Rejmyre Art LAB's residency program

http://rejmyreartlaborg.ipage.com/residency.html

Rejmyre Art LAB's residency program is run and constructed by artists in response to our own needs and changing modes of production. Our residencies often consist of a mix of dedicated time for developing ideas and work, collaborative exercises, intensive peer critique, theoretical discussion groups, communal meals and play. 

While many residency programs are rooted in notions of isolation, our emphasis is placed on engaging the "local context" of each residency as fuel and material for artistic development.  The "local context" is understood to include the residency itself [as a structure imposed on a site], the people, place and histories surrounding the residency, the community of practitioners assembled and each participant's experience of displacement into the given moment.

Rejmyre Art LAB aims to support a range of contemporary artistic processes, many of which present significant challenges to the image of the isolated artist in their cloistered studio.  Participants in our program create conceptual propositions, objects, and temporal works situated in public and private spaces.  To support this range of work, we craft and maintain a network of local connections to facilitate social access and a mix of public and private studio spaces, making our open studio space accessible to the public while still allowing for the intensive engagement with self and site that a solitary studio engenders.

As this is a very special program [as far as we know, requiring an unprecedented commitment, in the world of residencies, on the part of the [P]resident and hosts], we have decided not to have a formal application process but prefer to construct one with each interested person or group.

Some things that might be helpful to know, we are an artist-run organization composed of artists who live in or near Rejmyre. We treat this residency structure itself as an art project. This is not a business venture nor is it supported or constrained by any grantors, governments or corporations. We have no staff for this portion of the project.

As for the technical details, we would work with the selected [P]residents to consider the form and means by which they would like to travel to Rejmyre for the two-year residency period. There is no per diem or formal material budget available. We run a number of projects in the town and there will be opportunities to participate in those but [P]resident’s are responsible for their own sustenance [material, spiritual and otherwise, aside from the apartment and studio space], during the term of their unmediated presence in Rejmyre.

This is a special construct that will not be right for most people, maybe for no one. We’ve structured it with a mix of pragmatism and conceptual integrity. An institution with a bigger budget could make it easier financially but they would probably never desire, imagine or create such a space. We are ready to imagine and create how this structure could be possible together with you. If after reading this, you are still drawn to this invitation, please write: info@artlabprojects.org.