China Residencies invited residency directors from Hong Kong and mainland China to talk about “Cultural Residencies in China” as part of Asia Art Archive’s Open Platform series at Art Basel Hong Kong on March 17th.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation between residency organizers Antonie Angerer (I: project space), Thea Baumann (Metaverse Makeovers), Jay Brown (Lijiang Studio), Mimi Brown (Spring Workshop), Ingrid Chu (Asia Art Archive), Emma Karasz (Red Gate Residency), Christina Li (Spring Workshop), Kira Simon-Kennedy (China Residencies), Brian Wallace (Red Gate Gallery), Chantal Wong (Asia Art Arch ...

Gréogry Chatonsky and Dominique Sirois are the first artists-in-residence at the newly opened Unicorn Centre for Art in Caochangdi. Kira Simon-Kennedy caught up with them as they were installing their current exhibition, Telofossils, in Beijing (on view now in Wuhan until June 30th), to talk about what will happen to all of our tech junk once humans go extinct.

China Residencies: You’ve been here since March?

Dominique Sirois: Yes. If you don’t mind, I’m going to keep gluing things and working on the installation while we talk.

CR: Of course, go ahead.

Grégory Chatonsky: And we’ll be here for two more weeks; our exhibition open ...

Action Researcher/Performer Astra Howard was one of the three Australian artists to take part in our Two to Three 二到三 program, supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund. Astra spent this past December and January in Xiamen at the Chinese-European Art Center, where she created performances in response to the encroaching nature of the city, the anticipation of new urban development, and chance encounters with strangers.

China Residencies: I’m so impressed at everything you have accomplished in such a short time, and although I’ve never been to Xiamen, it seems you capture so many of the city’s details: the t ...

China Residencies: Is it strange being back home in India, after spending so much time in the US and China?

Jagrut Raval: It is, actually. The first month went by so quickly; I was getting to know my friends again. A lot of things are progressing here. I’m very optimistic.

CR: That’s exciting - it’s great that there’s been visible change.

JR: It was good that I went to China; it was like a buffer zone for me. I can see a lot of similarities and that’s helpi ...

Emma Karasz has been running Red Gate Residency in Beijing for almost two years, taking over after previous director Tang Zehui left to become an independent curator. After studying Chinese and working in publishing, Emma dedicated herself to fostering successful projects with artists from all around the world, and took some time to answer a few questions about Red Gate:

China Residencies: What first got you interested in China?

Emma Karasz: I first came to China when I was 15 and was totally perplexed by the place; in other words, I didn’t really like it but felt that I wasn’t ‘getting’ something and wanted to com ...

The Chinese European Art Center is the one of the oldest continuously running residencies in China, having hosted over 150 artists from around the world since 2000. We caught up with Ineke Guðmundsson and May Lee over email to ask them more about their program:

China Residencies: How and when did CEAC start?

Ineke Guðmundsson and May Lee: In 1997, Ineke visited Xiamen with her husband Sigurður Guðmundsson, who is a well-known artist from Iceland. She immediately fell in love with this small but lovely city. During her second and longer visit to Xiamen, she felt the city was missing something in the contemporary cul ...

For the second edition of the Crystal Ruth Bell Residency, Red Gate & China Residencies are calling all duos, trios, collectives and groups of artists working collaboratively to apply for a funded residency in Beijing for the month of July 2015.

Dancers, filmmakers, musicians, circus performers, street artists, fashion designers, curators, activists, researchers, and all kinds of visual artists are encouraged to apply with a project proposal that echoes some of Crystal's best traits and favorite things in the world: kindness, curiosity, color, adventure, and popsicles.

Joshua Lue Chee Kong is an artist and designer with a keen interest in exploring and redefining cultural uniqueness and identity, and transcending racial and social barriers. Joshua recently completed a two month residency at Red Gate in Beijing.

CR: You’re originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, but have Chinese ancestry and relatives still living in China. Had you been to China often before this residency?

JLCK: It is true that I am from Trinidad and Tobago, I am a second generation Trinidadian as my father was also born here. However my mom is from China, as well as my grandparents on both sides ...

Heidi Bryce drinks tea with a tablespoon of honey. In between cups, she hoards newspapers and found objects, consumes an unhealthy amount of internet content and photographically documents her experiences. Heidi took part in the Swatch Art Peace Hotel residency in Shanghai in 2014.

China Residencies: What motivated you to apply to the Swatch residency?

Heidi Bryce: I initially just graduated from FIU and felt stir crazy about the post-graduate lifestyle. I was tired of academia, but wanted to engage an environment where I could still learn and practice. I started looking into a ton of residencies I found on R ...

Juliann Wang is an artist working across many mediums to "create adventures that inspire individual curiosity across often generalized topics of implicit ethnicity, shared humanity, and an intrinsic inseparability with nature, to distill complex concepts into intimate, playful, and approachable experiences." 

China Residencies: You were a Fellow at the Schoolhouse in April and May 2014. How did you first hear about their program, and what aspect of the program first caught  your interest?

Juliann Wang: After completing over a year of research and development, exploring the increase in personal vehicl ...

