Merzbarn Environmental Engagement Residency, Elterwater Cumbria
Littoral Arts in conjunction with ArtFunkl are delighted to offer artists an opportunity to take part in a short term artists residency, based in Cumbria, UK.
We are looking for Environmental Art based proposals from individuals, or groups of no more than 2 persons, who are interested in visiting the property for 2 weeks in order to carry out the work.
There are 3 places available for each residency period. Currently we are accepting applications for 1 – 15 October 2011.
The residency is based at the Merzbarn and surrounding property, Cylinders, where German artist Kurt Schwitters (1887 – 1948) worked during the final years of his life.
Artists attending the residency will be expected to dedicate one day out of the two weeks to helping out with chores on the property.
Project Outline
The Environmental Engagement Artists Residency at Cylinders focuses on addressing the past, present, and future of the property, as elements essential in the reinvention of the land as a retreat for contemporary artists. This aim honours Schwitters’ request that the land be used as a location for artists to progress work. In parallel with this, the residency project also seeks to offer tribute to Schwitters, and other artists who have similarly been forced into refugee status.
Proposals for the project should address the sensitive nature of the site, and seek to connect with the site and surroundings. Projects need not have a content directly relating to Schwitters and his work, but should be appropriate in terms of scale to the site, and also be realistically realisable within a 2 week residency.
All proposals are subject to approval by Littoral Arts Trust, owners of Cylinders and the Merzbarn.
The Property
Until Littoral Arts Trust bought the Cylinders property in 2006, it had been neglected for almost 40 years. The Merzbarn itself had been left untouched, since the death of the artist in 1948, excepting the removal of one wall. This wall is the site of a sculptural work by Schwitters, which was the first part of his proposed Merzbarn project. In the early 1960’s it was cut away from the rest of the barn, and taken to the Hatton Gallery at Newcastle University, where it is still on display.
The remaining small buildings at Cylinders, all of which have great individual character, are in a fairly dilapidated condition, and the original formal gardens laid out by Harry Pierce, the owner of the property in Schwitters time, are overgrown and unrecognisable.
The property in total consists of several acres of land set in beautiful undulating terrain. At the highest point of the site there are dramatic views over the neighbouring countryside.
There are four buildings on the site: near the entrance are two small, barn-like buildings which house living accommodation for the owners of the property, as well as a multi-purpose gallery space, next to these is a separate, tiny, one room building in a very bad state of repair, which was originally the drawing office, and a little further along the path is The Merzbarn.
Kurt Schwitters (1887 – 1948)
Schwitters is arguably not as well known in the Art World as the quality and diversity of his work indicates he should be. He is generally regarded as being linked to the Dada group of artists, but ironically he was considered by the Dadaists to be an outsider, since he did not rigidly adhere to their principles. His best known works are his two dimensional collages made of found material, which he produced prolifically throughout his life, but, as well as poetry and sound pieces, he also created four Merzbauten – walk in sculptures - one in Germany, two in Norway, and a final unfinished one at Cylinders in Cumbria, UK.
The Merzbauten series of projects began in Hanover when, between 1923 – 1936, he converted part of his parents house into his first walk-in sculpture, which he called the Merzbau. In 1932 he rented a house on the island of Hjertoya, Norway where he began work on his second Merzbau convertion. In 1937, in fear of his life, having been named an Entartete Kunstler (degenerate artist) by Hitler a few years earlier, he finally fled to Norway where he created his next Merzbau, in Lysaker.
In 1940 German troops invaded Norway, but Schwitters managed to escape to the north of Scotland, and, on arrival in the UK, spent a year and a half living in internment camps. Finally, towards the end of 1941, he was free from this restriction and moved to London, where he met Edith Thomas (known as Wantee) who was to become his companion for the rest of his life. Probably due to Schwitters ailing health, he and Edith moved to Ambleside, Cumbria in 1945, where they lived until Schwitters death in 1948. During this period he met Harry Pierce, a landscape architect, who owned a farm property nearby called Cylinders. He and Pierce struck up a friendship, which culminated in Schwitters being allowed the use of a small barn on Pierce’s property for his next Merzbarn project.
In 1947 word came from The Museum of Modern Art in New York that he was to be awarded $1,000 for continuation of work on one of his existing Merzbarn projects. Scwitters, who was by then in very poor health, negotiated to use the money for commencing a new Merzbarn project at Cylinders.
Work on the new Merzbarn was barely underway before Schwitters was admitted to hospital in Kendal, finally dying a week later of pulmonary oedema (fluid on the lung) and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle).
More information about Kurt Schwitters and the Merzbarn project can be found at
About Littoral Arts Trust
Littoral Arts Trust is a non-profit arts trust, run by directors Ian Hunter and Celia Larner, which promotes new creative partnerships, critical art practices and cultural strategies in response to issues about social, environmental and economic change.
Littoral Arts Trust works on the fringe of the mainstream Art World, seeking to engage with communities and worker groups who require representation through the Arts in order to promote their concerns. Littoral Arts Trust has recently been working on an Arts and Agricultural Change initiative in the north of England, as well as running projects with trade unions, and bus workers in Northern Ireland.
ArtFunkl
ArtFunkl was set up in 2010 by artist Ju Underwood as a small scale artists residency and initiative, offering artists from all over the world the opportunity to live and work in Manchester, and to involve themselves with the concerns and energy of the local Art environment.
To date artists have come from such diverse places as Australia, USA, Israel and Italy, among others. All who have taken part in the programme have embraced the Manchester context, and have used their time productively, and many have fostered connections in the local area.
The Environmental Engagement Artists Residency in conjunction with Littoral Arts Trust is a way for the experience gained running the residency in Manchester to be put to use in setting up a similar opportunity in a different context.
Application
The Environmental Engagement Art Project will take place from 1 – 15 October 2011
Costs:
Artists are expected to pay for their own travel to Manchester, where they will be picked up and transported to Cylinders
Food and materials are also the responsibility of the visiting artists
Accommodation at Elterwater is free
There will be a deposit of £125. £100 will be returned to the artist at the end of the residency period if nothing is damaged, and accommodation is left in good order, the remainder is retained for administration costs.
Applicants are required to submit the following:
A completed application form
£25 application fee, paid by Paypal via the ArtFunkl website payments page
A CV (resume)
A project proposal (one A4 sheet)
A personal description (around 100 – 200 words)
An artist’s statement (one A4 sheet)
Email addresses of 2 people to be contacted for references – these should be either University/Art School tutors/lecturers, or former employers
At least 10 work samples in jpg or pdf format, please send together in a single zip file.
The deadline for application is 6pm on Friday 29 July 2011