Opening weekend BR 22/23

On September 9^th and 10^th, this year’s scholarship holders as well as familiar faces of last year’s alumni met at Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo for the opening of Borderland Residencies 2022. Before the official opening, they were met with glimpses into the works from Nieuwe Uitzichten’s scholarship holders. Nieuwe Uitzichten is a residency programme which called for creative, artistic approaches to challenges of greening urban spaces in Venlo and Venray. During a cycling tour throughout Venlo, new and former BR scholarship holders went sky-gazing in former monastery gardens, witnessed grass re-shape shopping streets into new meeting points discussed the idea of tree crossings at Venlo station.

At the attic studio of Museum van Bommel van Dam, above the roofs of the city, the day concluded with a presentation of the residencies and scholarship holders 2022. Their various approaches and methods vary from painting to sound installations, architecture, side-specific installations and audio walks. Some of them are already Borderlanders “by heart”, coming from the bigger and smaller cities along the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Others have travelled farther to take up residencies in the region, e.g. from New York or Argentina.

After dinner and drinks at a local restaurant, the group met up again the next day for a tour “behind the scenes” of Museum van Bommel van Dam. Over the course of the months September, October, and November, the newly found group of Borderlanders will meet again for cross-border field trips, “art-speed-datings” and many more events. See here for more information on what is planned.

It is a special pleasure that in 2022, the Borderland Network welcomes six new residencies this year, which have already joined the programme with great vigour.