JOINT FINAL PROJECT 21/22

Artists value art residencies as temporary studios that they can use creatively for a certain period of time, where they can research, collect, explore and work at a distance from their own everyday lives. Not infrequently, they gain insight into local social structures and local peculiarities; they develop new perspectives and personal relationships. As ambassadors of their country of origin, they thus contribute to cultural diversity and critical self-awareness. This invaluable revitalisation has been severely disrupted by the pandemic. We now know that digital meetings do not offer the same contact qualities as analogue meeting formats. The networking that is so important has thus only been possible in a limited way in the last two years – much to the disadvantage of the artists. With the extensive ‘Auf geht’s!’ grant programme, the state government was able to alleviate the financial worries of artists in North Rhine-Westphalia and thus allow them the freedom to concentrate on their art. However, it is just as important to us to secure the structural framework conditions of our cultural landscape, which will once again be essential for the quality and internationality of artistic work after the pandemic restrictions. This includes, not least, the many different residency offers. In the German-Dutch border region, these combine with an extraordinary density of unique art museums, but also with historical art associations and new, experimental art venues. It is a decisive step that the residences between the Rhine and the Meuse have set out to increase the attractiveness of their offers in cross-border exchange and to strengthen the invaluable, already existing resources through joint efforts. With the BORDERLAND RESIDENCIES, they created a unique network of art residencies that offer artists targeted additional excursions and further training. Over a period of three months, the residents involved received an increase of grant and, in the context of the excursions, also gained knowledge about the cultural landscape of the Rhine–Meuse area. Together they visited art venues, exhibitions and studios on both sides of the border. Afterwards, many of the artists had the opportunity through the network to take up another residency at one of the other locations, to realise an exhibition or to implement a specific art project. This association makes visible a distinctive, networked art landscape with a European pulse. I want to thank all those who have contributed to the realisation of the BORDERLAND RESIDENCIES in its first year and who have contributed concepts, funds and their time. Without them, there would not have been this new beginning, which is already making its mark in neighbouring regions and placing a further accent on European friendship in the Rhine–Meuse region.
I wish the BORDERLAND RESIDENCIES network every success for the future, and the artists involved many valuable experiences.

Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen

BR21-22_magazine

The Dutch Guideline 2021–24 for Cultural Diplomacy states: Culture and the arts enrich individuals and hold society together. Culture shows who we are, where we come from and what we stand for. Cultural partnerships and exchanges with foreign countries provide inspiration, expand our knowledge base and enable access to high-quality culture and art. Internationalisation also promotes the development of talent. Culture is a ‘soft power’. It may come as a surprise to be reminded of these governmental objectives, especially for a project like the Borderland Residencies, which focuses on the direct border region. Nevertheless, artist residencies are historically anchored in the concept and models of ‘cultural exchange’. In this sense, the question arises as to what is actually exchanged, between whom and under what conditions? And how are these material and immaterial resources further distributed? How do ideas, ideologies and forms of knowledge actually interpret, transfer and circulate? Anyone who has followed the artists and art projects, but also the numerous networking sessions of this first edition of the Borderland Residencies, can find numerous, exciting, sometimes profound, but also exhilarating answers on the following pages. It is important that the Borderland Residencies become tangible and comprehensible in a different way with this catalogue. This is not only because residency programmes have become an integral part of many artists’ careers. There are a multitude of reasons why artists participate in residency programmes, and there is an ever-increasing diversity of artists, but also designers and other cultural workers who take part in such programmes. Many artists coming directly from university see residencies as the first step on the path. Others, already established, take a ‘time out’ and see the residency as an interruption or step in the middle of their career. The fact that residencies also allow people to rediscover their own border region is certainly a special feature of Borderland Residencies.
What distinguishes the platform and the network that Borderland Residencies offer is that they create such important access to mutual networks within a 200-kilometre radius. These are anything but self-evident along the German–Dutch border. Personal contacts are crucial here for creating opportunities and are often even more important than financial resources. Not least, this bridges the cultural differences that lie between ‘Who did you study with?’ and ‘Op welke kunstacademie zat jij?’. In the German–Dutch border region, the trend in the cultural sector is moving away from project-related cooperation towards more structural, long-term partnerships. One of the pilot projects supported by the CG DUS (NL Generalkonsulat Düsseldorf) is the Borderland Residencies, as another building block of cross- border cooperation. In addition to large-scale political projects such as the Dutch–North Rhine–Westphalian ‘government consultations’ at state level, it is initiatives such as the Borderland Residencies that actually shape exchange in practice.
In this sense, the initiators and partners of Borderland Residencies deserve our congratulations: the team from Kulturraum Niederrhein e.V., the Landesbüro für Bildende Kunst NRW, the Frauenkulturbüro NRW e.V., and the collaborating residencies in Hamminkeln, Mönchengladbach, Neuss and Viersen as well as the Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo and Odapark Venray.
‘Een grens is eigenlijk een wens om verder te gaan’ – a border is actually a wish to go further, so reads a poster by Arnhem street art icon Loesje. With the Borderland Residencies, that’s exactly what happened: we took a decisive step further in border-crossing cultural diplomacy. Namely, towards a new attitude, a new view of our borderland, in which we no longer speak of border-crossing cooperation, but of border-blurring cooperation, in which a win-win situation is created on both sides and a common solution is found from a respective individual problem. I am looking forward to all the steps that will now follow!

Peter Schuurman