Announcement: Artists in residence 2022
Residencies are an important part of our overall programming mix, functioning as a crucible in which the very different realities of Switzerland and Southern Africa and other urban centres on the continent can find meaningful points of contact through the ability of artists from one context to spend substantial time in the other. Normally spanning up to three months, residencies provide possibilities for a rich immersive experience, and ground for the gestation of new networks, collaborations and projects.
Received through an annual open call, applications are carefully considered by experts from both ours and the Zurich office. Special attention is given to the clarity, coherence and local relevance of each submission, as well as the positioning of the residency experience meaningfully within the artist’s overall professional trajectory. We work with a network of partners in the region and in Switzerland to design bespoke residency experiences for the selected artists.
We are pleased to introduce an exciting group of artists from Switzerland and from Southern, East and West Africa who have been selected to take part in our residency programme in 2022.
SWITZERLAND >> SOUTHERN, EAST, CENTRAL & WEST AFRICA
Greg Niemeyer / Berkeley
Greg Niemeyer is a data artist and Professor of Media Innovation in the Department of Art Practice at UC Berkeley. He’s the former director and co-founder of the Berkeley Center for New Media. He started out with studies in Classics and Photography in Switzerland before turning his focus to new media and receiving his MFA from Stanford University in New Genres in 1997. Since childhood, Greg has been fascinated with the conceptual framework of mirrors, realised in his work as media which allows us to see things from a new point of view. All Greg’s works are data-driven: Large datasets and data streams are raw materials for visual and sonic experiences. They act as mirrors, reflecting to us what we don’t see about our essential resources (air, water, care) from novel points of view. These patterns hold the hope that we can learn something new about what is to come and that we can evolve from the impossible present to more possible futures. Greg has exhibited around the world at ZKM, SFMOMA, San Jose, Amsterdam, Cairo, Zurich, New York and received grants from the MacArthur Foundation, NEA, Intel and many others. Notable works include icecorwalk.org, [/tsarsky]Tsar Bell, Oxygen Flute, [/network-paradox]Network Paradox, Quantopia and the most recent [/flowstobay]Water Panoramas.
Dunja Herzog / Basel
Dunja Herzog lives and works between Lagos, Berlin and Basel. Her work is influenced by the effects of colonial history on personal narratives, bodies and materials, which come together in mindful and poetic installations. In her art, Dunja creates spaces for visitors to contemplate global economic cycles through the individual memory of natural materials, which the artist relates to the common history of Europe and Africa and always to herself. Usually, there is a healing process at the centre of her work. Since 2015 Dunja’s practice has been investigating bronze casting in West Africa and the history of the copper trade since the 15th century. Dunja has had solo shows at Kunstverein Göttingen, 1646, The Hague, NL; New Bretagne/Belle Air, Essen, DE; Piano Mobile, Geneva, CH; Istituto Svizzero, Milan, IT. She also participated in group shows at Swiss Art Award, Basel, CH; Lagos Biennale, NG; Blok Art Space, Istanbul, TR; MAXXI Museum, Rome, IT; Kunsthalle Basel, CH.
Daryl Xavier / Zürich
Daryl Xavier, who goes by the moniker Xzavier Stone, is an artist, producer, DJ & vocalist from Zurich, Switzerland. He honed his sound painstakingly in the shadows for years before building a core audience who are drawn to his uniquely bold yet playful works released via Fractal Fantasy, his own XZA imprint and joint platform “YAWREDDY?!” with frequent collaborator Modulaw. Recontextualizing rap music and R&B in a contemporary manner is an ever-present motif in his works, which reflects Xzavier’s interest and passion in hip-hop culture. This can be heard in his original works, as well as in scores and music productions for artists, such as “The Ecstatic”, a dance piece by past artist in residence Jeremy Nedd and Impilo Mapantsula that has been performed throughout Europe. Over the years, Stone’s sonic visions have reached far beyond the realm of hip-hop and positioned him as an exceptional artist in his own right. Seeking growth through innovation is what turns his compositions into genre-defying sonic experiences.
Fabio Hendry / Trun & Zürich
Fabio Hendry is a Swiss designer and material researcher whose work seeks to explore new potentials for overlooked matter from architectural systems to materials. Fabio is interested in exploring disruptive approaches to industrial manufacturing, revealing alternative systems of production. It is his belief that design practices and ecological theories can be merged to allow us to critically consider our material landscape. Fabio is interested in the analysis of innovative and future industries and takes inspiration from nature’s ability to adapt and reconstruct. Within his company and label Hot Wire Extensions, exploration, collaboration and sustainability are central to Fabio’s design philosophy. His innovative products and hands-on experiments explore the boundaries between crafts and industry, ranging from furniture to sculptural objects and spatial installations. Fabio has collaborated and been commissioned by private and public sectors, ranging from design galleries, public institutions, retail and private clients. He has received and been nominated for awards both nationally and internationally such as the alumni prize by the University of the Arts Zurich, IMM Pure Talents, Jerwood Makers Award UK, Swiss Design Award, Ikea Foundation, Design Preis Schweiz, The Architecture Digest Design Award and the Sustain award at the Royal College of Art.
