Artist Ivan Smith (https://ivanpatricksmith.wordpress.com">https://ivanpatricksmith.wordpress.com) and curator David Gilbert (http://www.davidgilbert.org.uk">http://www.davidgilbert.org.uk) would like to invite 10 international contemporary visual artists to apply for a month long collaborative international artist residency and experimental laboratory in Derby, UK in September 2018. 

It will be run in collaboration with Quad (https://www.derbyquad.co.uk">https://www.derbyquad.co.uk) and will explore and experiment with the urban environment, asking how artists can be socially engaged in a modern metropolis and what agency they can have. 

Provocation:

How do modern cities develop and function under the pressure of contemporary political and social issues? With the onset of Brexit and the continuing European trend to the right in politics, are minority communities becoming ghettoized or could they be the locus for new learning and understanding into the future?

Method:

We aim to explore the impact of the ever-expanding urban metropolises through the development of new work, which will be collectively and collaboratively developed during the intensive month-long residency. Artists will present their previous work together through presentations at the start of the residency, and a one-day symposium will continue the conversation with artworld professionals, discussing the issues developed during the residency. 

The residency will have the use of an empty building/space for the duration of the residency to use as a studio working environment, and group accommodation will be provided. The experimental aspect of the residency frees the artists from the responsibilities and pressures of a traditional exhibition format, although we do plan to evidence the work produced during the residency in the empty building project at its conclusion and to then present elements of it, or documentation of it in Quad after the residency has finished.

We will take the project as an opportunity to develop other partners in Derby leading up to and during the residency, as the project will involve working extensively in the public realm, and partners that will enhance this potential are essential to maximizing this crucial element of the residency; these might be charities, third sector organisations, artist-led organisations, museums and galleries.

Alongside the residency artists, we will invite Derby based artists to participate in the public parts of the project, and to collectively and individually engage with the themes that emerge from it, providing a local counterpoint to the work of the resident artists.

How to Apply:

We will select from artists responding to our callout. All you need to do is to email us a link to your website or other documentation of your work, together with a short explanation of why you would like to take part, and confirm that you would be able to come to the UK for the whole of September 2018. We anticipate having around £1000 GBP Fee for each artist, and will cover materials, travel costs and accommodation for selected artists.

Send to ivanpatricksmith@googlemail.com and info@davidgilbert.org.uk 

Deadline:

Friday 23 February 2018