The artist that will stay in Japan within the call for artistic residences and the ‘European Eyes on Japan Today’ project, as part of the ‘Artist in Residence’ programme (Plants AiR) was chosen.

Andrea Palašti, a visual artist from Novi Sad and PhD in art and media, was selected among nine applied artists during two rounds of selection. The final selection of candidates was reimplemented by Mikiko Kikuta, artistic director and curator of the project.

The selected artist will have a chance to reside in Japanese prefectures Osaka and Nagano between July 2020 and May 2021 in duration of 20 to 25 days and present her own perception of Japanese culture through photography. The residence is being implemented by the ‘Novi Sad 2021- European Capital of Culture’ within the ‘Artist in Residence’ (Plants AiR) programme and in partnership with the ‘EU Japan Fest’ organisation.

The ‘European Eyes on Japan/Japan Today’ is the project in the field of photography launched in 1999 with the aim of promoting Japanese culture, creating network of artists, and establishing cooperation between Japan and European countries. Each year, the project invites photographers from Europe to photograph Japanese prefectures, focusing on contemporary Japanese society and their everyday lives. New ways of exploring the various aspects of everyday life of Japanese residents that are often neglected are being developed by these photographs. On the other hand, this is a wonderful opportunity for European photographers to deepen their knowledge of Japanese culture.

The photographs created during the residency become part of the ‘European Eyes on Japan/Japan Today’ project, after which they are exhibited as part of collective exhibitions in the European capitals of culture and Japan, and then donated to the prefectures where they were created and become part of the photo collections of cultural heritage of that region.

So far, 66 European artists have participated in the project and 40 out of 47 Japanese prefectures have been photographed.
The ‘Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ Foundation invites other interested visual artists and writers to apply for open calls for upcoming artistic residences in Hungary and Germany.

Visual artists will have a chance to spend a month in the German city of Regensburg in the fall, where they will create work of art on the topic of heritage and its meaning in terms of present and future. The rich history of the ‘UNESCO World Heritage City of Regensburg’ organisation is explored under the ‘Heritage – Today/Tomorrow’ slogan, and the interventions of young artists would function on the principle of temporary, in-situ contributions and reporting in public places, especially in urban areas or the banks of the Danube. The selected resident is provided with travel expenses, accommodation, material costs for the creation of work of art, promotion of the residence and compensation for work. Furthermore, the ‘donumenta’ association provides the resident with access to archival material and its interdisciplinary network.

A call, which gives writers the opportunity to create in Pécs, Hungary, has also been opened. Young artists will write within a certain concept and on given topics, in agreement with the host organisation.

The selected residents will be provided with travel expenses, accommodation, material costs for the creation of work of art, promotion of the residence and compensation for work.

The documentation required to apply to artistic residence in Regensburg is available on this link, while all the details and criteria of the call related to artistic residence in Pécs can be found here.

The application deadline for both calls is no later than midnight on 15 August 2020.