GROUP RESIDENCY
PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME: DRAWING DEEPLY
Collemacchia, Molise, Italy
Fri 21 June – Fri 28 June 2024

APPLICATION DEADLINE has passed

The Museum of Loss and Renewal is very pleased to welcome applications for the Group Residency PLACE, PEOPLE and TIME: DRAWING DEEPLY. 


The Group Residency is devised around the relationships of ‘place, people and time’ and residents will be welcomed to Collemacchia, in Italy’s Apennine Mountains and the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise. The village has been home to Tracy Mackenna’s Italian family for centuries and the local community is highly supportive of The Museum of Loss and Renewal Residency Programmes.

DRAWING DEEPLY will be lead by Tracy Mackenna (The Museum of Loss and Renewal) and invited subject experts. Between us we activate diverse skills and expertise when we employ drawing (in an expanded sense), publishing and performative modes of working to investigate place(making), (un)belonging, memory, (personal)narratives and imaginary futures.

Applications are welcomed from creative practitioners and researchers who think through drawing and for whom drawing is a way to investigate and understand place, and from practitioners who have a strong interest in drawing as an area of practice. The max. number of participants is 9.

‘Drawing’ is understood as creative, critical and situated, and as an area of practice in its most expanded sense. In other words, drawing that is experimental, inventive in its form, and responds to place.

As an example of a site-specific Group Residency, see the activities and work generated during the DRAWING DEEPLY Group Residency 2023.

FOCAL POINTS

– Immersive experience
– Semi-structured programme
– Supportive, caring and non-hierarchical environment
– Drawing, and in an expanded sense
– Experimentation

– Interdisciplinarity
– Technologies

– Co-learning
– Individual practice

– Collective platform for encounters

– Location specific

– Natural environment of exceptional significance

AIM

The aim of the Group Residency is to develop drawing and approaches to drawing that are experimental, inventive in their form, and that respond to place by collectively investigating a site of global importance. Bringing together residents form a range of areas of practice and research, the potential to create an international network is made possible.

The Group Residency will provide opportunities for creative practitioners and researchers to share and establish a bank of knowledge and creative strategies, both globally interconnected and hyper local, digital and analogue, for imagining new responses to places and the multiple, layered and contested histories they hold. Residents will have ample time to pursue and share their individual projects.

APPROACH

Working together across drawing practices residents from diverse cultures and creative disciplines will focus on different ways of responding to place through drawing in its most expanded sense.

Residents will work collectively and individually. Value will be given to the individual knowledge and experience of each resident, exploring the act of drawing as a fundamental means to analyse, document, record and translate the worlds we inhabit. The residency experience is designed to stimulate experimentation through collective and individual production, research, and co-learning. Participants investigate, share and connect their experiences of and ways of working through ‘drawing’ and in their own place in the world with those of others through facilitated co-creating and co-presenting modes. Over shared meals, residents and facilitators will maximise the time for exchange, sharing information and knowledge, and developing relationships and networks.

The Group Residency programme is designed around a bespoke itinerary, with carefully crafted indoor sessions that focus on historical and contemporary ways of drawing, discussion, presentation, making and sharing. Outdoor sessions will introduce residents to the stunning natural landscape. By walking, listening, looking and making, residents will activate drawing, a sophisticated means of thinking and communicating, to investigate a site. The location contains a cluster of contemporary villages, residing amidst Samnite and Roman settlements, all accessible by foot. 

Designed to be supportive, the partially-structured and hands-on programme will enable residents to develop their skills and understanding of drawing across a range of approaches and technologies. The residency experience will stimulate new ways of thinking and experimentation through production, research, co-learning and presentation.

The Group Residency will have a focus on co-learning and knowledge exchange, creating opportunities for residents to learn from each other. A series of group sessions supported by specific learning models will enable residents, without hierarchies, to explore their own practice and the assertion that drawing underpins systems and principles of visual language. ‘Visual Dialogue’, ‘Slow Looking’ and ‘Listening Environment’ will focus on attention to detail. An underlying theme of ‘Micro-Macro’ will connect the group to the residency location and to the wider world, in consideration of what one brings from a place and what is subsequently left in a place.

FACILITIES



Residents are accommodated in two recently renovated, comfortable houses situated a couple of minutes walk from each other. Houses have fully equipped kitchens, bathrooms, sitting rooms, and double, twin and single bedrooms (single use bedrooms can be allocated dependent on availability). Central heating and internet throughout. Cleaning is included in cost.



