Announcing Selected Artists for TVE 5

The Fresh Milk Art Platform (Barbados) and the Centre for Culture in Lublin (Poland) as part of Lublin’s successful bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029 title are pleased to announce the selected artists from the Caribbean, Poland, Ukraine and their diasporas whose works will be included in the fifth edition of Transoceanic Visual Exchange (TVE), a series of programmes taking place this year between Barbados and Poland, with an accompanying online exhibition.

A preliminary screening of all of the film and video works runs at the Centre for Culture in Lublin between September 18th – October 18th, 2024, and a selection of works will be shown in various exhibition or screening spaces across Barbados in November 2024 – more details on these events will be announced soon!

Participating Artists:

Ruben Cabenda (Suriname)
Tongo Sondi, 2023

Monika Czajkowska (Poland)
Ophelia. Action Will (Not) Be Condemned, 2020

Ryan Eccleston (Jamaica)
Jonkunnu Nuh Dead, 2022

Alex Gibson (Barbados)
Courtyard, 2024

Barbara Gryka (Poland)
Lalki/Dolls, 2021

Hanif James / Have a Bawl Productions (Jamaica)
A Shade of Indigo, 2023

Anastasia Kashtalian (Ukraine)
Dinner after the end of the world (Antanakata), 2023

Volodymr Kaufman (Ukraine)
РАНИ. відеоарт. / WOUNDS, 2023

Agata Konarska & Izabela Sitarska (Poland)
Tette Dolci, 2019

Paweł Korbus (Poland)
What Will Become of Us, 2020

Magdalena Łakoma (Poland)
Matriona/Patriona, 2022

Adrian Lopez (Jamaica)
Ego Sum, 2022

Alexandra Majerus (Barbados & St. Kitts & Nevis)
The Shape of Memory (Recollecting), 2022

Stéphanie Melyon-Reinette (Guadeloupe)
MWEN PA PRIYÉ ZACCA, 2022

Danté Ollivierre (St. Vincent & the Grenadines)
I AM GARIFUNA, 2024

Katarzyna Perlak (Poland)
Broken Hearts Hotel, 2021

Andrii Rachynskyi & Daniil Revkovskyi (Ukraine)
Clanking, hammering, dispute and gurgling / Брязкання, стукіт, суперечка і булькання / Bryazkannya, stukit, superechka i bulʹkannya, 2021

Nadean Rawlins (Jamaica)
Boy Girl and All the Rest, 2021

Marinna ‘Mahrinnart’ Shareef (Trinidad & Tobago)
Moving Through the Motions, 2022
The Consequences of Remembering, 2022

The Hub Collective (St. Vincent & the Grenadines)
Bush Medicine: Stories that Remember the Land, 2024

Volodymyr Topiy (Ukraine)
Barber, 2023

Yolanda Velazquez-Velez (Puerto Rico)
DesAhogo, 2021


About the Partners:

Fresh Milk

Fresh Milk is an artist-led, non-profit organisation founded in 2011 and based in Barbados. It is a platform which supports excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programmes that provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for development, fostering a thriving art community.

Fresh Milk offers professional support to artists from the Caribbean and further afield and seeks to stimulate critical thinking in contemporary visual art. Its goal is to nurture artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for growth, excellence and success.

The Centre for Culture in Lublin

At the Centre for Culture, our “home of imagination” we want to manage human talents wisely and create favourable conditions for artistic work, education and presentation of art and artistic activities. We want to be open to new people, new projects and phenomena. We believe that we will have the courage to take creative risks.

Lublin 2029 – European Capital of Culture Candidate City

The project is part of Lublin’s bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029 title. Re:Union, the bid’s motto refers to the historic concept of the Union of Lublin (1569), a commonwealth treaty signed by the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is understood as reintegration, reconnection of broken ties, cross-generational, cross-cultural and intersectional dialogue.

    

Open Call: TVE 5 2024

Imporant dates:

  • Start of application period: Tuesday May 14th, 2024
  • End of application period: Sunday June 30th, 2024
  • Community of curatorial practice workshops: July/August, 2024
  • Public announcement of results: September, 2024
  • Polish Screenings: September, 2024
  • Caribbean Screenings: November, 2024
  • Online Exhibition: December, 2024

Call for Works:

The Fresh Milk Art Platform (Barbados) and the Centre for Culture in Lublin (Poland) as part of Lublin’s bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029 title are pleased to welcome submissions of recent film and video works – screenings, installations, new media, time-based media and expanded cinema – by contemporary artists, to be included in the fifth edition of Transoceanic Visual Exchange (TVE), a series of programmes taking place this year between Barbados and Poland, with an accompanying online exhibition. 

