Following an open call that was launched in July 2021, the STARTS4Water Consortium received 294 eligible applications from 56 different countries, out of which 39,3% came from Europe and 60,7% from non-Europe based artists. The average age of the applicants was 42 years old.
Each residency will address a different region-specific water management challenge and relates to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG6 and SDG14).
Bozar collaborates with LUCA School of ARTS and GLUON for two of the ten residencies. The aim of the residencies is for artists to engage the creative ecosystems of local companies, research institutions and communities in a collaborative process of art and innovation. A selection of the residency results will be shown in Bozar – Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels) as STARTS partner, during the STARTS4Water exhibition in Fall 2022.
STARTS4Water Artist-in-Residency: Haseeb Ahmed
Residency: Pharmaceutical Pollution hosted by LUCA School of ARTS & GLUON
Haseeb Ahmed (b.1985) is a research-based artist originally from the US, and now based in Brussels. He produces objects, site-specific installations, films, and writes. Often working collaboratively Ahmed integrates methodologies from the hard sciences into his art production. His recently completed Wind Egg Trilogy blends myth and technology was the subject of his first solo exhibition, Harlan Levey Projects in Brussels, which represents him, his solo show at the Museum of Contemporary art of Antwerp (BE), and his PhD (2018).
"There is a poetry in the modern paradox that pharmaceuticals save lives but are too small to filter in conventional treatment plants, potentially harming the environment. This is especially true in Flanders, a leader in pharmaceuticals whose landscape is defined by extensive waterways. Over the course of my residency I will work with regional experts to create an artwork that brings together the scale of the body and landscape making this connection tangible for viewers and the process too will be made public."
STARTS4Water Artist-in-Residency: Anna Ridler
Residency: Water Capitalism hosted by LUCA School of ARTS & GLUON
Anna Ridler is an artist and researcher who works with systems of knowledge and how technologies are created in order to better understand the world. She is particularly interested in ideas around measurement and quantification and how this relates to the natural world. Her process often involves working with collections of information or data, particularly data sets, exploring how they are created in order to better understand society and the world. She holds an MA in Information Experience Design from the Royal College of Art and a BA in English Literature and Language from Oxford University along with fellowships at the Creative Computing Institute at University of the Arts London (UAL), Ars Electronica, Edinburgh University and the Delfina Foundation. Her work has been exhibited at cultural institutions worldwide including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern, the Barbican Centre, Centre Pompidou, HeK Basel, the ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica, Sheffield Documentary Festival and the Leverhulme Centre for Future Intelligence. Ridler lives and works in London.
“I’m really looking forward to this residency and exploring my ongoing interest in economic systems and how the interact with the natural world through looking at how water is managed in the Flanders area. I hope to create a new online and offline work that responds to the current situation and uses industry technology needed for aquatic management as tools and processes”.
Find out more about the artist and his residency.
Find out more about STARTS4Water and the other winners
STARTS4Water is an initiative of the STARTS consortium.
Bozar is a partner in the STARTS network’s STARTS4Water project during the STARTS4Water exhibition. The partners in the STARTS4Water consortium are LUCA School of Arts (Belgium) with the collaboration of Gluon (Belgium), Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary - TBA-21 (Austria), Universal Research Institute (Croatia) ,V2_Lab for the Unstable Media (Netherlands), Ohi Pezoume/ UrbanDig Project (Greece) and Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto (Italy).
