“Configurations of Time” (in progress) at Saari Summer Well

“Summer Well 2021: My Journey, Research and Exchange, from the practices of art to the theory of residency research”

International gathering curated by Irmeli Kokko at the Saari Residence in Finland. 

Dates: 18 - 22 August 2022

Curated by Irmeli Kokko, this gathering brought together sixteen residency researchers from different countries to share and discuss their ongoing research on artists’ in residency. 

“This short residency is the first platform that is created for scholars, writers and activists on artist residency research and writing - to come together, to meet each other and share their projects, thoughts and ideas. The title ‘My Journey, Knowledge and Exchange – A short residency’ is derived from the basic three elements of artist residencies - going somewhere else and journey as a method of achieving change: your knowledge coming together in a nod of other knowledges and seeing it and sharing it.” (Irmeli Kokko)

The assembly took place at the Saari Residence, a rural manor house now turned into an international residency, and it was hosted and organized by Kone Foundation. You can find more information about the Saari Residence here.

On this occasion, I presented the lecture “Configurations of Time: Time and Residencies”, developed from an article originally written for Unpacking Residencies, Kunstlicht, vol. 39, no. 2 (2018).

‘The documentation of what takes place in a residency can be partial and fragmented. As the value of what happens often fully blossoms over time, the successions of artists’ (studio) presentations, blog’s entries, web archive, and reports seem to be telling only one story of what happens when we host an artist. Inspired by Lisa Baraitser’s words on the existence and ‘circulation of other types of time, that happens simultaneously in the condition of the now’, we will embark in a short speculative exercise, looking at various kinds of time, each with its own rhythms and processes. What kind of time would we like to keep or start considering in the post-pandemic reality? Which one do we prefer ignoring moving forward with our residencies programs?’ (Short lecture description, as used for the seminar).

Alongside my individual contribution, the event also marked the first public presentation of ARRN, Art Residency Research Network (later renamed ARRC, Art Residency Research Collective), which I co-founded in 2020 with fellow researchers Pau Catà (Barcelona), Morag Iles (Newcastle), Patricia Healy McMeans (Minneapolis), and Angela Serino (Amsterdam). The network brings together five researchers committed to exploring and critically reflecting on the status of residency programmes through both study and practice.