Call For Young Artists From Across The Gulf To Take Part In International Digital Residency Programme

THE Arab British Centre, together with the British Council are calling on young artists from across the Gulf to apply for the winter edition of their digital residency programme.

The Connect ME arts residency pairs creatives based in the Gulf and the United Kingdom to create collaborative digital work over a four-week programme of online mentoring. The programme, which was devised as a response to Covid-19,is a digital continuation of the Arab British Centre’s creative exchange programme Making Marks, which promotes creative exchange and international collaboration between 18-30-year-olds from the UK and the Gulf.

The outcomes of the residency are completely up to the pairs, and applications are welcomed from all creative backgrounds – the only stipulation is that the work must be delivered to the public through digital channels and it must be in collaboration. The four selected participants will benefit from a residency fee of £1000, guidance and support from The Arab British Centre and a dedicated mentor from a cultural organisation. The works created will be featured on the Making Marks website, the digital home of all artworks created under the programme, and participants will benefit from a social media campaign promoting their work globally across both the Arab British Centre and British Council channels.

The summer residency, which ran from July – August 2020, saw four outstanding young artists take part and create collaborative work in pairs – and included Saudi artist Alaa Tarabzouni andRawan AlMahrouqi, an artist from Oman.

Alaa, who is based in Riyadh, specialises in urbanity and the built environment, with her work influenced by her academic background and training in architecture. While Rawan is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist, whose work focuses on the female experience in the Arabian Gulf.

Alaa was paired with Northern Ireland artist Ellie Niblock and together they created With Love: From Nowhere (بالحب: من العدم), a digital experience which takes viewers on an exploration into “unknowable places of the not yet”. The artists translatedthe impossible physical experience of visiting fictional non-places into the digital realm through a combination of drawing, sculpture, 3D scanning, mapping and sound; thus, making the imaginary, intangible spaces come to life through the virtual domain.

Speaking of how they worked together to create the piece, Alaa Tarabzouni said: “We relied heavily on social media platforms, video calls and instant messaging to share inspiration and develop the work. We also used more traditional modes of communication, by using the postal service; found objects were sent from Saudi Arabia to the UK to create hybrid, handheld, sculptural objects. They were used as the foundations for the [digital] non-place, as they were thoroughly translated in various ways.”

Meanwhile Rawan was paired with Liverpudlian artist Alexis Maxwell, who is an interdisciplinary artist based in Merseyside who blends spoken word and animation into performance art embracing the fluidity of race and culture. Together they created an art piece called Hair, Poetry (شَعر، شِعر ) a dual-language spoken word animation which explores the artists’ relationship to their hair and its role in their identity and autonomy. It offers a timely look into the connections between hair, race and gender for women living in both the UK and the Arab world.

She said: “I loved meeting and working with Alexis, it’s a really special thing to create an artwork with someone. If I had to give some advice to the next cohort of Connect ME artists, I would say: get to know your partner and you will find something that you both have in common which will make an amazing work of art.”

The Connect ME Winter Residency Open Call is open now to artists 18-30 years old, of all disciplines, based in the UK and GCC. Applications must be submitted by29 November 23:00 GMT.

For more information or to apply visit www. makingmarks.uk – applications can be submitted in English or Arabic.