From Now On. Meetings on infrastructures and work processes of artistic residencies (2023)
Idensitat - hablarenarte -  - La Escocesa. 

Monasterio de la Inmaculada Concepción, Loeches, Comunidad de Madrid
September 2023

Who goes to an artistic residency? What really happens in that context of 'reflection and immersion'? Who has access to residency programmes? What limitations are there in being part of them? How can we build truly inclusive programmes which address these limitations? What conditions must be in place in order to put into practice all the theories which we have been sharing and debating in recent years? And finally, who supports the people behind these programmes,  and what working conditions should we suggest in order to be able to carry out the work properly?

These are some of the questions which have brought us together here and now. On the basis of  these situated practices and reflections, we have invited artists, researchers, and cultural workers to shape ideas for the future with us, the three organisers.

Residencies have become rites of passage, initiatory experiences and almost inescapable requirements for the professionalisation of artists. Now is the time to ask ourselves how, from their conceptualisation and structures of support, we can work to make them accessible, sustainable, and politically active infrastructures in a context of such social and environmental complexity.

These meetings attempt to generate spaces for listening, caring, and mutual support among all the guests, involving us in rethinking the functioning of residencies, and in practising other ways of making them work (based upon management, coexistence, and situated research). These considerations and processes will be reflected through texts or other documents which will serve to share experiences, doubts, good practices, etc., reviewing the existing bibliography and/or expanding it. The aim is not only to generate transversal knowledge, but also to put it into practice in our programmes, and to monitor these processes of transformation.

During the first meeting, we organised five working groups ordered by theme, and guided by people who work with and through the proposed themes. Each group delivered a spoken report and visual documentation. The questions we started with were: Are artistic residencies enabling spaces? Why? How can we make the experience of moving to another place compatible with parenting and other family or caring responsibilities? How can we create structures and initiatives that facilitate the mobility of people who, due to legal circumstances, find it more difficult to cross borders?  What conflicts - visible or invisible - exist for diverse bodies and identities to participate on equal terms in residency practices? How, and from which places of enunciation, should these nodes of conflict be addressed and unblocked? How do we confront the contradiction of promoting mobility and internationalisation in a world undergoing ecological collapse?

The guides of the working groups were: Júlia Ayerbe, Paloma Calle, Ana Bibang, Jo Muñoz and Ane Rodríguez Armendáriz. The rapporteurs were: Emma Brasó, Roser Colomar, Alba Feito,  and Flavia Introzzi. The other participants were: Christian Fernández Mirón, Ivan Cicchetti, Carlos Almela, Alba Colomo, Gema Sanz, Mamen Adeva, Irati Irulegi, Julio Jara, Lenka Holikova, Marcela Rodríguez, Mercedes Álvarez, Sara Martín Terceño, Viviana Checchia, María Mallol and José Ramón Hernández. 

MEETING 2: Cal Gras, Avinyó (Manresa). 27th and 28th November 2023
The second meeting of the laboratory "DES D'AQUEST ARA. Meetings on infrastructures and working processes of artistic residencies'', focused on the processes and conditions of support in residency programmes and spaces, both with regard to methodologies of accompaniment, and to the working roles and conditions of support providers who manage, coordinate and make artistic residency programmes possible, rethinking these processes and conditions in order to better perform support roles.

The group work dynamics, proposed by DU-DA, raised issues regarding support roles in this area, asking participants to define accompaniment processes and to comment upon their experiences; of support; of programmes of visibility; of public activities and specialised visits; of collecting these methodologies and tools as shared resources (publications, podcasts, reports, etc.), and so developing and generating knowledge. Furthermore, the group work dynamics asked participants to consider the working conditions in which this support practices takes place, both in terms of resources, and in terms of accompaniment teams; what (scarce) resources, communities, and level of professionalisation do these practices have? How to generate support networks and common resources which not only promote good practice but which also facilitate the practice itself?

A meeting designed to approach methodologies and to define these practices (glossaries, definitions, concepts used in referring to this work, etc). A meeting addressing the fact of accompaniment being developed by the same person carrying out management, communications, and a whole range of roles and functions, due to the impossibility of having larger teams. Also addressing the lack of means for accompaniment practices, the need to create communities/working groups /affinity and professional environments for people working in management and support within residency programmes. Also discussed was the importance of generating possible spaces for work and relationships between the artistic, cultural, and social fabrics during the accompaniment of a residency; the specificities of both visibility and accompaniment actions such as public activities programmes, specialised visits, mentoring, and the outcomes (writings, texts, publications, podcasts...) inherent to accompaniment and how they can be materialised within the projects.

Group Work Dynamics: Clara Piazuelo and Sarai Cumplido (DU-DA)
Visual Narrative: Itxaso Corral Arrieta

Participants: Alba Colomo and Alba Feito (La Escocesa), Emma Brasó and Flavia Introzzi (hablarenarte), Irati Irulegi and Roser Colomar (Idensitat), Ane Rodríguez Armendariz (cultural worker and researcher), Chiara Cartuccia (), Aina Joanet (Nau Ivanow), Pau Cata (CeRC de Investigació and Creació Casamarlès, Platform Harakat, ARRC - Art Residency Research Collective), Eva Quintana and Quim Moya (Cal Gras), Ariadna Rodríguez (nyamnyam).

Pieces of Relatoria encantada, Itxaso Corral Arrieta