Press Fieldwork: Marfa

After its first year of experience, the research program Fieldwork: Marfa leaded by two major European art schools, les beaux-arts de Nantes, France and The Head Geneva enters a new process of active development for 2013. Nantes School of Art with its partners Palais de Tokyo, Paris and the Grand Café, Contemporary Art Centre of St. Nazaire is orienting its research fields to border issues, with the research platform Border Art Research.
New collaborations and partnerships will be developed with US and European universities and art schools to explore the crucial issue of borders in our contemporary societies.
Supporting new creation at international level through the residency research programs dedicated to emerging artists and theorists and welcoming students from European art schools through workshops in Marfa remain priorities to the program. Dissemination of research on the question of art and border by organizing exhibitions in the gallery of Fieldwork: Marfa, annual seminars sharing ongoing research will contribute to the creation and development of an international documentation center Art & Border.

Located in Marfa, Texas, USA, this outstanding platform is intended for emerging artists, critics and/or researchers. Residents are selected on the basis of the singularity of specific projects they present.

Fieldwork: Marfa caters to emerging artists, critics and/or researchers whose projects require immersion into the specific environment of Marfa and Texas territory, necessitating movement through geography as well as time and space for the purposes of specific research work. The program comes with a research grant, enabling the applicants to produce theoretical and/or practical work using their own methodologies, with support from a number of professional partners, specialized stakeholders and educational institutions.

Fieldwork: Marfa is an inter-school research group that provides a framework for the incursions and endeavors of researchers-in-residence. The work itself fuels various joint projects, in the form of an ongoing annual program based on the participants’ residency schedules:

• A series of workshops and symposia alternating between the three schools, including working sessions held before and after the residency in Marfa;

• A schedule of  meetings based on the research projects, held on home ground, in Marfa;

• An communication program showcasing the contributions or reports from various researchers, students or occasional guests.

The program relies on a collaborative network of like-minded international art schools and universities, research structures, art institutions and cultural events (Chinati Foundation, Ballroom Art Center, Marfa, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Los Angeles and more to come). Estuaire Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, is a founding member.

Outside residency periods, Fieldwork: Marfa welcomes a platform of off-site workshops driven by each of the three schools: “Border Art Research” Research’s program (ESBA Nantes), “Accident de parcours” (Changing Course) Master’s program (ESBA – Nantes), “ALPes – Art, Lieu, Paysage, espace sonore” (Art, Landscape, Place, sound space) postgraduate program (HEAD – Genève).

> Download the presentation of Fieldwork: Marfa program