Three artists selected for Art Hub Residency spring 2024

On 1 February 2024, AHC welcomes three new artists to the Art Hub Residency, who will move into the new studio community Container Academy for the first time. The three artists are Nanna Starck, Liesel Burisch, and Bartek Arobal Kociemba.

From February to June 2024, Nanna Starck, Liesel Burisch and Bartek Arobal Kociemba will occupy three studios at the Container Academy and take part in the Art Hub Residency program, which focuses on network building, immersion, and production.

The three artists have been selected from among 140 Danish and international applicants based on an open call by a jury consisting of independent curator Lotte Løvholm, Director of Den Frie Udstillingsbygning Marianne Torp and curator at AHC Marie Braad Larsen.

During the residency, the three residents participate in a program where, among other things, they will meet selected curators and mentors and participate in a visiting program to a number of art institutions in Denmark. There is no production requirement in this residency, but as part of the program the three residents will, in their own way, convey parts of their practice in a public format.

You can read the jury’s reasoning for the selection below:

BARTEK AROBAL KOCIEMBA
We have chosen Bartek Arobal Kociemba for his unique neat line, which most often portrays and juxtaposes flowers, fantasy animals, and genitals as erotic motifs, rendered with a distinctive aura. In addition, Kociemba has caught the jury’s attention with his work as a meditation guide, where he focuses on ‘Queer meditations’, and not least with his curatorial and organizational work as part of the exhibition site and the artist-run platform Vi lever på polsk. As a self-taught artist and migrant from Poland, we imagine that the Art Hub Residency can strengthen Kociemaba’s practice and exposure on the Danish art scene.

NANNA STARCK
We have chosen Nanna Starck for her consistent practice with a focus on design and materials that treat the abject – often in reliefs with a very distinctive iconography and depiction of body functions and openings. After leaving the art academy, Starck worked for many years in the artist group Island Life. We would like to support her further development of her own practice and hope that the Art Hub Residency can give her renewed exposure and create time and space for reflection about her future work.

LIESEL BURISCH
We have chosen Liesel Burisch for their mesmerizing video installations that deal with topics such as nightlife and club and queer culture – an area of interest and topic that Burisch will explore further during the residency at AHC. Burisch has also captured the jury’s attention and curiosity with their research and work on the book Queer Nursing. A publication and a work that has created a nuanced and caring approach to bodyfeeding. Burisch graduated from the Städelschule in Frankfurt and therefore has a strong network in the German art environment. However, they have expressed a need and desire to get more feedback, exposure, and a larger network in Denmark, after having moved to Copenhagen again. A wish and need that the jury wants to recognize.

ABOUT ART HUB RESIDENCY
Focusing on networking, contemplation, and production, Art Hub Residency basically offers a studio, a monthly fee, a production budget, and a programme of development and discussion/feedback based on the needs of each individual artist.

AHC actively aims to create and expand artists’ networks both at home and abroad. As well as the importance of networking, Art Hub Residency provides the artists with time for contemplation and/or production. There is no requirement to produce work during the residency, so the time can be tailored to suit the process of each artist. It might involve research and studies, putting ideas to the test or actual production. There is also the option, by appointment, of a short working residency at the Danish Art Workshops.

One of the requirements of the programme is that, during their residency, each artist must present their practice, research, work, or project to the public. The form of presentation is up to the artist. It could be a talk, a podcast, a video, a text, a small exhibition, a performance, or something completely different. The presentations, shaped and organised in collaboration with each individual artist, are publicised as part of AHC’s events programme.

You can read more about the residency and see all the previous resident artists here.

Art Hub Residency is supported by the Nordic Culture Fund, Talent Norge, Flanders – Department of Culture, Youth and Media, and the Danish Art Workshops.

ABOUT THE CONTAINER ACADEMY
The Container Academy is a studio community for visual artists at Oceanvej 1 in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn, which will be inaugurated in January 2024. The house contains a total of 30 individual studios as well as two large shared workshops of a total of 160 m2.

The “Academy” in the Container Academy refers to the “School of Athens” and the Socratic way of thinking about equal conversation between free people. The studio community will therefore not only be a place for artists to work, but also an intellectual community where a continuous, investigative conversation takes place – among other things through a public program of exhibitions and other events.

The initiator of the project is visual artist and professor Bjørn Nørgaard. The place was built and is run by Fondet Containerakademiet in collaboration with AHC, which helps to develop the studio community and the artistic program. Over time, the intention is that the ‘academy’ – the spiritual structure of the place – will be self-organising.

You can have a further read about the Container Academy here.