Bengaluru Artist Residency One

For the third edition of the India-India residency programme, which nurtures collaboration and exchange among emerging Indian artists. Four artists from diverse  cultural backgrounds and regions will spend three months at the BAR1 studios in Bangalore, developing individual artworks. The artists’ work in progress will be exhibited at the end of the residency. 

Bengaluru Artist Residency One (BAR1) is a non-profit artist exchange programme set up and run by a collective of visual artists from Bangalore. In 2008 and 2009, IFA supported BAR1’s 1^st and 2^nd multidisciplinary India-India residencies, which hosted a group of artists for three months at the BAR1 studio space in Bangalore. Following the success of the first two editions of the programme, this grant enables BAR1 to host the 3^rd India-India residency.

On reviewing the first two years of this programme, it became apparent that this residency has not only grown in prominence within the arts constituency but also in the challenges it poses to the collective to design new ways of engaging artistic practice. The 2010 edition of the residency has been conceptualised in such a way that resident artists will collaborate with members of the collective to help strengthen ideas for city-based projects. This new format of encouraging project-based activity links to the new role that BAR1 is keen to develop for itself––moving away from only hosting residencies towards working on collaborative projects with artists from across the country. This third edition is therefore being seen as enabling such a transition for BAR1, helping to morph the identity of the collective and change its process of work.

Beginning on July 1, 2010, four artists concerned with extending the boundaries of their practice and that of the field will be selected to be in residence for a period of three months in Bangalore. The collective proposes to conduct artists’ talks in the city and in the neighbourhood where the residency is located. These talks will be given by artists from all fields. A wide range of work, besides those of the artists in residence, will be open for discussion and lively critique. These intimate and focused events will be organised over a series of weekends and at different venues. Different audiences will be invited for each talk and the artists will be encouraged to present and contextualise their work, and talk about its impulses and motivations. The hope is that this model of neighbourhood open studios and artists’ talks will inspire similar efforts in the future and in other parts of the city too.

In addition, the artist resident will be expected to find appropriate and alternative locations to develop or exhibit their projects. They will work collaboratively with the BAR1 artists to find or create exhibition spaces in the city that address the needs of their specific projects. This collaborative process will involve BAR1 facilitating discussions, meetings and walks through the city’s neighbourhoods. As a group, BAR1 will be more hands on for this residency, and will participate fully in its varied aspects. As they are especially interested in exploring ideas pertaining to sites for display and artistic activity for a larger community, they will also invite a Critic-in-Residence to produce a critical report and gauge the success of this third residency in relation to the earlier editions. Apart from actively participating in projects and/or exhibitions, BAR1 artists hope that past residents will join the collective and help it to realise future projects. By expanding beyond the gallery network to a wider community of creative practitioners, the residency will play an important role in bringing the arts community together, locally and nationally, to sow the seeds for new artistic ideas.