ARTISTS: Paulina León, Silvia Lorenz, Daniela Gugg, Jan Vormann, Daniel Kemeny, Aleksandar Jestrović Jamesdin
GUEST ARTISTS: Nikola Marković, Olga Jitlina, Marion Ritzmann, Dayana Rivera
„RE:RE:Residence Revisited“: SKC Gallery, Belgrade/ Serbia: 13. – 18.7.2009 — Grasnaya Gallery, St. Petersburg/Russia: 4. – 8.8.2009 — Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich/ Switzerland: 20. – 24.8.2009 — Galeria Arte Actual, Quito/ Ecuador: 16.-26.9.2009
(graphic: Jan Vormann)
The six participating artists of „Re:Re: Residence Revisited” – Daniela Gugg, Aleksandar Jestrovic Jamesdin, Daniel Kemeny, Paulina León, Silvia Lorenz, Jan Vormann – come from Ecuador, Switzerland, Germany, Serbia and Italy. The project title is an expression of the rapid virtual exchange of ideas, as well as of the „real“ and localized communication. The starting point for the project was the idea of returning to a place of residence, a hometown, or a city where the artists have spent a significant part of their life – namely: Belgrade, St. Petersburg, Zurich and Quito.
In the course of the project from July to September 2009 four participants were temporary hosts and mediators at their respective residence places. This personal basis was supported by one more invited local artist, who was joining the group on each site: Nikola Markovic, Olga Jitlina, Marion Ritzmann and Dayana Rivera.
The project was limited concerning production and transport abilities – the resulting experiences formed the underlying structure. Within this frame every artist followed an individual approach and topic that was contineously transformed and developed.
Despite the fact that the project worked on “low-budget“ facing the global economical crisis, the artists produced a significant number of objects, gallery works, texts, actions in the urban spaces and documentary material (photo and video- documentation).
Crucial topics of “RE:RE: Residence Revisited” were questions of (city-) identity, mobility, time, urbanism, communication and the notion of “home” – which are reflected and altered in the continuation of the individual artistic processes and within the site specific research and discussions.
The experiment of the journey in 2009 consisted of a three months long, intensive exchange of ideas within the group as well as on-site, and facing each others different backgrounds during the period of travel – backgrounds which link South-Eastern and East Europe to Central Europe and South America. The total duration and speed was a challenge for each member of the group. The shared journey can be understood as an concentrated self-experiment of the contemporary practice of the “artist-nomad”.
On the respective sites we did not only set up public exhibitions with our Partner-Galleries, but we also were continuously communicating with local artists and networks, discussing conditions of artistic production and practice.
In Belgrade „Residence Revisited“ was located in the Gallery of the „Studenski Culturni Centar“ (13.7.-18.7.). The Centar is nowadays more famous for its Heavy Metal-concerts than for the historically known exhibition facilities. Our program included discussions with curator Stevan Vukovic and the curators and artists of Remont Gallery. In Russia, Michail Crest hosted us in his „Grasnaya Galleria“ – the space to live and exhibit (4.- 8.8.). St. Petersburgs’ off-space „flat-gallery“ was the most intimous of the exhibition formats. We additionally made contacts with Pasha Shugorov and his „33 plus 1“ artistic collective. In Zurich, the famous „Cabaret Voltaire“ with curator Adrian Notz offered us a chance to work and exhibit in the event space of the gallery (20.-24.8.) which shows a strong influence of the Dada-history and the troubles of the present times. In Quito, the project was part of the cultural program accompanying the „200 years of Independency“, hosted by the Galeria Arte Actual (16.-26.9.). We met members of the neighboring FLACSO Institute and various activists of „WASH – Lavanderìa de Arte“. WASH stated the importance of this form of artists` activism practice in South America by compiling an DVD archive of 13 Equadorian collectives.
The project was supported by:
Ministerio de Cultura del Ecuador/ Mart Stam Gesellschaft – Förderverein der Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee / pro helvetia, Switzerland
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Silvia Lorenz 
