Sasha Kurmaz is a visual artist born in Kiev, USSR. In 2008 he graduated from Design Department at the National Academy of Managerial Staff of Culture and Arts. Currently he lives and works in Kiev, Ukraine. Selected residencies: HIAP, Helsinki, Finland / Art Prospect, Yerevan, Armenia / Villa Sträuli, Winterthur, Switzerland / ZARYA, Vladivostok, Russia / KulturKontakt, Vienna, Austria / Artitude Kunstverein. Berlin, Germany www.sashakurmaz.com Photo: Sasha Kurmaz, 2016 |
FFR: What is your opinion on travel as a critical practice and educational experience?
SK: A new place is always a new context for my works. So I always try to work in such a way that my projects come into resonance with the place in which they are created or represented. Also, any travel always gives new experience, new knowledge, and new friends. That's why I travel a lot and try to continue working in this direction. FFR: Could you reflect on the content of one or more residencies which you find very good and those you found lacking the content and structure? SK: Almost all the residences in which I participated were good. Because all of them were recommended to me by my friends (artists who were there before me). The structure is always similar: space, timeline, realization of the project and some support from the host. FFR: Getting residency through recommendation or through application? How important do you find transparency of an open call? SK: I trust more to the people who were there and had personal experience working with the host organization /institution. FFR: Frequent residencies can be exhausting. Would you say it influence the quality of the work? SK: It is very individual. For someone yes, for someone not. FFR: When it comes to writing project proposals, how realistic are they and do they change a lot once you arrive to the place of a residency? How much are you willing to compromise? SK: As I said above, for my artistic practice, local context is always important. Therefore, I always spend some time researching the social and historical context of a region, and, of course, I try to be realistic and write project proposals as a draft of a project that can be flexible. FFR: What are the reasons you were applying for residencies? Reality of most emerging artist is deficiency of finances, time and space so many of them are applying just get a bit rest from everyday obligations and jobs and therefore willing to modify their practice to the interest of the certain residency. SK: There are many reasons for that. I believe that participation in residencies have great professional values for the artist. This is a great opportunity to exchange experiences with other invited artists and establish new professional/international relationships and create a new piece. FFR: If you think of your first residency and most recent one - what did you learn in between? SK: I met a large number of great artists and created quite a lot of new works. The knowledge and experience that I got during these travels greatly influenced me and inspired to new things. |
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