The foundation is located on the island of Sylt, off the coast of Hamburg, Germany. The foundation's residency programme has been running for several years offering opportunities to South African and international visual artists, writers and photographers. The residency programme seeks to provide artists with opportunities to consolidate their practice or develop new works and ideas.
It is managed under the directorship of literary scholar and curator Indra Wussow. With strong links to South Africa, the Sylt Foundation has established a residency specifically for South African visual artists. Luminaries such as Strijdom van der Merwe, Mbongeni Buthelezi, Paul Emmanuel, Bernie Searle, Santu Mofokeng, and Mary Sibanda have all previously benefited from this programme. Later this year, the foundation will be launching the African Writers' Residency Programme.
"The South African visual art industry is in an exciting phase, but it is crucial for artists to spend time reflecting on their own practice and career choices," said Wussow. "Opportunities like this residency provide professional 'reflection' space, distance and time at a key point in an artist's career. This is time that is difficult to set aside in the day to day running of an active career."
The residency offers a two-month working visit to the foundation. It provides an opportunity for creative reflection and research and enables the artist to participate in inter-cultural dialogue with other fellow international artists in residence. This exciting experience can expand the artist's artistic vision, enrich their art practice, extend their network and open future career opportunities.
The residency is unlike others, in that it doesn't focus on the production of artwork during the residency as an outcome. While the situation is suitable for many kinds of practice and research, it is not a studio based residency and hence not appropriate for the production of large scale or sculptural works.
"Our aim with this is to provide artists with an opportunity to develop ideas, research or even reflect on projects," says Wussouw. "So much emphasis is placed on the production and exhibiting of work, as well as managing projects and opportunities, that artists find very little time for the vital process of conceptualisation, reflection and research. So many awards, competitions and residencies challenge artists through defined goals, outputs and production imperatives.
"Making contemporary art is as much as about planning and thinking as it is about production. Unlike many other residency opportunities, this is not solely output focused, but designed for artists to utilize this time as best suits their creative needs. It can be likened to the research sabbaticals available to academics," Wussouw concludes.
Visual artists whose practice is within the contemporary genre are invited to apply. Artists need to show evidence of a sustained professional exhibition career spanning a minimum of seven years, having held a minimum of two solo exhibitions and exhibited on a minimum of one curated group show. Only digital applications will be accepted and the closing date for entries is 22 June 2012.
