Radio Art Residency – an international fellowship program for radio art
In 2018, Radio CORAX and the Goethe-Institut have launched an international fellowship program for radio art. Being the first artist residence program of its kind throughout Europe, the Radio Art Residency invites artists from non-German speaking countries two times a year for a period of three months to reside in the non-commercial local Radio CORAX in Halle (Saale), Germany. After hosting the international radio art festival Radio Revolten in 2016, and being engaged in the radio art network Radia since its beginning, Radio CORAX intented to create a continuous space for radio art on another level. Fortunately the radio found a partner in the film, television and radio division of the Goethe-Institut, which was curious to set a new focus on radio art as a genre and additionally offers a global range for the residency program.
The Radio Art Residency strives to open up the medium of radio as a field of experimentation and laboratory for artistic processes, which goes beyond the function of the medium being solely an exhibition space for acoustic art. Therefor the residency gives artists the opportunity to explore the narrative and technical possibilities of the medium for a period of several months and with an open outcome. And for this reason, the program is addressed to a wide range of artists: invited are not only artists already engaged into „radio art“, but also artists working between music and sound art as well as performance artists with a connection to acoustic media.
Sol Rezza, live radio performance in the Renaissance Palais „Kühler Brunnen“, Halle/Saale, April 13, 2018
Consequently, three artistic positions of very different kind have been invited for the residency program so far. The first artist in residence was the sound designer and sound artist Sol Rezza from Argentina/Mexico. By digging into the acoustic structure of the city, Rezza was creating a sound map of Halle. With Sound Mapping the City, a radio series of live broadcasts and sound pieces was gradually shaping a sound map, which proposed an alternative concept of “orientation” for its listeners.
Claire Serres, collective live radio performance „Raven Show“, Halle/Saale, November 25, 2018 / Photo credits: Thies Streifinger
The french performance artist Claire Serres experimented during her residency with the live broadcast situation as a playground for non-verbal encounters. Twice a week she invited a voice to join her for thirty-minutes live on air. With Find Your Own Raven Voice, Serres was questioning the identity of voice and exploring its transformation by using and challenging the radio as a meeting place of voices.
Currently, the third Radio Art Residency with composer and sound artist André Damião is coming to an end. Working between the fields of music and electronic arts, Damião seeks for alternative ways of creating, composing and presenting electro-acoustic music. In São Paulo he was developing the Noise Crowd (Bloco Ruído), a mobile music collective which crosses the city centre on Ash Wednesdays sounding with self-built electronic instruments and occupying the public space with a different movement. During his residence at Radio CORAX Damião extended this practice of mobile music to the radio.
Radio Art Residency is a cooperation between Radio CORAX and the Goethe-Institut. The program is cofunded by the Saxony-Anhalt Arts Foundation.