Date

September 3rd, 12.30-5pm

Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst,
Jülicher Straße 97-109, Aachen

Borderland Residencies celebrated its opening on September 3rd at Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen. The city in the heart of Europe is a first time project partner, as are neighbouring Eupen in Belgium and the Drawing Centre Diepenheim in the Netherlands.

It is a sunny late summer day when the Aachen Art Museum fills up with guests early in the day. Most of them are meeting for the first time: curators, residency hosts and the artists in residence that make up this year's round of Borderland Residencies. Once again, it is an international group that will live and work in the region during the autumn months. Together they represent what makes Borderland Residencies so unique: protagonists of an international art scene as guests in a European art region between metropolises and rural areas. They have travelled to the Borderlands from Singapore, China, New York City, France, Romania, Germany and the Netherlands, adding an international perspective to local discourses.

After greetings by Sibylle Keupen, Mayor of the City of Aachen, Jörg Vomberg representing the Minister of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Eva Birkenstock, Director of the Ludwig Forum and Lene ter Haar from the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Düsseldorf, co-curators Eva Birkenstock and Holger Otten lead the visitors through the exhibition "Illiberal Lives". The thesis of the unfulfilled promise of freedom in liberal economies inevitably raised questions about freedom in the artistic profession: Which norms and laws restrict the freedom of artists and where do they enable it? And what value does a politically guaranteed freedom have if economic constraints limit the possibilities of artists? These and other aspects were considered in an open discussion, moderated by Lene ter Haar. Afterwards, the new Borderland generation introduced itself to the guests. Their agendas include a wide variety of research interests: Ecosystems and ecotones; bogs and marshes; the migration of plants; mechanisms of misconception and miscommunication; memories of space; regional rituals in death; collective memories and unknown history; and multilingual poetry among other topics will be explored over the coming months.

The results of their research will once again conclude in a collective project at the end of the Borderland period. In the years before, the collective production took the form of a catalogue and an art box - we are looking forward to see what ideas will be developed this year!

We welcome the third generation of Borderland Residencies:

Tini Aliman at Ludwig Forum Aachen
Silke Schatz and Darcy Neven at Hausmuseum, Jüchen
Wim Bosch at Ateliers Höherweg, Düsseldorf
Whitney Claflin at Internationales Atelierstipendium Mönchengladbach
Nico Pachali at Kunstgeneratorstipendium Viersen
Florian Glaubitz and Finn Wagner at Schloss Ringenberg, Hamminkeln
David Hahlbrock at Museum Katharinenhof and van der Grinten Hof, Kranenburg
Bart Nijstad at Drawing Centre Diepenheim
Krista Jantowski, Salomé Ingelbrecht and Zhixin Liao at Greylight Projects, Heerlen
Marit Westerhuis at Odapark, Venray
Cristiana Cott Negoescu at Museum Goch
Rosa Vrij at Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo
and Monica Hirano at Atelierhaus Eupen