fields below, but we are open to surprise and other proposals from artists.

The specific areas of interest are:

• Art in public spaces; artistic perspectives on the development of places and locations.

• Activating places through participatory and socially inclusive projects on location.

• Art in digital and physical space; hybrid spaces, interdisciplinary approaches.

• Cultural heritage in connection to the fields above.