Announcing: Reciprocal Residents 2024

CCA Derry~Londonderry are delighted to announce the participants in the third iteration of the reciprocal residency programme, a partnership between CCA, Kaunas Artists' House and Lithuanian Culture Institute: Roisín McGuigan (NI) and Ieva Kotryna Ski (LT).

During the residency, artist Roisín McGuigan will spend time in residence at Kaunas Artists’ House. Roisin will build on threads of dialogue, negotiation and dissent that run through her practice to expand on auto-ethnographic reflections on place, phenomena and the reverberations of growing up near the Northern Irish border. Through explorations into the memorialisation of Ireland’s pre-partition history and conversations surrounding borderless exchange, Roisín will consider new commemorative objects.

Ieva Kotryna Ski will use the residency as a space to develop an ongoing project that reflects on seaside holiday fantasies in the context of the Curonian Spit, a local treasure hunt in the region and the selective observations by holidaymakers vacationing there. In addition, Ieva will spend her time in Derry~Londonderry and surrounding coastline of the North West exploring and enriching her practice through research into fractured landscapes and the term Síreacht, which broadly translates to longing in the context of Lithuania and Ireland.

Both based in their respective second cities, CCA, KAH and LCI have been collaborating since the residency’s inception in 2019. CCA is the leading arts organisation dedicated to supporting emerging artists in the north of Ireland through exhibitions, public and digital programmes as well as continual professional development Supports programme. KAH works with diverse cultural phenomena, presenting emerging artists, new ideas and cultural experiments and LCI, which is a state institution presenting Lithuanian culture and professional art abroad, enhancing the opportunities and international scene for Lithuanian cultural professionals and artists.

Catherine Hemelryk, Director of CCA Derry~Londonderry said, “I am thrilled that we are able to continue to provide an opportunity for artists from Northern Ireland and Lithuania to participate in this exchange spanning Europe. We are looking forward to welcoming Ieva to our context and supporting her to develop new work.”

Agnė Bagdžiūnaitė, Manager of Cultural Activities at Kaunas Artists’ House said, "It has always been a pleasure to collaborate with Catherine and the CCA in Derry~Londonderry. We had great artists from Northern Ireland who we believe successfully continue their careers while remembering great time in Kaunas."

Dr Suzanne Lyle, Head of Visual Arts, Arts Council of NI said, “I am so delighted that CCA Derry~Londonderry is encouraging and supporting this important creation of an international exchange between Northern Ireland and Lithuania, and it is terrific to see that the Arts Council’s National Lottery Funding has contributed to the reciprocal residency programme this year. The work of our visual artists, and CCA is helping put Northern Ireland on the international map for all the right reasons.”

Following participation in the residencies, both artists will work towards solo exhibitions at CCA Derry~Londonderry launching on Saturday 30 March 2024, 7–9pm.

Supported by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council, Lithuanian Culture Institute and Kaunas Artists’ House.

Images:

1. Roisín McGuigan, Re-wilding The Mill, performance/intervention, 22 November 2021. Photo courtesy of the artist.

2. Ieva Kotryna Ski, Sinkhole, exhibition view of JCDecaux Award 2021: Spaces at Composers’ Union House, CAC Vilnius, 2021, curated by Vytenis Burokas, Milda Dainovskytė. Documentation: Laurynas Skeisgiela.