How to transcribe the work of your artists-in-residence ?

Francisco Suárez is the founder of the art residency No Lugar based in Quito, Ecuador.

Artists are welcomed for periods of stay varying from two to four weeks during which they will realize processes, researches, and works, in contact with the residency’s staff and cultural community.

As each project is different, and as the artists go at their own path with no pressure of a final product to show, it is always hard to plan how they will interact with the local audiences. “In the end we make a public presentation that does not necessarily have to be an exhibition, because again we do not know precisely what will be produced, what will result from the residency process of each of the people we work with,” explains Francisco Suárez.

Among the presentations’ possibilities, we can think of portfolio revisions with local artists, project presentation with the local communities, workshops, talks and debates, or an open studio "that is not thought of as a presentation of finished works or finished pieces, but as a break within the work process of the artist, of the resident and also, yes, at times they can have an exhibition,” says the founder.

Although, a complete exhibition may need longer periods of time, in his opinion, two months are preferable in this case to produce a finished work and to establish the communication materials, find some possible sponsors and partnerships, maybe even a curator. “But of course, these are very, very imprecise variables, because it also depends a lot on the production and reflection times of each of the artists or residents. So we have generated these measures, but it seems interesting to us, again, to generate these public processes so that people can find out what is happening in the residency,” confides Francisco Suárez.

Another way to get some visibility on the residency and on the projects that are produced by the residents, is the dedicated artists’ space on No Lugar’s website. “We generate some profiles on our web page of each of the artists, and we ask them to generate a log as a field diary where we can open reflections. It is a record of the activities that are being done so that once again the public can get a little closer to these processes,” indicates Francisco Suárez.

No Lugar has been working for more than a decade now and never boxed in its work formats, always taking into account the Latin American context and adapting its management to the local environment’s needs. “We are reflecting all the time, reinventing, rethinking all the time how and what kind of offer we are going to generate, but always from an awareness, of what is happening in the circuit, how our work can also contribute to reflect, as the circuit becomes more professionalized. Let interesting things happen and not remain stagnant, I think that is one thing we are thinking about all the time as a space,” concludes Francisco Suárez.