Submitted works must have been completed in the last five years and must be made by artists practicing in the Caribbean, Poland, Ukraine and their diasporas. 

TVE 5 will be a collection of recent artists’ films and videos from each region. However, the final shape and content of the programme will be informed by a community curatorial process, which aims to involve and promote discussion within the wider creative communities of each participating initiative.

Working between the Caribbean, Poland and Ukraine, TVE 5 aims to negotiate the in-between space of our cultural communities outside of traditional geo-political zones of encounter and trade. TVE intends to build relations and open up greater pathways of visibility, discourse and knowledge production between the regional art spaces and their publics.

Submission requirements:

  • Must be work from artists practicing in the Caribbean, Ukraine, Poland or their diasporas;
  • Must be work that has been completed/made in the last five years;
  • Can be films of any length (shorts, experimental, features and video artworks);
  • Can be in any language (films originally produced in regional languages are welcome);
  • Up to 3 submissions per applicant are welcome;
  • Must be accompanied by a description of the work (500 words max), a bio (200 words max) and details of any technical requirements i.e. audio, installation, equipment required, preferred setting etc.;
  • Works must be mp4 files no larger than 100MB, or Vimeo/Youtube links with passwords if applicable;
  • Works must not have been submitted to the previous edition of TVE;
  • Please specify whether your submitted works have permission to be exhibited on an online space.

Selection Process:

One of the core values of TVE is the model of community curatorial practice as opposed to one of solely contracting curators or hiring a jury to review submissions in isolation. This has taken the shape of open roundtable conversations with interested members of the community in each partner’s country/region, where current trends, concerns and interests in the areas of video art, film and new media are discussed. After these conversations, the partners will convene to select works which align with and reflect the research gathered, including the community’s input in the design of the final programme.

What TVE 5 Offers:

  • Each selected artist will receive a stipend of $250.00 USD for their participation in the programme;
  • Artists’ work will be showcased in a series of events in Barbados and Poland and a virtual exhibition on the TVE website, facilitated and promoted by the TVE partners;
  • The artists’ profiles will be permanently housed on the TVE website, and their work will be widely promoted throughout Fresh Milk’s and the Centre for Culture in Lublin’s networks in the Caribbean and Eastern Europe;
  • The artists will have the opportunity to grow their own networks and knowledge regarding video arts and filmmaking practices across the Caribbean, Poland and Ukraine, deepening understanding between the regions and opening up greater possibilities of collaboration.

Deadline for submissions: June 30th 2024

Click here for the online form for Caribbean submissions
Click here for the online form for Polish submissions
Click here for the online form for Ukrainian submissions

For more information on TVE and its first four iterations, visit the website transoceanicvisualexchange.com

This edition of TVE is also supported in part by TEOR/éTica, our partner organisation for TVE 4, from whom we received a 2023 Catalyst Grant with the generous support of Arts Collaboratory, and by a grant received from the Mellon Foundation.

About the Partners:

Fresh Milk

Fresh Milk is an artist-led, non-profit organisation founded in 2011 and based in Barbados. It is a platform which supports excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programmes that provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for development, fostering a thriving art community.

Fresh Milk offers professional support to artists from the Caribbean and further afield and seeks to stimulate critical thinking in contemporary visual art. Its goal is to nurture artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for growth, excellence and success.

The Centre for Culture in Lublin

At the Centre for Culture, our “home of imagination” we want to manage human talents wisely and create favourable conditions for artistic work, education and presentation of art and artistic activities. We want to be open to new people, new projects and phenomena. We believe that we will have the courage to take creative risks.

Lublin 2029 – European Capital of Culture Candidate City

The project is part of Lublin’s bid for the European Capital of Culture 2029 title. Re:Union, the bid’s motto refers to the historic concept of the Union of Lublin (1569), a commonwealth treaty signed by the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is understood as reintegration, reconnection of broken ties, cross-generational, cross-cultural and intersectional dialogue.

 

CATAPULT – New Grant Funds for Caribbean Artists

American Friends of Jamaica, Kingston Creative and The Fresh Milk Art Platform partner on $320,000 US programme

In light of the severe impact that COVID-19 is having on creative people and the arts sector, a fund of US$320,000 from the Open Society Foundations has been granted to the American Friends of Jamaica, in collaboration with Kingston Creative and The Fresh Milk Art Platform, in support of artists, creatives and cultural practitioners across the Caribbean region. This grant acknowledges the current global pandemic, a crisis disproportionately impacting the creative sector in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), many of which lack the resources to provide adequate support to those working in this vital sector.

Caron Chung, Executive Director AFJ stated, “Many are facing threats to their basic existence today and uncertainty for the future as we are contending with unprecedented challenges.  This is a time when we need to work together to offer some semblance of stability to the Arts.  Collaboration is at the core of the mission of the AFJ and we are pleased to facilitate the Catapult project.”

