Residencies Reflected delves into the changes in the residency field in recent years

Curator and residency expert Irmeli Kokko edited the collection of articles on international artist residencies and artist mobility.

Residences Reflected is a collection of new essays on artist residencies, reflecting their current state of transition and quest for various forms of sustainability within the practice and discourse of mobility: poetic, psychological, social, ecological.

The key thread is the changing narratives of residencies and mobility. The ongoing ecological and political crises are contributing to the transformation of the conditions for producing, encountering and interpreting art. Since the 1990s the ideology of free mobility for artists has been founded on providing inspiration and facilitating livelihoods. Artist residencies have been seen as ‘corridors of encounters’ – between people, places, languages, histories, climates and, hopefully, many other unforeseeable factors.

Accelerated climate change as well as ethical and political issues touching on cultural and biological diversity, postcolonial and decolonial perspectives on culture, war, persecution and exile have brought new challenges for residencies of all kinds. Artistic work always has the potential to both cross and safeguard boundaries. Artist residencies continue to protect and promote experimentation and the freedom of expression in a contradictory world that requires ever more rapid modes of response and ever more flexible forms of organisation.

This anthology, edited by the Finnish curator and residency professional Irmeli Kokko, is partly based on the Summer Well symposium for resident researchers and writers at the Saari Residence in western Finland in 2021. The authors are active players in the international artist residency field: curators, artists and academics.

There are nine essays, by Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey, Dr. Pau Catà, Taru Elfving, Dr. Maria Hirvi-Ijäs, Miina Hujala, Anders Kreuger, Katia Porro, Dr. Miriam La Rosa and Dr. Vytautas Michelkevičius, an interview with Leena Kela (the director of the Saari Residence) and Dr. Anna Kirveennummi (a futures researcher at the University of Turku) by Irmeli Kokko and spreads by the visual artist duo Océane Bruel and dylan ryan arnold and the visual artist Kalle Hamm.

The co-publishers are the Kone Foundation’s Saari Residence in Mynämäki, Finland, and Mousse Publishing in Milan, the copy-editor is Anders Kreuger and the graphic designer is Marina Veziko.

You can order printed copy from Mousse Publishing’s online store.

A browsable version of the book is available on the Saari Residence’s website.

Interview with the book’s editor, Irmeli Kokko, on our website.