Curatorial Residency in Stockholm (CRIS) was conceived in 2015 as free-space for curators. It is a collaboration between the Nordic Art Association in Sweden and Jonatan Habib Engqvist, curator and writer [interview from 2015]
During their residency period, curators live in central Stockholm and can immerse themselves in the local art scene. Please sign up to NKF´s newsletter for updates.
Guests in Stockholm 2015-2020 included: Elena Agudio, Riksa Afiati, Abir Boukhari, Inesa Brasiske, Övul O. Durmusoglu, Jonas Ekeberg, Marina Fokidis, Sylvie Fortin, Eva González-Sancho Bodero, Juha Huskonen, Adam Kleinmann, Nat Muller, Lorenzo Sandoval, Viktorija Šiaulytė, Marina Vale Noronha, Amara Antilla, Basak Senova, Joanna Sokołowska, Berit Schuck, Maria-Thalia Carras & Olga Hatzidaki, Locus Athens, Iaroslav Volov, Michy Marxuach and Fernando E. Lloveras San Miguel. CRIS has also been able to send Swedish curators to Egypt, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Iran and Turkey.
Brief summary of activities
2015: CRIS is founded and concived as a free space for curators. International curators are invited to spend time in Stockholm without being tied to any particular project or demand for production. There is no schedule of pre-arranged studio visits, but residents are asked to engange in one informal conversation in the space during their stay. The conversations are intended as a very informal survey of the immense variety of aproaches to curating, which also is reflected in the choice of residents.
Eva González-Sancho Bodero andAbir Boukhari stay at the Nordic Guest Studio in Stockholm. Abir Boukhari also organises two exhibitions, one at the Nordic Guest Studio and one at Hangmen Projects in Stockholm.
CRIS establishes exchanges with New York and Istanbul.
2016: CRIS recieves funding from the Swedish Arts Council. Guests:Övul O. Durmusoglu, Marina Valle Noronha, Juha Huuskonen, Elena Agudio andLorenzo Sandoval. Through an exchange with HIAP (Helsinki International Artist Programme), Stefanie Hessler was in residency at The Cable Factory, Helsinki, and in collaboration with Townhouse Cairo and MASS Alexandria Theodor Ringborg visited Egypt.
2017: Lorenzo Sandoval and Amara Antilla visit Stockholm. In 2017 a three-week intensive research residency was organised with CPR (Curatorial Program for Research) and the Estonian Research and development centre. Collaborations initiated with Iran, Turkey and Austria. During 3 weeks the curators travelled through Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Carmen Ferreyra, Karin Laansoo, Susanne Ewerlöf and Jonatan Habib Engqvist selected and traveled together with the following curators: Agata Chinowska, Rachel Cook, Inês Geraldes Cardoso, Samira Hashemi, Eva Riebová, Ainslie Roddick, Helena Santos Elorriaga and Wong Binghao.
2018: Residents Basak Senova, Joanna Sokołowska, Viktorija Šiaulytė, Berit Schuck, Adam Kleinman, Marina Folkidis, Riksa Afiaty, Iaroslav Volovod come to Stockholm.
CRIS also partnered in the Nordic-Baltic Curatorial Research Programme (NBC) – the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia, Frame Contemporary Art Finland, funded by the Nordic Culture Point. This year three research trips where organised to Estonia, Finland and Sweden.
Curatorial Assistant grants were given to young curators to work with Baltic Triennial, CCA Estonia, Tallinn, Baltic Circle, Helsinki and Nya Småland. An open call was sent out in December inviting emerging art professionals of the region to apply for the 2019 exhibition assistant exchange programme, which takes place at three national pavilions at the 58th Venice Biennale.
2019: Sylvie Fortin, locus athens curators Maria-Thalia Carras and Olga Hatzidaki, Inesa Brasiske, Nat Muller and Jonas Ekeberg stay at the Nordic guest studio. Book releases of the inaugural issue of The International Biennial Association (IBA) journal and Post Nordic. Collaboration with Sync residency in Athens allows Power Ekroth to spend 6 weeks there. Curatorial research exchange also developed with Peurto Rico.
Through the Nordic-Baltic Curatorial Research Programme (NBC), curatorial assistant grants were given to three young curators to work with the Nordic, Finnish and Estonian pavilions at the 58th Venice Biennale and research trips where organised to Finland and Sweden.
CRIS becomes part of the development group for The Trans-Hemispheric Residency Programme [THrP] as an initiative to create an art and science exchange programme between the Caribbean and the Nordic Regions. The programme is aimed to explore and foment affirmative physical, cultural, and environmental relations across hemispheres. The initial sites for the programme are Puerto Rico, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, with expectations to broaden the network to St. Croix, Norway, Germany, and Switzerland. The programme is founded on a sincere wish to provide researchers with transformative experiences across disciplines and hemispheres, ultimately in ways that are not just limited to, and shared beyond, the Atlantic region. Particularly, to find common interests and collaborations — no less through prolonged travel periods by land and sea — that focus upon and transform the way we sense, beyond the visual, the remote and unforeseen forces of Global Warming. The residency programme will initially encourage its participants to work with five ‘axioms’ for practise-based investigations and exchanges that address global warming: (1.) tropical and colonial memory studies; (2.) present and future convergence of global market and accelerated climate change; (3.) global warming resilience; (4.) plant science as social, sculptural, and infrastructural practice; and (5.) spiritual and bio-medicinal practices and solutions in herbal and tropical horticulture.
2020: Michy Marxuach and Fernando E. Lloveras San Miguel visit the Nordic Guest Studio before they continue by boat to Finland in an on going collaboration with Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA). Michy and Fernando, together with CRIS, the artist Luis Berríos-Negrón and curators Taru Elfving (CCA) continue to develop the THRP initiative to stimulate artistic and scientific exchanges between the Caribbean and the Nordic Regions – exploring and fomenting affirmative physical, cultural, and environmental relations across hemispheres.
Through the Nordic-Baltic Curatorial Research Programme (NBC), curatorial assistant grants allow three young curators to work in large-scale production in the region. Partner venues 2020: Tallinn Art Hall (Tallinn, Estonia), Luleå Biennial (Norrbotten, northern Sweden) and Frame Contemporary Art Finland (Helsinki, Finland).
At the end of 2020, the past five years were summerised as a guest book within the publication 75 Years – The Nordic Art Association in Sweden (Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing) and the management of CRIS in the Nordic Guest Studio handed over to a new generation of curators. The book was released in 2021, and CRIS will now be managed by Sara Rossling.
The project has been supported from multiple sources, including Nordisk Kulturfond, the Swedish Arts Council, the city of Stockholm, Institut français de Suède, the Spanish embassies in Stockholm, Oslo and Tallinn, The Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center, Kultur Skåne, Tjeckiska centret Stockholm, Danish Arts Foundation as well as several local collaborations. CRIS is also partner with FRAME Finland and CCA Estonia in the Nordic-Baltic Curatorial Exchange programme.