Too many artist residencies still resemble tourism: artists travel to inspiring locations and pay little respect for their impact on climate or local communities. During the summer 2019 artists Maija Annikki Savolainen and George Ridgeway participated in a pilot aiming to reconsider dominant artist exchange models and question the role of artists’ residency in the time of climate breakdown. 

Scotland-based Ridgway and Finland-based Savolainen travelled by land and sea to the partner organisations in the respective countries. While at residencies, they explored the ways to make artist residencies more socially and ecologically sustainable. Please join the discussion on what they discovered! How can the arts support a shift to a post-fossil future? What role do remote and rural residencies offer in a time of climate breakdown? How can we collectively question and act on the enduring colonial and corporate legacies of extraction and exploitation of such environments? The discussion will be supported by curator, and future network partner, Anna Santomauro from Arts Catalyst, joined by Sam Trotman and Jenny Salmean from Scottish Sculpture Workshop.

North AiR is a new residency and research network spanning Scotland and Finland. The network consists of Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW), Taigh Chearsabhagh and Timespan in Scotland;,Mustarinda, Bioart Society and KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre in Finland. North AiR is supported by the Finnish Institute.  All partners foster long term enquiries into their role and responsibility within the ecological crisis and together this network and pilot residency programme looks towards a post-fossil future with a trans disciplinary approach. 

Wednesday 6.11., 6–9 pm, Finnish Institute in London, Unit 1, 3 York Way, N1C 4AE, London. Free admission. RSVP: info@fininst.uk.

Photo: Maija Annikki Savolainen, Spectral beings (2019)