Residencies hold an unmistakable important position in the artworld. Through evolution over the years they have moved away from an ‘institutional utopian framework’ that was characteristic in the 90’s. Where previously the emphasis lied on creating art on site, experimentation, international mobility, and interaction, we have now reached a peak in international mobility and globalization but this approach is no longer compatible with the world we live in today; it is not sustainable in times of climate change. We have gradually moved to where we are now: a period in time where we have to re-negotiate the place and role of art residencies according to the current state of the world. The need for reconsideration and obtaining a critical attitude towards the own practice might be the cause of a more divergent approach amongst the residencies: ‘today, residencies are their own art world within the ecosystem of contemporary art; they have their own institutional identity, their own history, operating methods, values, tasks, and goals,’ as described by the founding member and former director of HIAP (Helsinki International Art Programme) Irmeli Kokko in Rethinking Residencies, 2023. The identities of residencies have grown into various directions, allowing for a diversified supply.
Catering to interdisciplinary artists, curators and writers, not only the institutional approach of the residencies but also the objectives of the residents themselves are varied: the hope for peer-support or to extend ones international network, the possibility of finding dedicated time to concentrate on one’s practice or the physical closeness to a specific case-study; the choice for a residency can have many occasions. There is an abundance of residencies in Finland to meet these needs and amongst them, we can quite evidently point out these constructed institutional identities that are indicating the different modes of governing and hosting: having a group of international peers or spending most of your time in seclusion, the facility of many workshops for artistic work, receiving an artists fee or having to pay a fee to the residency for their labor and maintenance, the option to have studio visits with local professionals or relating to a specific thematic that is put forward by the residency place. Some of these differences lie in available resources, others are connected to locality, but mostly they can be attributed to the people that are shaping and re-imagining the role and future of these residencies. It is upon closer look that we can also point out some similarities within these institutions. Slowness, being remote, the importance of encountering either related to community or solitude and finding modes to support the (temporal) community, are facets that can be found in many of Finland’s residencies.
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