Grants for foreign residencies awarded to eight artists
The Finnish Cultural Foundation’s international residency programme continues this year, with certain restrictions. The August 2022 application round accepted applications to six destinations, for which a total of eight grants were awarded for use in 2023. A total of 176 applications were received.
The Cultural Foundation’s residency programme currently includes eight destinations in seven countries, but due to Covid-related exceptional circumstances, not all the residencies were available for application.
The Triangle residence in New York has been receiving artists via the Finnish Cultural Foundation since 2019. In 2023, it will host Sari Palosaari, whose residency was delayed from 2020, and this autumn’s successful applicant, Sauli Sirviö.
“During the residency, I will be focusing on field work, recording the deterioration of infrastructure and the ghosts arising from lost locations and spaces. I gather discarded materials from the edges of the city and turn them into sculptures, which will be documented for a future publication,” Sirviö says.
Artist Liinu Grönlund will be going to Denmark, to the Fabrikken residency, to find some peace and quiet in which to ponder her work and activities.
“During the residency period I plan to look at photographic materials I have previously amassed together with natural scientists, as well as taking more nature photographs in Denmark, while developing a new essayistic work. I may collaborate with local researchers. I am particularly interested in visiting the Vaddensee tidal shore,” Grönlund states, excitedly.
Fabrikken will also be visited by visual artist Jonna Kina, while comic artist Ivande Jansone and photographer Saara Tuominen will have stays at NART in Narva, Estonia. Visual artist Felicia Honkasalo will undertake a residency at SeMA Nanji in Seoul, South Korea, and filmmaker and photographer Marko Vuorinen in Tokyo Arts and Space residency in Japan.
This time, the longest distance for a residency will be travelled by literary translator Anna-Leea Häkli, who will go to Argentina to translate a novel set in Buenos Aires, due for publication in spring 2024.
“During my residency period I plan to read as much Argentinian contemporary literature as I can, and I also hope to meet local authors. I am interested in the colourful history of Buenos Aires as well as in the local spoken language, which features prominently in the book I am translating.”
The artists for the residency programme are selected through a two-stage evaluation process, in which the residency makes the final choice based on a shortlist curated by the Cultural Foundation. The programme is being developed in collaboration with HIAP (the Helsinki International Artist Programme).
The working grant for the Cultural Foundation’s residencies is EUR 7,000 per three-month period. Additionally, the grantee receives EUR 500–1,000 in travel aid. The Cultural Foundation encourages its residency artists to choose the most climate-friendly forms of travel.