Andrea Keller / Zürich
Andrea Keller is a Swiss author and artist/curator. She graduated from the Zurich University of the Arts with a master’s degree and is currently completing her second master in Biographical and Creative Writing in Berlin, focusing on “writing for change”. In 2009/2010, Andrea was responsible for an awareness campaign which gave a voice to poor people in rich Switzerland. In this context, she created an exhibition and launched a writing workshop for those running into danger of becoming invisible and falling silent in a meritocracy where poverty feels like personal failure. This empowerment project is still in great demand today and impacted Andrea’s belief in the healing and ground-breaking power of writing. As a consequence, she’s been teaching various writing courses. Andrea also helped to build a new museum and co-curated exhibitions such as “System Reset”, an interactive installation that asks for tools for a better working world. Together with accomplices, Andrea has carried out her own text and cultural projects such as the Fundbüro2 (a lost-and-found for immaterial – thoughts, ideas, beliefs, … – that attracted attention beyond Swiss borders and culminated in a book published by Rowohlt) as well as “Hallo, Tod!”, a project with a podcast, an obituary writing workshop and Switzerland’s first interdisciplinary festival on death. Now, Andrea is part of the core team of the Collegium Helveticum (an Institute of Advanced Studies) and works as an independent writer and artist/curator in search of new narratives that increase the chance of a future worth living.
Anke Zürn / Biel/Bienne
Anke Zürn is an artist researcher from Biel/Bienne with a background in visual art and solid state chemistry. She is currently working on several long-term projects exploring traditional art materials related to the colonial past and post-colonial conditions of today, raw materials resources, international trade, food security, ecological and social conditions. She has several research projects planned in Senegal. Anke aims to establish an artistic research lab (project 150m2 and project INDIGO LABOR) as part of her possible future ‘institute’, the Institut für WERKstoffe (working title), an virtual space linking her different projects while reflecting on the relation of an artwork (WERK), artists’ working conditions, and art materials available.
SOUTHERN, EAST, CENTRAL & WEST AFRICA >> SWITZERLAND
Olaniyi Akindiya / Lagos
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Olaniyi Akindiya earned his first BSC degree in Biochemistry from the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta Nigeria (1991) before going on to study Fine and Applied Art at the Institute of Textile Technology Art & Design Lagos (1995). Olaniyi’s work focuses on the passing of time and utilises a multitude of techniques and materials, including re-purposed objects. He has received numerous grants and awards, including TEMPO 21 City of Austin 2021, Red bull Arts, CERF+ 2020, Foundation for contemporary arts emergency grants 2021, 2020 & 2019, The Otis & Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant Award From DMA 2019, TEMPO 19 City of Austin 2019, E 51st Art in public space 2019, CORE Funding 2018, the Innovative Artist Award from (MAAA / NEA) 2017, Pollock Krasner Foundation 2016/17 & 2011, Santo Foundation grant 2015, and Commonwealth Connection Award UK 2011. Throughout his career, the role of residencies and interactions with other artists has been pivotal to his work. Olaniyi has been awarded residencies in the USA, South America, Africa, including Hot box Residency in Austin 2014, Centraltrak Dallas 2013, Triangle Art Association NY 2012, Sacatar Instituto Brazil 2015, Kiosko Gallery Residency in Bolivia 2014, John Muafangejo Art Center Namibia 2013, Nafasi Art Space Tanzania 2012, Tupelo / Bag Factory South Africa 2012 and Nirox Projects Space Residency South Africa 2012.
Arafa Hamadi / Dar es Salaam
Arafa Cynthia Hamadi is a non-binary, multidisciplinary artist working in Tanzania and Kenya. They create artwork in various mediums that address the intersections of the conceptual and the physical, as well as the ephemeral and the permanent, in hopes of provoking their visitors into considering their daily realities. Arafa’s work also explores their queerness in relation to space and occupancy. They work in the realms of 3D design, graphic design, sculpture, architecture and sound.
