Description
This projects represents a joint initiative by two institutions that found different and unique ways to function within remote contexts (geographic or culturally). The project aims to create a common platform for institutional exchange where both producers and artists share the inquiring methodologies about two different contexts and institutional mechanics. This aim will be realized out of the partnership between two small scale institutions located in two different situational contexts: in Iasi, Romania and in Seydisfjordur, East Iceland. The project will carry out a set of activities that is tailor made for the two institutions involved: two peer to peer meetings and two artist residencies that will conclude with a live stream platform to be used for both institutions as a tool / medium for artists in residency. The partner, Skaftfell – Visual Arts Center, will be responisible for kick off meeting and the first peer to peer meeting at Skaftfell and for the residency and research period for a Romanian artist at Skaftfell /residency and the research period for an Icelandic artist at tranzit.ro/ Iasi.
Summary of project results
This project was aimed at investigating the exploration of two media artists: artistic and institutional in Romania and Iceland, in terms of cultural spaces or geographically isolated (Seyðisfjörður and Iasi). A collective platform was established for institutional exchange that can explore the institutional mechanism of those institutions lacking to some extent of national constant vision (though very relevant at the national level), both exploring the capabilities that this position can offer. Transparency of project activities brought added value to the institutional and artistic act and documenting them both within print and online environment causes a continuous dissemination of project results in the two contexts at international professional level. While the art world is facing an imploding world of artistic residency using methodology "open calls" as instruments or guarantee of democratic selections, the project turned to self-examination of two institutional experiences in a favourable time for the re-evaluation of their objectives in accordance with its local specificities / cultural and professional needs through the two artists in residence. Within the project the following outputs were delivered: 1 Live Streaming Platform, 1 artistic residency at Skaftell for a Romanian artist, 1 artistic residency at Tranzit.ro Iasi for an artist from Iceland, 1 project publication The project was a 2015 joint initiative of Tranzit.ro/ Iasi and Skaftfell, Seydisfjordur, Iceland, that was materialized into a unique live streaming platform dedicated to the use of its artists in residence: Cristina DAVID and Ásdís Sif GUNNARSDÓTTIR. Platforms for live streaming are already the new institutional media in various instances, but this project did more than transmitting the result. Its function was to offer to our two artists in residence a new tool for streaming video sequence. It was about transforming this communication medium into a medium of artistic production, where the artist had full control and responsibility for engaging a larger audience into a personal research process. Thus, the parties hoped to further expand the notion of what an artist residency can be, by closely examining two institutional experiences from both the artists’ and the producers’ perspective. The new method promoted in such a process was empowering the artist as an internal agent.
Summary of bilateral results
Artists as Agents of Institutional Exchange was a project which aimed at sharing results both creative / artistic and at the pragmatic level / institutional. Thus, by applying cross different methods (case studies, visits, public presentations, live streaming, peer to peer review or external observers), the project has succeeded primarily the establishment of a good cooperation between the two partners. Thus, at the end of the project the project promoter and donor project partner stated that there is a mutual knowledge of institutional capacities and conceptual-artistic projections. As a result of Icelandic artist residency, the project promoter met the practice of an artist established in Iceland (lecturer at Film Academy Reykjavik) - Emiliano Monaco, whose film „I am not such a beautiful landscape” has been presented to tranzit.ro/ Iasi in March 2016. This project is one of the few projects that are carried out in Iasi to have coverage in the national press: Radio Romania Cultural and ART Magazine online, according to what the project promoter stated. Live streaming platform has been designed to operate for the period when the artist Cristina David was in residence at Skaftfell and during the Asdis Gunnarsdottir was a resident at tranzit.ro/ Iasi. For Cristina David, during the 38 live broadcasts of different lengths, was recorded and monitored interaction with the public online with a total of 3,028 total views Also, according to livestream analytics, could be noticed that the 3 websites and 2 facebook pages were accessed mostly in Europe but also in North America and Australia. In Europe, the majority is public from Romania and Iceland, followed by Germany, France, Denmark, etc. After the period of services livestream subscription, all documentations of live performances were uploaded to a private YouTube account and then connected with videostream.ro. site. Currently, they are organized in 3 sections: Slow footage, Postcards from Mars and Artist Talk. In the case of Asdis Gunnarsdottir, due to the different type of actions and enable live streaming environment, it was a smaller number of people, but a wider daily with more commitment (several minutes). The views were 141, out of a total of 346 and 468 minutes of viewing. Until this project, nor Skaftfell nor tranzit.ro/ Iaşi have not used this technique live streaming. Its use has clearly brought a different kind of unmediated vision of contemporary art in the national scene.