Studios / Workspaces are located in buildings that are situated a couple of minutes walk from each other, and from accommodation. They are recently renovated and include indoor and outdoor making spaces, and desk space. Internet throughout.



LOCATION



The residency is located in Collemacchia, a small village within Italy’s National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, a protected area of exceptional significance and beauty. Engagement with the natural world begins on the doorstep and the mountainous landscape offers an excellent environment for reflective practice. The ancient, undisturbed and extensive terrain holds a rich and complex history visible in the area’s architecture, customs, agricultural lands and forests.



The area is sparsely populated by villages that are largely trilingual Italian-French-English due to the large community of emigrants who continually move between European nations, stemming from economic migration dating from approx. 1850.

FACILITATORS



The residency will be lead by Tracy Mackenna (The Museum of Loss and Renewal) with bespoke sessions provided by subject experts.

Tracy Mackenna (RSA, Professor Emerita; SCO-IT) & Edwin Janssen (Dr; NL) are the founders and co-curators of The Museum of Loss and Renewal. The Museum of Loss and Renewal’s key areas of focus are social relationships, the way places are inhabited and how personal objects reflect who we are. In her individual practice and research Tracy employs drawing, video, walking and writing as dialogical processes to activate playful, provocative and non-linear properties of language within visual art practice, giving new and refreshed voice to collaborators and subject-matters. Tracy & Edwin work with international partners to devise and present multifaceted exhibition projects that address issues of societal concern such as well-being, care, (personal)histories, (in)formal collections, land use / land futures, habitation and sustainability. Tracy and Edwin are highly experienced, award winning educators who have devised and lead multiple group learning projects situated within the international museum and gallery sector, and higher education.

FEE

The Residency Programme is operated on a non-commercial cost-covering basis, and is financially supported by The Museum of Loss and Renewal in order to keep fees low. The residency fee is €1600 (Euro) paid by the resident. It includes the residency programme, full board, collection/return to nearest train/bus station, accommodation in a variety of spacious rooms, and excellent studio spaces. Catering (3 meals each day) includes ingredients that are mainly locally sourced and meals prepared by our cook. Vegan and vegetarian diets can be catered for.



A 50% deposit is payable within two weeks of accepting a place on the Group Residency. The remaining 50% is payable four weeks in advance of the start of the Group Residency.



You will be responsible for funding and organising your own travel, your own insurances and any visa requirements particular to your country of origin. Detailed travel information will be supplied (closest airports Naples, Rome), and collection/drop-off at a local train station will be arranged.



We do not have external funding for this project, so regret that we are unable to offer assistance with fees, flights, production costs or other subsistence. Typically, successful applicants source funding by applying to their national arts funding bodies, personal fundraising, or through academic institutional support. Formal letters of invitation can be provided to assist in this process.

SCHEDULE OUTLINE



Day 01
Arrival (collection at nearest train station/bus stop), orientation, introductions, dinner


Days 02-07
Residency Programme e.g. guided walk/tour of archaeological sites, subject-specific sessions, individual and group reflections, guest presentations with specially devised exercises, studio time


Day 08
Reflection, lunch, departure (transport to nearest intercity departure points)



A detailed programme will be provided to residents before arrival.

HOW TO APPLY

The selection process will consider the quality of your work, reason for participation and the potential impact DRAWING DEEPLY might have on your practice and/or research.

Applicants should email one PDF document containing the following information to tracy@themuseumoflossandrenewal.life

– Statement: tell us about your practice and/or research (300 words)

– Motivation: explain why you wish to participate in this residency. Describe what skills and experience you would like to gain, and what you could contribute (300 words)

– 5 key words that describe your main interests: these will inform the compilation of reference material that will be designed in advance of the residency

– CV: maximum 1 page. Outline your education and recent work (e.g. exhibitions, performances, writing, curation, commissions, publications)

– Link: to your website/online platform or documentation of visual/textual info (max 2 pages A4)
– Access: Information about any access requirements if applicable

Title your PDF application doc: FirstNameSecondName_GRDD2024

If you are more comfortable submitting an application in another format e.g. recorded audio, video or a combination of these or through a phone call or with the assistance of another person, please email tracy@themuseumoflossandrenewal.life

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Sunday 31 March 2024
Successful applicants will be notified within 2 weeks of deadline.

N.B. Applicants who will apply to funding bodies can apply immediately (before DRAWING DEEPLY deadline). If the offer of a residency place is made this can help support funding applications.

Please note that feedback on unsuccessful applications cannot be provided.