“kim? Residency Award 2017” winner Ieva Kraule
kim? Contemporary Art Centre is pleased to announce that the winner of the kim? Residency Award 2017 is Ieva Kraule who in Spring, 2017 will spend three-months in a residency at Gasworks international exhibition, studio and residency programme in London within Latvia’s centennial programme.
The award ceremony for the kim? Residency Award 2017 took place on 1 March at kim? in Riga, with the participation of Robert Leckie, Curator at Gasworks. The artists nominated for the kim? Residency Award 2017 by the international jury, were: Ieva Kraule, Maija Kuševa, Krišs Salmanis and Evita Vasiļjeva. During his visit to Riga, Robert Leckie met the nominees and visited their studios.
“I have met a truly diverse group of artists during my short stay in Riga and have sincerely enjoyed my conversations with all of them, learning about what they do and why they do it, as well as their perspectives on the local scene. Having spent an hour with each of the artists, I was particularly impressed by the video Krišs Salmanis made in collaboration with puppeteers in rural Japan; Evita Vasiļjeva’s brutalist-inspired sculptures that demonstrate a deep emotional investment in form; and Maija Kurševa’s polemical chat about her interest in zine cultures that seek to sustain existing communities rather than reach out to others. In the end though I was left with the impression that Ieva Kraule’s latex automata and fast-paced writing about ageing and lampreys represented the most convincing reconciliation of form and intellectual rigour and look forward to seeing how she develops this further at Gasworks.”,” says a jury member of the kim? Residency Award 2017 and Curator at Gasworks, London Robert Leckie.
The annual kim?Residency Award is an opportunity for a single Latvian artist or a group of two artists to take part in a residency program with one ofkim?‘s partner organizations. In the summer of 2015, the first winner of the kim?Residency Award Daria Melnikova spent two months at KWInstitute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, in autumn 2016, the second winner of the kim? Residency Award Ieva Epnere spent two months at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York, while the 2018 winner will head off to the ArtPort residency programme in Telaviv.
This year’s residency represents Latvian culture, opening the international programme of Latvia’s centennial in the UK. Latvia’s centennial is a noteworthy opportunity to herald Latvia’s contribution to the world, and to advance the international competitiveness of the Latvian state and businesses. The centennial’s international program outside of Latvia will be comprehensive, comprising a cultural, economic and political dimension. By representing Latvian art in Europe, kim?’s accomplished international activity within the cultural programme of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU will be further enhanced.
In the autumn of 2016, for the first round of the award, kim? Contemporary Art Centre nominated eight artists that met the award criteria: who actively participate in exhibitions and affiliated arts events in Latvia and abroad; are under the age of 40 and have participated in at least one kim? project in the last 7 years. An international jury reviewed the artist portfolios, and selected the final nominees. The jury was made up of Alessio Antoniolli (Gasworks Director) and Robert Leckie (Gasworks Curator), Anne Barlow (Forthcoming Artistic Director, Tate St Ives), Anna Kats (Museum of Modern Art – MoMA, New York, Curatorial Assistant) and Kari Conte (International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) New York, Director of Programs and Exhibitions).
Established in 1994, Gasworks is a non-profit contemporary arts organisation working at the intersection between UK and international debates and practices. Gasworks regularly commissions and produces new work by emerging and underrepresented UK-based and international artists, made public through four solo or group exhibitions each year and placed in context by an extensive public programme of talks, screenings and performances. The organisation also provides studios for London-based artists and hosts sixteen residencies annually, enabling international artists to research and develop new work in London.