The following names of three artists have been announced for ARCUS Project 2011 Ibaraki, Artist-in-Residence Program:
Wojciech Gilewicz
Wai Keung Hui
Fazal Rizvi
For the open call of applications, there were 174 applications from 55 countries / regions. After the preliminary selection by ARCUS Project Administration Committee and Mizuki Endo (independent curator), final selection has done by 3 international curators:
Emiliano Gandolfi〈Italy / Based in Netherlands〉 architect/curator/co-founder of Cohabitation Strategies
Hannah Mathews〈Australia〉associate curator at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
Julio Cesar Morales〈Mexico〉artist/curator at Queens Nails Projects and Yerba Buena Center for The Arts
The information of application for ARCUS Project 2012 IBARAKI Artist-in-Residence program will be updated on this website at the beginning of 2012.
"In the past, the Artist-in-Residence at the ARCUS Project has encouraged invited artists to have an exhibition during their stay or to materialize their aforethought ideas. Different from our previous emphasis that having an exhibition was a goal, we aim to motivate artists to explore, find, and extend new possibilities toward their next steps through a continuous process of wondering and experimenting."
"Based on recent ARCUS Project aims, we have selected three artists accompanied by their projects' proposals, which show their interest to explore unique themes from the characteristic regional and geographical attributes and culture formed by the distinctive environment and cultural traits in the city of Moriya in Ibaraki Prefecture. The fundamental selection criteria of ARCUS Project revolve around whether artists have undertaken substantial activities that prove that they can be "potential up-and-coming artists." We also sought independent artists, who take a lead in designing and carrying out creative activities with the support of the ARCUS Project by addressing their challenges. Moreover, when the selected artists return to their home countries, we would like to see them actively using and embodying their individual experiences that they gained through the ARCUS Project. Therefore, we chose three enthusiastic artists who will be able to incorporate their experience with ARCUS Project into their careers in various ways, such as making presentations and holding exhibitions.
Artist-in-Residence program in the fiscal year of 2011 is particularly significant because Ibaraki Prefecture is one of the areas stricken by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami and the aftermath. We selected these three artists because their applications demonstrated universal themes, which can be commonly empathized in a Japanese society. We found that the artists, as outsiders, have capabilities to confront the repercussions of the disasters and to stay present in the pain of the suffering people with their viewpoints in the context of their stance. Different from our focus in the previous fiscal year, which centred on artist-directed investigation during the program, this year we arranged a specific circumstance and practice for each artist. Based on the assigned spaces, we expect the artists to "create artworks, researching throughout the city and at their studios." We have asked Wojciech Gilewicz, a Polish artist, to explore outdoor work in the urban development area in Moriya. Wai Keung Hui, a Hong Kong artist, is expected to cultivate a deeper communication with the afflicted city and its people since Wai, as an Asian, can share with us Eastern philosophies in which acts of nature reveal collective identities. Fazal Rizvi, a Pakistani artist, will have a home stay with an afflicted family to experience recurring emotions of despair and hope, as a microcosm of all the victims of the disaster. The central place for the activities of the three artists during their residency will be the ARCUS Studio (Moriya Manabi-no-Sato); yet, we are looking forward to seeing how their activities between their assigned spaces and our studio are going to develop, involving the people in Moriya in their projects.
(Born in 1974, Place of birth: Poland)
The work of Wojciech Gilewicz is always driven by interesting ways of reading reality and in particular the urban context. While "questioning stereotypes and clichés" in art, he is opening his work to an open investigation on appearances, perception and representation. In his proposal it seems also interesting the wish to focus on workshops to open a public discussion on the contemporary urban environment. Nevertheless, his work seems more self referential and autonomous of the two previous artists.
Emiliano Gandolfi
CommentsThe approach and process to the artist artwork seems to actually have deep-rooted connection into attempting to develop new approaches to painting, public art and social sculpture. The artist proposes to work with the community in an interesting manner that is both meaningful and challenging for both parties.
Julio Cesar Morales
(Born in 1973, Place of birth: Hong Kong)
Wai Keung Hui proved in his recent projects to be a very resourceful artist, always questioning with his art crucial questions on society and able to invent interesting and original mediums of expression. His research topic on the poetic, yet the sensible, aspects of the "impossibility" is an inventive way to challenge the definition of an imaginary, through an inquiry of the latent potentials and failures of recent social and political transformations. His research work on ancient cosmologies and mythologies, could be an stimulating opportunity to test in Ibaraki alternative ways of questioning reality, yet a thought-provoking exercise of imagining an "impossible" future.
Emiliano Gandolfi
CommentsThe approach and process to the artist artwork seems to actually have deep-rooted connection into attempting to develop new approaches to painting, public art and social sculpture. The artist proposes to work with the community in an interesting manner that is both meaningful and challenging for both parties.
Julio Cesar Morales
(Born in 1987, Place of birth: Pakistan)
Focused on his paintings, Fazal Rizvi is an artist of a kind whose practice programmes at Arcus has not hosted in recent years. However, due to the earthquake that occurred in the early period of application for our residency program, a drastic change was inevitably felt in our feeling of the everyday. Within Ibaraki, as one of the areas that has suffered from the earthquake, Moriya has an elevated level of radioactive contamination; while the scenes of Moriya to our eyes remain the same as before, we can't help but feel something had definitely changed within our minds. Until last year, the ARCUS residency program had focused on outward movement, on activities towards the outside world. Now we also feel the necessity to focus on an inward movement, on an inner experience. We hope that the theme of "family" that Rizvi consistently works on, and his proposal to make artwork based on the experience of living in a Moriya family, will overlap the new direction ARCUS has chosen following the earthquake.
Mami Odai
(ARCUS Project Director)