Ki Nurmenniemi - Research Profile
Summary:
How are artist residencies developing, rooting, and promoting sustainable practices?
Ki Nurmenniemi (MA, MSc)
Doctoral Programme in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences (DENVI), University of Helsinki, Past Present Sustainability Research Unit (PAES)
Artist residencies developing, rooting, and promoting sustainable practices
Art and art-related practices form an important yet understudied area of sustainability transformations research. In artist residencies, the processes of making, presenting and researching different art forms are intertwined with the practices of travel, transport, lodging, hospitality and maintenance. This doctoral research project is rooted in long-term field experience and based on interviews conducted with artist residency organizers across the world. The study gives insight into how artist residencies operate as sites for developing, grounding and disseminating art-related and everyday practices that take different aspects of sustainability into account.
Artist residencies are ubiquitous and somewhat loosely defined organizations where art and the everyday, public, and private realms permeate each other. Many artists, researchers and cultural workers come to a residency willing to absorb new aspects into their creative practices. Importantly, many residency centres are forming networks and alliances for sharing skills and knowledge of sustainable ways of operating.
From Ki Nurmenniemi’s author notes for the article “Going Post-Fossil in a Neoliberal Climate” (2019). In Elfving, Kokko & Gielen (Eds.), Contemporary Artist Residencies: Reclaiming Time and Space. Amsterdam: Valiz.