CATAPULT | A Caribbean Arts Grant will target participants living and working across the Dutch, English, French, and Spanish speaking regions. This five-month comprehensive arts programme includes funding online creative events, art writing, digital skills training, residencies and virtual discursive salons.

CATAPULT is particularly interested in working with arts and cultural practitioners who are exploring the broad critical themes of Culture, Human Rights, Gender, LGBTQIA+ and Climate Justice from Caribbean perspectives. The team especially welcomes applications from those who do not have permanent employment at this time.

Kingston Creative’s Co-Founder and Executive Director Andrea Dempster-Chung commented, “It has been very exciting to develop this project. It is aligned with our mission to support creative people and is also our first opportunity to work across the region. COVID-19 has had a very serious impact on artists within Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean and this grant will provide the critical financial support, visibility and capacity-building that creatives need to navigate the future.”

CATAPULT will increase the capacity of Caribbean-based artists to navigate the digital space and learn new ways to connect with diverse global audiences.  It will also promote the visibility of cultural practitioners by expanding the pool of online content from the region, enabling artists to engage wider audiences while increasing the potential to earn beyond their borders.

The collaboration will support the following projects:

(i) Caribbean Artist Showcase, (ii) Caribbean Creative Online, (iii) Digital Creative Training, (iv) Consultancy Vouchers, (v) Lockdown Virtual Salon and (vi) Stay Home Artist Residency.

Fresh Milk’s Founding Director Annalee Davis expressed enthusiasm regarding the partnership. “Fresh Milk is pleased to have the opportunity to partner on this critical project nurturing Caribbean artists. With little support available at the state level for so many cultural practitioners working across this vulnerable region, having an opportunity to facilitate Stay At Home Residencies and Virtual Salons means that more artists can safely remain in their studios and do what they do best-make art!”


About the Partners:

American Friends of Jamaica | The AFJ has a near 40 year history of funding charitable organizations in Jamaica in the fields of Education, Healthcare and Economic Development. A registered 501 c 3 nonprofit headquartered in New York City, AFJ relies on individual and corporate contributions made by donors who believe in our work and will advocate on our behalf. Part of the AFJ’s mission is to facilitate donor directed contributions which enables donors to support registered charitable organizations aligned with their own goals for philanthropy.


Kingston Creative is a registered non-profit organization founded in February 2017. Its mission is to enable creatives to succeed so that they can create economic and social value, gain access to global markets and have a positive impact on their community.

 


Fresh Milk is an organisation whose aim is to nurture, empower and connect Caribbean artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide global opportunities for growth, excellence and success. Fresh Milk supports excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programmes that provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for development and foster a thriving art community.

Open Call: Transoceanic Visual Exchange 2019

The Fresh Milk Art Platform (Barbados), China Residencies (NY and China), The Barbados Museum and Historical Society, I: project space (Beijing) and Alice Yard (Trinidad & Tobago) are pleased to welcome submissions of recent film and video works – screenings, installations, new media and expanded cinema – by contemporary artists, to be included in the third edition of Transoceanic Visual Exchange (TVE), a series of programmes taking place this year between Barbados, China and Trinidad & Tobago. Submitted works must have been completed in the last five years and must be made by artists practicing in the Caribbean, China and their diasporas.

TVE will be a collection of recent artists’ films and videos from each region. However, the final shape and content of the programme will be informed by a community curatorial process, which aims to involve and promote discussion within the wider arts communities of each participating initiative.

Working between the Caribbean, China and their diasporas, TVE aims to negotiate the in-between space of our cultural communities outside of traditional geo-political zones of encounter and trade. TVE intends to build relations and open up greater pathways of visibility, discourse and knowledge production between the regional art spaces and their communities.

Submission Requirements:

  • Must be work from artists practicing in the Caribbean, China  and their diasporas;
  • Must be work that has been completed/made in the last five years;
  • Can be films of any length (shorts, experimental, features and video artworks);
  • Can be in any language (films originally produced in regional languages are welcome);
  • Multiple submissions are welcome;
  • Must be accompanied by a description of the work (500 words max), a bio (200 words max) and details of any technical requirements i.e. audio, installation, equipment required, preferred setting etc.;
  • Works must be in the form of mp4 files no larger than 100MB, or private Vimeo / Youtube links (please provide passwords);
  • Works must not have been submitted to previous editions of TVE;
  • Please specify whether your submitted works have permission to be exhibited on an online space.

Deadline for submissions: 28th June 2019

The online submission form can be found here.

