In Spring 2020, the pandemic hit with little or no warning. Travel restrictions meant our participants couldn’t come for their residency as planned. As artists do, we adapted and went online. From locations all over the world, we zoomed with the artists, curator and interns of Round 43 of our PILOTENKUECHE International Residence Program. The sessions resulted in a body of video art based on “Teaching Notes”, a questionnaire created by mid-century US painter, sculptor and installation artist Paul Thek when he taught 4D design at Cooper Union.
PK connects international and local
Video files are easily sharable and with the aid of technology, can be installed wherever you want. This allowed us to continue our mission of connecting local and international by showing the perspectives of our artists from abroad to the Leipzig audience. Delicious Procession, shown at KKW, was the first exhibition in Leipzig to showcase work created through an online platform during lockdown.
Because it was such a positive experience, we have decided to start our Online Residency Program. We thought 2021 would be the perfect time because we are unable to invite international artists to work in our studio and participate in Leipzig, Germany at the moment. We are ready to join an already growing trend in digital residencies.
artists can engage, collaborate, discuss
The PILOTENKUECHE Online Residency Program gives artists the opportunity to engage with a global community of artists: to collaborate and get inspired, share ideas and concepts. Selected artists from various disciplines are invited to participate in the task and discussion based program which includes sessions with experts on topics that expand artist experience. We want to create a space for experimentation with formats and strategies. The fact that artists are potentially on different continents will not impede the possibility of collaborating with each other.
PKOR #1 will run 5 Jan – 12 Feb 2021
We thought long and hard on how to provide the best online experience we could. With no physical space in which for artists to interact and no program days, we had to think in new directions. We took from our own experience and researched other digital residencies. In the end, we have created a series of sessions that are informative, thought provoking and practical. We are proud to announce our first round of experts.
Performance Art, knowing the score / Tessa Theissen
Tessa is interested in visceral sensibility, touch and care within different artistic practices and the specific kind of knowledge they produce. She has Master Degrees in Theatre Studies and Choreography and Performance. She is currently teaching Theatre Studies at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Ready, steady, shoot / Václav-Karel Harsa
Freelance filmmaker and media artist Vaclav-Karel Harsa was born in Prague in 1979. He has taught film editing and montage at the Chair of Experimental Television at the Bauhaus University Weimar where he is currently working on his Doctorate. His project, under the working title, “The perspective dispersive film screen and the new possibilities of cinematic narration and reception arising from it”, explores the narrative and receptive qualities of a newly materialized film screen and sees itself as a contribution to the current discourse on film screens and displays.
Write on! / Elizabeth Gerdemann
Elizabeth is a visual artist from the USA currently based in Germany. She has her Masters in Fine Art and a Certificate of Interdisciplinary Specialization in Art History and Social Geography. Recent exhibition venues for her work include the Modern Art Museum in Yerevan, Armenia; Athens Digital Arts Festival in Athens, Greece; (Z)ORTEN in Graubünden, Switzerland; Else Foundation Symposium in Mexico City, Mexico; site-specific interventions in Venice, Italy; Hammond Harkins Galleries in Columbus, USA; and Бükü, Helmut, and BSMNT galleries in Leipzig, Germany. A university lecturer since 2008, she currently teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) where she gives a seminar course offered to all students in the Diploma and Meisterschüler Programmes.
REMOTE CULTURE JOURNALISM INTERNSHIP
Parallel to the Online Residency Program is our new intern program. In addition to being able to attend our online residency sessions, interns interview each resident. Through talking to the artists about their work, interns learn firsthand what motivates them. They are encouraged to respond in their own writing style. The final pieces are published on our website. Interns can expect to write one or more pieces per week.