Hammana Artist House recently put out an open call for three residency programs, two of which are holding their first editions.
Currently seeking applications is the second edition of the AMARRE Program, the 2020 Studio Residency Program and the El Ranchito artist exchange. The AMARRE Program targets artists in exile, primarily from Syria. Named after the French word meaning “mooring line,” a rope, cable or chain by which a boat is attached to the shore or to an anchor, the program intends to connect artists in exile to their host communities.
Located in four countries - Lebanon, France, Belgium and Turkey - each local partner will host selected artists and provide a safe working space where they can develop their projects and introduce them to a local audience.
“We’re trying to take our responsibility as a Lebanese structure by taking artists that are trying to build a new life, in a new country, and to offer them a chance by including them in the professional scene,” HAH co-artistic director Aurelien Zouki told The Daily Star. “It’s designed to create different encounters between them and the different professionals in the local scene, to share expertise.”
This May the AMARRE program will be taking on two projects in Hammana, each residency spanning 15 days.
“We are available to accompany them in their process. Last year we had very young artists who had a lot of questions that we were able to help with,” Zouki said. “Maybe this year the profile will be different, but we will have planned encounters as artists will always have something to learn from other artists.
“Local professionals share knowledge about different topics, give feedback on rehearsals or project showings,” he added. “We’ve had people like Maya Zbib from Zoukak come in and show them ways to get spaces like Zoukak for project showings and [independent curator] Alma Salem, who helped to expose them to the idea of curating as an artistic domain.”
The residency will likely have an end of residency showing and, if the type of work is suitable, a display at “Us, The Moon and The Neighbors,” Beirut’s summertime biennial festival of performance and art.
The 2020 Studio Residency has been created in partnership with Pro Helvetia Cairo, a Swiss cultural exchange institution. As one of five residency spaces (alongside those in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Switzerland) HAH will host Swiss artists for three months. Arab artists from the four member countries are also eligible for residencies in Switzerland.
“We will choose someone who fits with the artistic vision of the house and have an idea of sharing between us,” Zouki said of the selection process. “Certain topics might be irrelevant in our area of the world so we play a big part in the selection.
“It’s also important for us to have foreign artists for our own young ones to exchange with, as many youngsters might not have the opportunity to travel to meet these kinds of artists,” he added. “It’s a way to bring them here and to expose our own artists to different ways to working or approaching art.”
El Ranchito exchange program partners with Madrid-based arts center Matadero.
In October, four Lebanese - visual artists David Habchi and Jana Traboulsi, sound designer Liliane Chlela and multidisciplinary artist Ramy Mourkarzel - spent six weeks in Madrid for their residency. Since early January, four Spanish artists have been resident in Hammana. During their stay they have also been conducting workshops for students, such as food anthropologist and performer Suraia Abud’s presentation.
HAH will host an end-of-residency open studio for El Ranchito program on Feb. 16.
Anyone wanting to apply to HAH programs should visit hah-lb.org.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