Brendan Earley (b1971) is an Irish artist who lives and works in Wicklow, Ireland. After graduating from NCAD with first class honours, Earley spent a number of years travelling before receiving the Fulbright scholarship to attend Hunter College, New York City. He graduated with a Masters in Fine Art in 1999, and returned to Dublin where he exhibits regularly. He is represented by mother’s tankstation. Earley completed a residency at Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing, and Iona Whittaker caught up with him over email to learn more about his time there.

China Residencies: What sparked your interest in China?

Brendan ...

Christopher Strong is an artist and illustrator from Australia who recently completed a two month residency at Dongdong & Lulu in two different cities, Nanjing and Beijing.

China Residencies: What sparked your interest in China?

Christopher Strong: I’ve had an interest in Asia and particularly China for a while now. A lot of my art has a focus on Asia. China was a natural choice for me for a residency. My initial interest in China was sparked by the fact it is totally different and much more complicated to where I grew up and what I am used to in Australia.

CR: What interested you in particular about Dongdong & Lulu?

CS: I w ...

In the year and a half since China Residencies started taking a close look at residencies in mainland China, the one constant has been change. Independent arts organisations close and new ones open in their place. People running spaces move on to other projects, program staff comes and go, rents go up… and all three factors contribute to notable demises of community organisations, co-working spaces, collectives, and residencies.

In Beijing, independent base Homeshop closed after nearly six years at the very end of 2013. Founded by theoretically-minded artists and writers, Homeshop hosted discussions, fil ...

China Residencies is excited to announce our collaboration with randian 燃点, a bilingual online publication fostering intellectual exchange between China and the rest of the world through independent commentary on art, artists, exhibitions and galleries, as well as video, architecture and design. China Residencies and randian 燃点 will share content and cross-post articles about independent art spaces, residencies, and interesting people doing cool things in China's art world.

One of Randian's editors, Iona Whittaker, is now based in New York, and will be contributing research and interviews for our News secti ...

Artist Jeff Musser was an artist-in-residence at Pantocrator Gallery in Shanghai, and had since decided to stay in China. As a friend once told him, "Ya know, being an artist right now, in this country isn't exactly the best plan. When people ask you what you do, you might as well tell them, I Run A Unicorn Shop!" which became the name for his blog, where he chronicles his adventures in painting. 

China Residencies: You started out in Northern California, what first got you interested in China?

Jeff Musser: I vacationed there shortly after I graduated, and there was just something about being there, more than just the glow of be ...

The Sanbao International Ceramic Art Institute is nestled in the Sanbao valley outside Jingdezhen. Terrance Lazaroff, Sanbao’s International Program Advisor, talks about their residency program for ceramic and visual artists housed in old farms in the Sanbao valley.

China Residencies: Please tell us about how Sanbao got started.

Terrance Lazaroff: Sanbao began as a dream of Jackson Li of Jingdezhen and Wayne Higby of Alfred University, USA, back in the mid-1990’s. They envisioned an international ceramic art center located in China, that would provide the opportunity to the international art commun ...

I: project space is a new non-profit platform and residency program that holds exhibitions, workshops, lectures and more in their space in Beijing's hutongs. I: project space was founded earlier this year by two curators and art critics: Antonie Angerer and Anna-Viktoria Eschbach. 

China Residencies: I: project space opened a few months ago, in August 2014. Tell us a bit about how it got started:

Anna Eschbach: We, Antonie Angerer and I, have known each other a rather long time now. We met while studying art history in Tübingen, Germany. After finishing our BA, we continued in two different directions: Antonie concentrated on h ...

China Residencies and Red Gate are greatly humbled by the overwhelming response for the inaugural Crystal Ruth Bell Residency. We received applications from over 250 artists from 62 different countries, representing an incredibly wide range of mediums and practices, and we had a very difficult choice to make in order to narrow it down to just one artist.

We shortlisted fifteen project proposals that captivated our imaginations and best reflected Crystal's aspirations for creative cultural exchange:

Catherine Sarah Young - Christiane Huber -  Emma Dixon - Fredman Barahona / Elyla Sinverguenza - Huong N ...

To honor the spirit and and life of our friend Crystal, Red Gate, together with China Residencies, is thrilled to announce the inauguration of the Crystal Ruth Bell Residency. 

Crystal loved helping great projects happen in China, and she herself had a very eclectic art practice that spanned video, photography, design, fashion, food and street art. For the inaugural residency in her memory, we'll choose an artist from any discipline who proposes to make something new, exciting, and that's never been done before in Beijing. There are no restrictions on the artists' mediums, age, nationality, ethnicity, gender, or an ...

China Residencies visited Beijing’s Institute for Provocation residency, located in a historic courtyard right in the center of the city’s old hutong alleyways, to speak with director Max Gerthel and residency cooridnator Sid Gulinck about architecture, public space and the importance of experimentation.

China Residencies: How did IFP get started?

Max Gerthel: Institute for Provocation grew out of its predecessor Theatre in Motion, a residency programme and culture exchange project focused on alternative performing arts founded by Belgian sinologist and dramaturge Els Silvrants-Barclay in 20 ...