What is r:ead?
“r:ead” represents the following
residency
east – asia
dialogue
residency
r:ead is a new artist-in-residence program that started in December 2012. Its participants will be artists and curators working with free forms of expression and who traverse borders between body, image and language in order to engage with society today in each of their countries. During the residency they will stay together in Tokyo for a fixed period, and through research and dialogue with the other participants, will confront their own artistic expression. r:ead is seeking out the possibilities for new forms of creativity in residencies through a collective process of trial and error in the selection of participating artists, in concept, operation, documentation, and the building up of a network.
east – asia
r:ead relates to the area of East Asia. There are many definitions of the region but r:ead is focusing on the regions where Chinese, Korean and Japanese are spoken as mother tongues and used in daily life. The region of East Asia has been forming a common cultural area for several thousand years, a process which has continued in recent years with the increasing exchange of information, people and goods. But due to border disputes between neighbouring countries and histories of hegemony, the relationships within East Asia are now at the mercy of the international political situation. By limiting the target area to the region of East Asia, individuals living in this area will be able to deal with each other in depth, sharing their commonality as well as local differences, seeking a mutual reality that they can express artistically and share in their work. The program is conducted in four languages: Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin and Taiwanese Chinese), Korean and English.
dialogue
r:ead is a residency program that emphasizes dialogue between its participants. Its foremost purpose is the enhancement of the sharing and exchanging of ideas and discussion, rather than quality and quantity of deliverable works. Not only will the artists, the creators of the artistic works, participate, but also their partners, curators and theorists who deepen the dialogue of the artists.
The residency is divided into two periods of stay. During the dialogue and research period, the participants get to know each other through discussion of what could be a common issue for all of them to work on. During the second stage, the creation period, each artist will work on this issue based on his or her personal artistic approaches and interests. Within this process, their reciprocal dialogue and intervention will become visible in their work.
