The Davidoff Art Initiative announces four artists, a curator, and an art critic for the 2017 Davidoff International Art Residency
The Davidoff Art Initiative, in collaboration with The Altos de Chavón School of Design, is pleased to announce a significant expansion of the Davidoff International Art Residency now in its third consecutive year.
In the 2017 edition, four international artists and one curator will be joined by an art critic, emphasizing the Residency’s enduring commitment to supporting talent across all creative mediums, as well as to a strong cultural exchange that transcends borders. The Davidoff International Art Residency will take place at Altos de Chavón in La Romana, Dominican Republic, from January 23 to April 3, 2017.
The participating artists in 2017 are: Babak Golkar (b. 1977, United States/Vancouver); Nastasia Meyrat (b. 1991, Switzerland/Lausanne); Claire Trotignon (b. 1983, France/Paris); and Yan Xing (b. 1986, China/Beijing and Los Angeles). The artists will be joined by art writer Cristina Sanchez-Kozyreva (b. 1976, Dominican Republic/Hong Kong) and curator Maria Inés Rodríguez (b. 1968, Colombia/Bordeaux).
Each participant will draw from their unique strengths, artistic concerns, and creative backgrounds to actively engage with the social and cultural fabric of the Dominican Republic through their respective practices. In addition to pursuing their own work, the participants will have many opportunities to connect with the Dominican cultural community and the other residents of Altos de Chavón.
An artist working across a variety of visual media, Babak Golkar plans to engage local creatives with the institution’s students in discussions on alternative economic models, with the goal of initiating a collaborative narrative toward community contribution alongside a representative manufactured object. Nastasia Meyrat will expand upon a relational artwork she began in Haiti that utilizes open space to explore notions of Utopia. Continuing her investigation into the mutability of space and time via collage techniques, Claire Trotignon, while involving local craftspeople in printing the result, will create a scale replica of the village of Altos de Chavón, which was built in 1976, recreating a Mediterranean style of European village of the 16th century. In another site-specific work for the school, Yan Xing plans to develop a locally grounded project that explores “island myths” and storytelling around an intersubjective and border-bridging visualized literary discourse. Curator Maria Inés Rodríguez will immerse herself within and showcase local creative ventures via a cross- Caribbean online platform, while Cristina Sanchez-Kozyreva, the residency’s inaugural writer, seeks to facilitate a hybrid platform for local artists to engage with textual media and interpret concepts around a common geography.
“In just three short years, the Davidoff International Art Residency has brought artists and curators from all over the world to the Dominican Republic, fostering a rich exchange of culture and practice,” commented Hans- Kristian Hoejsgaard, CEO Oettinger Davidoff AG. “This year, we redouble our commitment by welcoming our first writer. We are proud to support the newly expanded possibilities for collaboration and inspiration between our residents, the staff and students at Altos de Chavón, and the broader cultural community of the Dominican Republic.”
The nominators for the 2017 Davidoff International Art Residency Program were: Simon Castets, director of the Swiss Institute, New York; Aaron Cézar, founding director of Delfina Foundation, London; Amanda Coulson, co-founder/artistic director of the VOLTA art fairs in New York/Basel and director of the National Gallery of the Bahamas, Nassau; Mareike Dittmer, associate publisher of Frieze Magazine; Pablo Helguera, director of adult and academic programs in the Department of Education at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Irene Hofmann, the Director and Chief Curator of SITE Santa Fe; and Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing.
