Residency | Despina

Cleo Sanchez

01.04.2016 - 30.06.2016

Born in Spain, lives and works between Europe and the US. Cleo’s practice is mixed, passing through photography and installation. She has exhibited in France, England, Portugal and Germany.

For her three-month residence in Rio de Janeiro, Cleo intends to expand her aesthetic research involving physiology and gender and its socio-political impacts. The artist also intends to explore the reality of women and transgender people in contemporary Brazil.

More information: www.sanchezcleo.com

Pictures Gallery

Susan Leen

01.04.2016 - 30.04.2016

Place making and notions of identity related to space are themes Susan Leen interrogates in her artistic practice. Using cartographic language, the artist dismantles the systems used to present territories; through different political and objective trajectories, she aims to create a new vocabulary to express overlooked realities in different environments. This research takes form in paper based sculpture, installation, drawing and cut-out work. Her approach to abstraction through cartography aims to express the complexity of location in a tactile way. She privileges light, often delicate material to emphasize the fragile nature of the different systems in question, ecological or societal, and the inherent tensions contained within these spaces.

During her time in Rio de Janeiro, Susan will focus on local geographic identity and how this is complexly linked to social stratification. She’ll be examining local terrains looking at urban morphology and it’s effects on the social, cultural and political dramas of the city. The artist takes a poetic approach to exploring the wide ranging repercussions of colonialism and the formation of territories, investigating identity politics, architecture and distribution of resources using plastic forms. Her research focuses on the concept of resilience as a result of unease in a region and as a constant in human nature and territories worldwide. Considering all systems of life in a state of constant flux, resilience and process of ‘repair’. Susan will draw on the text ‘Pour Une Topologie Sociale’, by French architect and anthropologist Philippe Bonnin, looking at the role of space in our societies, how it reflects social facts and influences relations but also it’s psychological and emotional aspects.

Recent exhibitions:

Construct the Future, Hoxton Gallery, London, U.K., What if We Got it Wrong?, F.E. Mc William Gallery, Co.Down, U.K., Et si on s’etait trompe?, Irish Cultural Centre, Paris, France, Relational Geographies UAL Gallery, High Holborn, London, U.K., Ce n’est pas une heure pour les histoires de revenants, Rentrons! Villa Belleville, Paris, France, Young, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin, IRL, Carnet de Reves III, Gallery Les Moulins, Ile-de-France, France , Describing Architecture: Work in Progress, The Octagonal Room, Dublin, IRL, Carnet de Reves II, Gallery Les Moulins, Ile-de-France, France, La Belevedere, Subjective Mapping, project installed in Belleville park, Paris, Describing Architecture: scale and medium, Architectural Association of Ireland, Dublin; Genius Loci, ‘Axa in Action’ AXA, Prague, Czech Republic. 

Recent residencies:

Joya Arte y Ecologia Residency, Andalucia, Spain.  2015: Food Water Life, winter residency at the Banff Centre, Alberta Canada. ,2013/5: Artist in Residence, La Forge, Belleville, under the direction of Point Ephemere

Kristyna Müller

01.04.2016 - 08.05.2016

Kristyna Müller is a curator working for Haninge Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden, since 2012. Previously she has been doing exhibitions on freelance basis and also worked for the Czech centre in Stockholm, the Vasa Museum, Stockholm. She holds an MA in Curating from Stockholm University and a BcA in still photography from FAMU, Prague.

Within her curatorial practice she has a particular focus on socially engaged practices, site-specific projects, as well as public interventions. She has curated several exhibitions within these topics as well as edited the publication “Konst, språk och kollisioner” (2015) that explores the work of Haninge Konsthall.

During her participation in Despina Residency Programme, she visited artists and curators discussing the topics of Rio de Janeiro’s fast changing landscape and urban development from economical, environmental, social and political perspectives. As a result of her stay, she presented a research concept titled “The placebo effect of utopia: a research project on urban space” (available in PDF here) during an open event in our space. Together with artist Vivian Caccuri, she organized the 25th Silent Walk/ Caminhada Silenciosa. In this particular walk, every participant was invited to bring some idea to do during the walk, seeds were planted and music was played among other actions. The walk is done under a vow of silence in order to explore the soundscape of the urban city. Learn more at http://caminosilencio.tumblr.com

Kristyna Müller’s residency was supported by Helge Ax: son Johnsons Stiftelse.

Pictures Gallery

Sarah Crew

01.03.2016 - 31.03.2016

Sarah Crew lives and works in Bristol and London, graduating with a distinction in MA Photography from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London in 2015. She is a mixed media artist and writer, working across installation, film, sound and live performance. Her research-based practice explores the changing relationships, connections and points of disjuncture between the human, the animal and the landscape. The implications of these are scrutinised through contemporary technology within an increasingly tactile dualistic environment.

For more info: www.sarahcrew.com

For Despina Residency Programme, Sarah will explore the evolving notions of landscape, locality and sense of ‘place’ within specific sites of reclaimed land in Brazil, and investigate the failure of technology in the sensory mapping of both the virtual and physical world simultaneously.

During the month of March 2016, Despina Residency Programme leads a special cycle in partnership with Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Four newly graduated artists were selected and commissioned through an open call conducted by the British institution to participate in our programme.

Helena de Pulford

01.03.2016 - 31.03.2016

Helena de Pulford lives and works in London (England). Graduated with a first class bachelors degree from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, she was awarded the Cass Art Prize and selected for the Acme associate studio programme. Helena’s artistic practice is primarily sculptural but also incorporates performance, writing and moving image. Her work reinterprets European visual history through the lens of contemporary gender theory.

Recent exhibitions include: 3×3 Collaborations for Art Licks Weekend 12 Orpen Walk, London (2015); Supermarket Sweep, Nice Galley, London (2015); Degree Show CSM School of Art, London (2015); Open Studios, 1 Granary Square, London (2014); Talking about Pink Salmon, 1 Granary Square, London (2014); Copy, Elthorne Road Project Space, London (2014) and Para-Site, Concourse Gallery, London (2013).

For the Despina Residency Programme, Helena will be looking at domestic rituals, gendered political activity and emerging feminist art practices in Brazil. Specific events will include ‘Host’ – a performance workshop at Largo das Artes.

For more information: http://www.helenadepulford.com/

Beatrice Vermeir

01.03.2016 - 31.03.2016

Beatrice Vermeir is a practicing artist, poet and critical writer based in London. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, BA Fine Art Sculpture, in June 2015 she has undertaken a residency at Grizedale Arts in Cumbria, where she was involved in a project combining local food history with local and historical figure John Ruskin’s experimental educational philosophy. The activities consisted of fermentation and cheese-making workshops as well as the running of a low-cost community cafe and vegetable garden. In November 2015, Beatrice collaborated with London based collective HouseRules to develop and realise a programme of artist-led walks in Peckham as part of the ArtLicks weekend. Beatrice is continuing to collaborate with this organisation, which focusses on re-purposing empty spaces in the city as educational or art-making spaces, in the development of a free summer school for 2016. Beatrice has also been involved in the capacity of director and costume designer in the theatrical production ‘You Are Me And I Am You” which played in late February at the VAULT Festival, Waterloo, London.

Beatrice’s varied and mostly collaborative practice is focussed on researching and re-enacting alternative modes of social organisation, work and education. As part of the Despina Residency Programme at Largo das Artes, Beatrice will undertake a research project that ties together the activities of three groups experimenting with notions of performance in relation to everyday life and the socio-political context of Rio in the 70s; the Living Theatre, the Theatre of the Opressed and Helio Oiticica’s Parangole series.

Carlotta Novella

01.03.2016 - 31.03.2016

Carlotta Novella, originally from Venice, where she graduated with a BA in Construction Management, she now lives and works in London where she graduated in 2015 from MA Architecture: Cities and Innovation at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. She is currently working with the art and architectural practice public works.

Carlotta’s work addresses contemporary socio-political and cultural issues through a spatial lens, focusing on the interplay of use within and between private and public spaces. Her fifth year project, ‘Industrious Neighbourhoods’, proposed alternative urban strategies and design interventions to facilitate home-based work for social housing tenants. A great believer in collaborative work and making, her projects include temporary, socio-spatial and mobile structures, architectural drawings, participatory workshops, events and performances.

During her participation in the Despina Residency Programme, she will be will exploring existing typologies of collaborative work and communal making within the dwelling space of the home and the social space shared by the local community of a specific neighbourhood in Rio. With the medium of small scale manufacturing and collective making workshops, run both at the studios and outside the gallery over the residency period, she will create a set of objects, tools and props, inspired by the narratives and the necessities of a number of local residents running a business from home. These objects, eventually collected in a mobile archive, will be donated, shared and exhibited by the hyperlocal entrepreneurs and the community where they belong.

For more information: http://carlottanovellaworks.com/

Amanda Selinder

18.11.2015 - 18.12.2015

Amanda Selinder lives and works in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is just about to finish her BFA in Fiber Art at the University of Craft and Design in Gothenburg. For one year, she participated in an exchange programme in partnership with the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. Some of her recent group exhibitions include “The Ruins” at SVA Gramercy Gallery; “Rock-Paper-Scissors” and “Printers Proof” at SVA Chelsea Gallery, both in New York; “Textilsommar” at Virserums Konsthall and “Textilepidemi” at Konstepidemin Gothenburg, both in Sweden.

Amanda’s practice mixes art and biology. Growing and aging are the central aspects in her work. Sustainability and questioning chemical produced materials are themes that are recurrrent too. She also likes exploring the textile feeling of unexpected materials. At the present, Amanda is investigating the possibilities to grow her own materials, her own color pigments and to use what we have around us in our daily life and in the nature. She works with different mediums such as screen-printing, installations, sculptures and performance, depending on the material she is growing or finding in the nature.

During her residence in Rio de Janeiro, she explored the colors and the materials found in the city. She used these materials (and leftovers) in the studio in order to explore the possibilities of them. Bringing different textures together, sewing them together, collecting, organizing and non-organizing. Her residency was funded by the August Ringnérs Scholorship.

Pictures Gallery

Joe Williamson

01.01.2016 - 29.02.2016

Joe Williamson lives and works in Nottingham (England). He is graduated from the Norwich University of the Arts (having studied for half a year at Faculdade de Belas-Artes, Universidade de Lisboa – Portugal). Joe’s work typically attempts to re-define and deconstruct how a human entity occupies space. Through the use of everyday materials and more traditional sculptural materials, he underpins a poetic truth of how we situate ourselves amongst objects. During his residence in Rio de Janeiro, Joe allowed influences to come into his work by referring to the history of Rio’s culture to create something prevalent within the present society. He is fascinated with things that are almost invisible and the tension on the longevity of an object.

Pictures Gallery

Catherine Boisvenue

01.01.20116 - 29.02.2016

Catherine Boisvenue lives and works in Montreal, Canada. She has recently graduated in Visual and Media Arts from the University of Quebec (Montreal). She also studied psycho-education, as well as a training course in artistic interventions at the Machincuepa Social Circus, located in Mexico. Alongside her artistic practice, Catherine is interested in the power that art can have on the human being and on a community. After participating in an exhibition last year at Memorial da América Latina in Sao Paulo, Catherine decided to strengthen her ties with Brazil through an artist residency. Selected to participate in our programme, she focused on a practice that combined painting with the relationship that she built with “the other” and the local culture.

Pictures Gallery