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi / Kumasi
Pronoun: “sHit” if not “she”
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [crazinisT artisT] works internationally but lives in Kumasi, Ghana. sHit is a multidisciplinary “artivist”, founder and artistic director of perfocraZe International Artists Residency (pIAR) which aims at promoting exchange between international and local artists, activists, researchers, curators, and thinkers. As a performer and installation artist, crazinisT investigates gender stereotypes, prejudices, queerness, identity politics and conflicts, sexual stigma and their consequences for marginalized groups or individuals. With rituals and a gender-fluid persona, sHit employs sHit’s own body as a thought-provoking tool in performances, photography, video, and installations, ‘life-and-live-art’ confronting issues such as disenfranchisement, social justice, violence, objectification, internalized oppression, anti-blackness, systemic indoctrination and many more. crazinisT has performed and exhibited across the globe including countries such as Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Switzerland, South Africa, Germany, Netherlands, Cape Verde, USA, Spain, Brazil, France and UK. crazinisT artisT has also been featured in several, publications and magazines such as I-D Vice London, I-D Vice Dutch, Financial times, King Kong Magazine, CCQ London, Maimi Rails, ‘Freeflowingvisuals’, TRT WORD Film Documentary, This is Africa, Art Ghana, Lost At E Minor, CNN, The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Tageszeitung (TAZ), Horizonte da Cena and Radio FRO.
Thando Mangcu / Johannesburg
Thando Mangcu is a South African performer, director and writer. In July 2021 she will graduate with a Master’s Degree in Dramaturgy from the University of Cape Town. The Master’s program included a six-month exchange at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), focusing on translation, tragedy and globalization. Earlier this year she was a panellist at the Kennedy Centre American Theatre Festival in Nothing About Us Without Us: Workshop Protest Theatre in the 21st Century. In late 2020 Thando created a mini-documentary on South African Workshop Theatre with Tankiso Mamabolo, featured in Duška Radosavljevic’s Auralia.Space website and commissioned for the Aural/Oral Dramaturgies project. These two projects came about as the result of Thando’s involvement as co-writer of the award-winning production The Fall, about the 2015 Fees Must Fall and Rhodes Must Fall movements, produced by the Baxter Theatre Centre. Her tours with The Fall include the Baxter Theatre Centre (2016 and 2017), Woordfees Festival (2017), Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2017) and Arts Centre Melbourne (2018). In 2017 she directed Pieces, a Fleur du Cap nominated play (‘Best New Director’, 2018) that was devised under the TAAC Emerging Director’s Bursary program. She choreographed Delayed Replays (with Sizwesandile Mnisi and Sihle Mnqwazana), performed at the Centre for African Studies (CAS) Gallery in 2017. In 2016 she was mentored by Sello Pesa of the Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre during their In House Project.
Opiyo Okach / Nairobi
Opiyo Okach is a dancer, choreographer and projection designer. He is artistic director of GaaraProjects. He divides his time & develops work between Kenya and France. His work explores and interrogates the ways we perceive and relate to each other, construct and transgress frontiers across our differences of body, culture, geography, conviction. He is reknown for his work with improvisation and instant composition. In recent times he has been developing multidisciplinary process at the intersections of live performance and new media. His work has toured in Africa, Brazil, Europe & the US and been presented at a wide range of venues and festivals including Dancespace at St Marks New York, Festival Avignon, Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis, Dance Umbrella, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts in San Francisco, Theater der Welt, Pact Zollverein in Germany. Through numerous long term initiatives he has acted as a catalyst for the development of dance in East Africa and continues to support the emergence of a new generation of dance artists. He recently initiated ‘Performance Lab Nairobi’ – a collaborative platform for contemporary creation process at the GoDown Arts Centre in Nairobi. He has received numerous awards including the ‘Rencontres chorégraphiques de l’Afrique et de l’océan Indien’, the ‘prix du Nouveau Talent Chorégraphiques SACD’ as well as a ‘Prince Claus Award for Culture and Development’.
Grant Jurius / Cape Town
Grant Jurius is a South African multi-media artist whose work primarily takes place in public spaces in response to the experiences of low income or segregated communities. Based in Cape Town, Grant is mostly self-taught and received the Lionel Davis Grant in 2012, which awarded him a three-month residency at Greatmore Studios in Cape Town culminating in an exhibition. In 2013 he co-founded the interdisciplinary collective Burning Museum, which focused on making visible obscure narratives, histories and heritage of lost or displaced communities affected by various forms of violence. Work was installed or painted in public spaces and exhibited locally at the District Six Museum in Cape Town and Gallery MoMo alongside a retrospective of former exiled artist and photographer, George Hallett, and internationally in Benin, Germany and Spain. In 2013 Grant joined the Future Nostalgia music archival and DJ collective, with whom he exhibited illustrations and artworks based on celebrating historic cultural icons. Also in 2013 Grant launched the “The Street Is The Gallery” initiative focused on mural painting, community projects, street art and graffiti cultural tours. Grant’s current illustration and mixed-media painting revolves around the themed “Son Of A Mantis”, incorporating indigenous heritage, ancient myth, the ritualistic nature of drawing, wall(rock) painting and storytelling and how these are reflected in contemporary society.
