10.02.2022
Artistes en Residence is an organization that aims at accommodating and supporting visual artists through providing them a workplace, living facilities, and financial assistance. The organisation also offers artists the opportunity of establishing international connections and encouraging international mobility. The artists in residency are encouraged to experiment with their work during the program as one of Artistes en Residence’s main goals is research through studio work and exchange among different actors of the contemporary arts.
The organization has several international partners, including The Living Art Museum. The Cross Residency Program, in Reykjavík and Clermont Ferrand, comes together with the cooperation of Artistes en Residence, The Living Art Museum, the French Embassy, Alliance Française Reykjavík, and The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM). Included in the program is a stipend for daily costs.
Visual artistBerglind Erna Tryggvadóttir has been selected by the program partners following an open call in 2022. She is currently taking part in the cross-residency program from January to February 2022 in Clermont-Ferrand, France where she is exploring the everyday, the simple and the human, giving it the meaning and the dimensions often forgotten through installations and sculptures; where the emphasis is on the story an object can tell. We asked Berglind about her stay and experience at the residency in France.
Artistes en Residence is an organization that aims at accommodating and supporting visual artists through providing them a workplace, living facilities, and financial assistance. The organisation also offers artists the opportunity of establishing international connections and encouraging international mobility. The artists in residency are encouraged to experiment with their work during the program as one of Artistes en Residence’s main goals is research through studio work and exchange among different actors of the contemporary arts.
The organization has several international partners, including The Living Art Museum. The Cross Residency Program, in Reykjavík and Clermont Ferrand, comes together with the cooperation of Artistes en Residence, The Living Art Museum, the French Embassy, Alliance Française Reykjavík, and The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM). Included in the program is a stipend for daily costs.
Visual artistBerglind Erna Tryggvadóttir has been selected by the program partners following an open call in 2022. She is currently taking part in the cross-residency program from January to February 2022 in Clermont-Ferrand, France where she is exploring the everyday, the simple and the human, giving it the meaning and the dimensions often forgotten through installations and sculptures; where the emphasis is on the story an object can tell. We asked Berglind about her stay and experience at the residency in France.
How does the change of environment from Iceland to France affect your thought process and work production?
“I feel liberated in a way, free from the stress of everyday life, living a different, quiet everyday life. The environment in Clermont-Ferrand stimulates my artistic practice; the surroundings and foreign language, my attempts at making myself understood in the supermarket to get what I want in a language I don't know too well. You pick up on things differently when you are in a new setting and a place you have no connections to and it is very refreshing.”
What does the residency offer you as an artist beyond just a space?
“The residency is very thorough. They offer a space to live, a space to work and assistance in any and all matters related to what I want to do here. They have been very helpful in facilitating any sort of interaction I require with the local community for my work but also more generally in making social connections with local artists, visiting studios and such. The atmosphere is very encouraging and welcoming.”
How do you see your time at the residency impacting your future practice, if at all?
“Definitely! In France I feel very calm about my work and somehow I feel more focused on what it is I want to do in general with my practice. I am inspired by the work I've seen of other artists here and the individuality each one presents. This is a mentality I would like to keep on carrying with me throughout my practice. I am also very eager to keep growing the connection I've already made with Clermont-Ferrand and its artistic community and hope I will be able to come back here frequently.”
How does the change of environment from Iceland to France affect your thought process and work production?
“I feel liberated in a way, free from the stress of everyday life, living a different, quiet everyday life. The environment in Clermont-Ferrand stimulates my artistic practice; the surroundings and foreign language, my attempts at making myself understood in the supermarket to get what I want in a language I don't know too well. You pick up on things differently when you are in a new setting and a place you have no connections to and it is very refreshing.”
What does the residency offer you as an artist beyond just a space?
“The residency is very thorough. They offer a space to live, a space to work and assistance in any and all matters related to what I want to do here. They have been very helpful in facilitating any sort of interaction I require with the local community for my work but also more generally in making social connections with local artists, visiting studios and such. The atmosphere is very encouraging and welcoming.”
How do you see your time at the residency impacting your future practice, if at all?
“Definitely! In France I feel very calm about my work and somehow I feel more focused on what it is I want to do in general with my practice. I am inspired by the work I've seen of other artists here and the individuality each one presents. This is a mentality I would like to keep on carrying with me throughout my practice. I am also very eager to keep growing the connection I've already made with Clermont-Ferrand and its artistic community and hope I will be able to come back here frequently.”
