Residencies_

Residency is a particular form of activity that urges artists to travel and create pieces tightly connected to the place they are visiting. Since the entire idea of ACT IN_OUT project revolves around a cultural exchange between countries, starting a residency section was an obvious decision.

As part of the ACT IN_OUT initiative, residents from Poland travelled to Egilsstaðir and Icelandic artists visited Łódź. In both of these places, creators spent three weeks during different seasons of the year, each residency ending with a brand-new project inspired by the special locations in which they found their inspiration and brand new audience.

The first ACT IN_OUT resident was Stefan Kornacki – an artist specialising in many different disciplines of art. During his time in Egilsstaðir, he took an interest in the inhabitants of the small town. He conducted short interviews about their hopes for the future, worries and joys, putting it together in “Stock for future: Emotions” film that had its premiere on 23 April 2022 in Iceland, becoming available online on 2 May. You can watch it in our Archive section.

After Kornacki’s residency in Egilsstaðir, it was Łódź’s turn – and it welcomed the Icelandic duo UNFILED with open arms. Atli Bollason i Guðmundur Úlfarsson saw Łódź’s industrial present and past as a way to create concise audiovisual performance full of their reflections about post-modernist, post-communist and post-epidemic landscape of the city. They spent three weeks reading, observing and studying life in Łódź, on 10 August presenting their audiovisual performance “A Thousand Ragged Ghosts.”

Next, Egilsstaðir was visited by Joanna Skowrońska – a Polish singer and ethnologist who devoted her life to studying the musical roots of people living in Poland, Ukrainian Polesia and Lower Silesia. Iceland was for her a brand-new field of study that she embraced with passion. Her residency was focused on creating performances integrating two cultural worlds – such as “Paths That Lead Nowhere”, co-created with Rafał Kołacki, that took place on 5 November 2022. The musician also connected with the locals during open voice workshops on 9 November 2022, during which she exchanged knowledge of traditional singing techniques with Icelanders.

January in ACT IN_OUT belonged to Egill Logi Jónasson known also as Drengurinn Fengurinn. He focused on his own way of experiencing Łódź through the sounds, views, feelings and little adventures he encountered while walking through “the longest street in the world” as he described Piotrkowska. His new music and visual material had its premiere on 25 January 2023 with the “It Rubs The Mattifying Lotion On Its Skin” performance.

Next stop in Egilsstaðir belonged to Krzysztof Topolski, who is a musician interested not only in creating music but also finding it in his surroundings. Apart from performing with Rafał Kołacki on 23 April 2023, he hunted for the sounds characteristic for Egilsstaðir, at last creating the soundscape “RHYTHMACHINES” that the audience could experience live on 28 April 2023.

The last event prepared as the result of artistic residency was an immersive audiovisual experience created by Ida Juhl. Musician, DJ and sound artist fell in love with the symphony of the machines. She started to imagine life as a factory worker in the industrial part of Łódź and on 30 June 2023, she created an extraordinary space in which every participant could disconnect from the world and delve into the rhythmic noise surrounding factory workers.

The section of artistic residencies could not exist if it were not for the performers and coordinators on both sides, and also the cultural institutions that arranged for the travels to be made and shared their space, equipment and resources to the artists. The institutions are not only people but also buildings with an often-extraordinary history – and this is what catalogue “The Silence of the Machines. Harmony and noise” wanted to accentuate. The catalogue – that premiered on 22 November, accompanied by the concert of Kust band - was created as a summary of all that was achieved thanks to the people taking part in residencies, with their own experiences written down and specific nature of the places in which they created described. You can see the catalogue any time you want by clicking ARCHIVE!