Repression – Expression // Violence – Creative Resistance

This residency seeks to create a space for exploration and community between artists whose creative practices respond to experiences of conflict and oppression. It is underpinned by PRIO’s ongoing research project INSPIRE which investigates creative practice and activism in contexts of war.
 

About the residency
The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has once again brought the reality of war into sharpened focus - against a backdrop of ongoing conflicts around the world that continue to devastate the lives of individuals and communities. 

Creative practices engage the imagination, poetics, innovation, critical thinking and powers of expression - potential defences and resources for addressing the trauma of war and building new futures. This residency will probe the ways that creative practice can enable new ways of seeing, understanding and relating in response to individual and collective experiences of violent conflict and oppression. It will ask how creative practices can counteract the many ways that the realities of conflict and oppression are silenced: can establish platforms for new local and global narratives, and create space for dialogue, response, critique, and supportive affirmation. It has been in planning since May 2021, but its purposes now feel more urgent than ever.

Selected residents will form a temporary community of around eight local and international participants. The residency will involve group activities, as well as time for independent work. Collective activity is likely to include: creative exchange around the residency theme, workshops, talks, walks, sharing and listening, and visits to relevant places and institutions in Oslo.

The residency intends to end in an open house and informal sharing of the process and work that has been discussed and developed throughout the residency. Other potential outcomes and activities will be decided by the group throughout the residency period.

The residency will take place with PRAKSIS in Oslo over 4 weeks. A collaboration between PRAKSIS and the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO), it has been developed in dialogue with artist Motaz Habbash, who will join throughout the residency. The residency is supported by Kulturrådet, Oslo Kommune, and the Research Council of Norway through the PRIO INSPIRE project.

About Motaz Al Habbash
Motaz Al Habbash is a Palestinian artist who has lived in Norway since 2014. Motaz works as an artist, producer and curator. In his art, exclusion and the search for identity are themes he frequently works with. Motaz is co-initiator and project manager for "Here and There", a mentor programme supporting artists who are newly arrived to Norway. In this programme, Motaz guides newcomers to establish themselves financially and creatively within the art community in Norway. The aim of the programme is to find concrete solutions – by building bridges between artists, institutions and mentors – that contribute to actual artist participation in the cultural field.

About PRIO
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) conducts research on the conditions for peaceful relations between states, groups and people. Founded in 1959, the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is an independent research institution known for its synergy of basic and policy-relevant research. In addition to such research, PRIO conducts graduate and post-graduate training and is engaged in the promotion of peace through conflict resolution, dialogue and reconciliation, public information and policyn making activities.

Researchers at PRIO seek to understand the processes that bring societies together or split them apart. They explore how conflicts erupt and how they can be resolved; investigate how different kinds of violence affect people, and examine how societies tackle crises and the threat of crisis. PRIO hosts the Centre on Culture and Violent Conflict (CCC), which is devoted to the study of relations between culture and violent conflict and is anchored in the arts and humanities. The residency was developed in collaboration with CCC director Cindy Horst and coordinator Sara Christophersen, who will assist in facilitating the residency.