Please direct any queries about Caribbean submissions to: tveproject.caribbean@gmail.com
Please direct any queries about China submissions to: nihao@chinaresidencies.com

For more information on TVE and its first two iterations, visit the TVE website.

____________________________

About the TVE 2019 Partners:

Fresh Milk

Fresh Milk is an artist-led, non-profit organisation founded in 2011 and based in Barbados. It is a platform which supports excellence in the visual arts through residencies and programmes that provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for development, fostering a thriving art community.

Fresh Milk offers professional support to artists from the Caribbean and further afield and seeks to stimulate critical thinking in contemporary visual art. Its goal is to nurture artists, raise regional awareness about contemporary arts and provide Caribbean artists with opportunities for growth, excellence and success.

Website: freshmilkbarbados.com
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube: FreshMilkBarbados
Twitter: FreshMilkBdos

China Residencies

China Residencies is an online and New-York based nonprofit founded in 2013 by Crystal Ruth Bell & Kira Simon-Kennedy. Since then, China Residencies supported over 50 artists and collective projects in mainland China and Hong Kong. China Residencies supports a network of over 40 different residency programs through openly accessible website, and supports the next generation of artists, activists, and arts administrators through fellowships, exchanges, and fiscal sponsorship.

“We believe diplomacy shouldn’t just be left up to politicians. Artists are cultural and social changemakers, and, in a world where people sometimes forget to listen to and learn from one another, we are passionate about creating opportunities for artists to bring a broader cultural understanding into their work and communities.”

Website: chinaresidencies.com
Facebook: chinaresidencies
Twitter: chinaresidency
Instagram: china_residencies

The Barbados Museum and Historical Society

The Barbados Museum and Historical Society (BMHS) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with a membership of over 1,000 individuals and companies. A fourteen-member Council and the Director are responsible for its policies and operation. Nine council members are elected annually from the membership of the BMHS; the remaining five are appointed by Government.

The mandate of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society is: To collect, document and conserve evidence of Barbados cultural, historical and environmental heritage; and to interpret and present this evidence for all sectors of society.

Website: barbmuse.org.bb
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: BarbadosMuseum

I: project space

I: project space is an augmentation of what a contemporary art institution can be, by using the freedom that comes along with running an independent practice. The space is located in the old Hutong area of Beijing and is combining an exhibition space with a residency studio for visiting artists from China and abroad. Taking its location in the center of Beijing but outside the art districts as a premise, I: project space engages in bringing an interaction with art back into the daily life.

Collaborating with local and international cultural producers, I: project space is constantly building networks with like-minded spaces all over the world to share information and to expand the impact of the independent art scene. Dedicated to build support structures for artists and open possibilities for long-term dialogues between artistic, curatorial, research and other modes of knowledge production.

Exchange and dialogue should not become empty phrases, but have to be implemented into actions. The programming of the space is framing the residency and exhibitions with an ongoing discourse about current questions on contemporary art.

I: project space aims to encourage innovative and investigative approaches, crossing borders between different creative disciplines, cultural identities, geographical locations, political economies, crafts and new technologies. By placing emphasis on the open dialogues, I: project space looks to foster experimentation, collaboration and interdisciplinary exchange.

Website: yi-projectspace.org
Facebook and Instagram: Iprojectspace

Alice Yard

Alice Yard is the backyard space of the house at 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain. This was once the house of Sean Leonard’s great-grandmother. Four generations of children played and imagined in this yard, and now we continue this tradition. Alice Yard is a space for creative experiment, collaboration, and improvisation.

Alice Yard is administered and curated by architect Sean Leonard, artist Christopher Cozier, and writer and editor Nicholas Laughlin, with the help of a growing network of creative collaborators. Alice Yard is a non-profit organisation incorporated under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago.

Since 2008, Alice Yard has run a residency programme hosting artists, curators, and other creative practitioners.

Website: aliceyard.blogspot.com
Facebook & Twitter: aliceyard
Instagram: aliceyardinsta

Tilting Axis 4 – Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures

Tilting Axis 4 – Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures was hosted from May 31st – June 2nd, 2018, by Centro León and Centro Cultural de España in Santo Domingo, in collaboration with Curando Caribe, Santiago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The fourth convening of Tilting Axis aimed to shift its location and context to the Hispanophone Caribbean with the theme ‘Caribbean Cultural Ecologies: Connecting Pasts, Presents and Futures’. Artists, curators, stakeholders, instigators and activists gathered to debate ideas about the Caribbean’s interdependent future in relation to culture, the nature, technology and the role of institutions while sharing creative ways which reimagine our collective futures in relationship with our particular environment and with each other.

 

View the full programme for Tilting Axis 4 here

See below for video documentation of the conference, courtesy of the
Centro Cultural Eduardo León Jimenes Youtube Channel: