OPEN CALL!!
Despina Residency Programme 2022/2023 for artists and curators.
Deadline for submitting applications: 30 June 2022.
Slots available from July 2022.
To participate and learn more about the programme, costs and selection process, download Despina Residency Programme 2022-2023.
Reopening the international Residency agenda, and two years later than planned, Surinamese artist and curator Miguel Keerveld is finally participating in our programme. During the month of May, Keerveld will advance his curatorial research that aims to contextualize experiences of her performative persona @tumpiflow, focusing on social urbanization and what is known (and recognized) as a “favela”. Keerveld is especially interested in knowledge distribution and social activities as political forces.
DESPINA, with the support of the City Hall of Rio de Janeiro, through the Carioca Culture Promotion Program of the Municipal Department of Culture, is pleased to announce Zum Zum Auê – Collective of Collectives, a project in the field of arts and aesthetic-political activism designed to support, promote the work and the self-representation of collectives formed by bodies that are historically subordinated and their narratives erased, as people LGBTQIA+, Afro-descendants, indigenous people and women.
The project consists of a six-week residency program, between May ans June 2022, where four artist collectives, selected by open call and through a selection committee, will be part of an agenda that includes support for the practices of each group, collective activations and events open to the public.
Zum Zum Auê – Collective of Collectives has as main objectives:
– Support, strengthen and make visible the cultural production of collectives in Rio de Janeiro formed by historically subordinated bodies such as LGBTQI, black, indigenous and women;
– Encourage the formation of networks and exchanges among the collectives;
– Provide tools for the development of the practices of each collective through the Educative Programme;
– Share creative practices through public workshops proposed by the collectives;
– Present to the public the artistic work of relevant collectives in the Rio de Janeiro cultural scene;
– Create possibilities for public access to the backstage of creative processes;
– Make visible the practices and guidelines contained in the actions of the collectives and their members;
– Guarantee the continuity of the work of Despina and the professionals who are part of the Association’s network, expanding financial support to collectives of artists.
SELECTED COLLECTIVES: Anarca Filmes, Coletiva Ocultas, Slam das Minas RJ and Trovoa.
Wanja Kimani was the artist selected for the Plural Artists in Residence Programme, a project by the British Council Brazil in partnership with Despina.
Wanja Kimani was born in Kenya and lives in the UK. Her work flows between performance, film, text and textiles. Driven by stories about real and imaginary people and places, she inserts herself into narratives and uses her body to explore rituals, objects and the rural landscape.
Artists in Residence is an online artist residency program in the field of art and culture that aims to develop ideas, experiment with new practices and create connections.
The other selected artists for this first edition of the programme, and their respective Brazilian partner organizations, are: Susan Thompson – Instituto Mesa (RJ), Annabel McCourt – Diversa (SP) and Jelly Cleaver – PretaHub (SP).
Mayara Velozo lives and works in Morro do Salgueiro, north of Rio de Janeiro. Graduated in art history at UERJ, she is a farmer, visual artist and researcher. She works with performance, photoperformance, poems, video installation and, more recently, with sculptures in textiles and construction materials. Her poetics come from a constructive and subjective dimension of family relationships, approaching her home and places of conviviality. She talks about personal and collective construction, her family’s autonomous nature in building and rebuilding architectural dreams and how nature can be a sign of these events. The artist is a member of the Trovoa collective, and has gone through residencies at MAM Rio, Parque Lage, Paço Imperial, among others. Mayara participates in Despina Residency Program from March to April 2022.
Marina Lattuca, Mayara Velozo and Stefanie Ferraz, artists currently participating in Despina Residency Program, propose the activation of the space through a performance show with guest artists Alex Reis, Dani Câmara, Mila Marques, Sanguessuga, Shion, Luiza Casé and Pat Fudyda.
“Since the beginning of January, this possibility, or rather impossibility, of Carnival has been echoing. Is Carnival dead? Yes and no.
We don’t know for sure, but we do know that, if there is Carnival in February, if there is Carnival in April: Carnival in March is missing.
Carnival calls for performance. And performance calls for carnival.”
All welcome, free entry.
SERVICE
Date: Saturday, March 26, 2022
Time: 6pm to 10pm
Location: Despina. Rua Hermenegildo de Barros, 73. Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Stefanie Ferraz lives and works between Rio and London.
Having graduated in 2011 with a degree in Product Design from PUC-Rio, Stefanie moved to London to do her Masters in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (2016) and the Slade School of Fine Art (2018).
Her artistic practice explores how the process of painting can be used to tell strange stories that move seamlessly between excitement and discomfort, pleasure and pain.
This fluidity in the perception of image is informed by the means of applying the paint. For example, when using large amounts of solvent, the artist proposes a sort of ‘aquatic materiality’, wherein the image dissolves, revealing in its place layers of the process itself.
Stefanie’s research amalgamates a plethora of references, ranging from Renaissance paintings, through digital pornography to the tarot and the carioca carnival. These references are all linked by ideas around the body and sexuality.
At Despina, she will deepen her research into the tarot. For the first time, she will focus particularly on the suite of hearts through which she will tell the story of a troubled relationship.
Previous Exhibitions include: Care Don’t Care at Basis Projektraum, Frankfurt (2021), Unlocked at Candid Arts Trust, London (2020), The Land of No Evil at Offshoot Gallery, London (2019), NOMAD #1 Accidents Never Happen, Cluj (2018).
Marina Lattuca was born in Rio de Janeiro and uses writing, painting, drawing and sewing to develop her own archetypes and mythologies. The artist has a degree in Journalism from PUC-RJ and was a student at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage. In 2021, her short story “Death or the imminence of what is about to cease to exist” was selected and published in the Off Flip Prize collection. Within her practice, Marina is dedicated to writing images and drawing texts. Through a kind of autopoiesis, her research focuses on the invention and reinterpretation of new mythologies and mysticisms, having her own body and memories as the object of experiments. In an almost archaeological process, the artist seeks to stratify different layers of the soul, investigating one by one. Marina participates in Despina Residency Program from February to April 2022.
Plural is a four-week digital residency programme for UK and UK-based LGBTQIA+ artists, supported by the British Council and hosted by four Brazilian partners: Despina, Instituto Mesa, Diversa Art and Culture and PretaHub. UK residents will develop new ideas, experiment with their practice and make new connections through engaging with the partners’ local cultural landscape.
Residencies are self-directed by the artist, with support and guidance from the host partner. Applicants are invited to propose a project idea to help structure their work and time. Through working with the host organisation, they will be encouraged to make new connections and explore a variety of ideas, both expected and unexpected. Residencies will have an active agenda of meetings, encounters, attending online cultural events, writing time and so on.
Residents are expected to present digital work (for example, online exhibition, performance, etc) during the residency and engage in activities such as workshops or talks. In addition, residents are asked to document their residency to share with public audiences.
OBJECTIVES
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
Plural Artists in Residence is open to LGBTQIA+ UK artists. We will look to match individuals with host partners’ own interests as much as possible. Artists may be performers, visual artists, designers, filmmakers, writers, etc.
Residents will be selected through an application and interview process.
For more information and how to apply, please visit the British Council Brazil website.
Mina Mana Mona é um projeto de ocupação coletiva, por mulheres cis e trans, do espaço da Despina como ateliê de produção e de experimentações de convivência durante outubro e novembro de 2021. Propomos articular colaborações, cruzamentos, construções comunitárias, redes de afeto e de geração de renda. Mais do que uma proposição, Mina Mana Mona é um exercício. O projeto foi finalizado com uma feira de artes e ativismos com 17 expositoras convidadas para participar: Aline Besouro, Amanda Seraphico, Anis Yaguar, Aya Ibeji, Cali Nassar, Consuelo Bassanesi e Marcela Fauth / Vem pra Luta Amada, Dri Simões, Ella Franz Rafa, Lanchonete <> Lanchonete, Lara Lima, Maria Palmerio, Mariana Paraizo, Mayara Velozo, Sabine Passareli, Sofia Skmma, Tapixi Guajajara, Yuki Hayashi / Fudida Silk. As cozinha ficou a cargo da KuzinhaNem, projeto de formação gastronômica vegana da Casa Nem. Outras edições da Feira Mina Mana Mona irão acontecer ao longo de 2022.