INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE RESIDENCY

The Stokkoyart Residency is a collaborative residency for young international artists hosted by the organisation Bygda 2.0 and supported by Åfjord Kommune and Central Saint Martins School of Arts and Design, UAL, London. It is based on the island of Stokkoya in Norway and offers opportunities for contemporary artists to live and work on Stokkoya with a focus on artistic experimentation and collaboration.

The collaborative nature of the residency offers a unique opportunity for artists to shape and sharpen their practices and to discover their own entrenched habits when met with new ideas and new ways of working. The aim of the residency is to offer artists a period of time to freely explore new crafts, materials, concept and theories and learn from artists with different skills and ways of working. These conditions generate many interesting discussions both in relation to art making but also in relation to the art market and what the future holds for artists.

Challenging the widespread notion of the rural and urban as binaries, the collaboration between international artists and the local people is crucial. In 2018, Stokkoya Brewery launched an Arts Beer. The artists and the brewer decide the concept and the name and the artists design the label. In reward the group arriving the following year receives 2 boxes of micro-brewed local beer. This gesture of generosity from Stokkoya Brewery also creates a bond between the artists across the years. 

The long-term commitment by Bygda 2.0, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design UAL and Åfjord Kommune allow for young artists to live and work in Stokkoya for a month, meet the grand Norwegian landscape and explore the rural area of Stokkoya as a testbed for what art can be outside the museum walls.

BACKGROUND

The Stokkoyart Residency is an artist led initiative established in 2016 in response to the vision to re-think the rural areas in Norway. In 2050, more then 70 % of the worlds population will be living in cities and a substantial part of the skills and expertise will be lost from the rural areas. At the same time there will be a growing demand for food and natural ressources from the bigger cities. It is therefore crucial to search for alternative models for rural renewal.  Bygda 2.0 has become a living example of what the future village could look like. Here, sustainable architecture, excellent local produce, and a focus on art and culture have become the driving forces in the rebuilding of the area.

For more information about the vision and the project please visit the Bygda 2.0 website: http://www.bygda20.no/english

The people behind Stokkoyart are:

Ingrid Langklopp

Torrild Langklopp

Roar Svenning

Kirsten  Bertelsen

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