Over the past nine months, Holocaust Centre North has been working with four artists as part of its second Memorial Gestures Artistic Residency. Maud Haya-Baviera, Irina Razumovskaya, Ariane Schick and Matt Smith have been working on an annual nine month artistic residency for professional creatives which is focused on contextualising Holocaust memory within contemporary socio-political frameworks.
As the residency heads into its final stages, all four artists are hosting an online Open Studio Event for all on Thursday, June 27, offering an insight into their own residency research and a rare first glimpse of their brand new artistic creations – created in response to the Centre’s collections and archives.
Since December, the artists have been fully immersed at the heart of Holocaust Centre North, working closely with staff, volunteers, and engaging directly with survivors. This process has deepened their knowledge and understanding of Holocaust history.
The purpose now of this public, online Open Studio is to offer fellow artists, historians, educators, researchers, and anyone interested in the Holocaust an opportunity to hear from the artists about their ideas and creative processes.
Working across ceramic sculpture, moving image, animation, photography, sound and printed work this year’s Memorial Gestures artists are exploring intergenerational storytelling; trauma and post memory; family; identity and belonging, absences and traces of queer histories.
At the Open Studio, each artist will present their individual work followed by an opportunity for feedback and questions from the wider online audience. Those interested in applying for the next intake of artists for Memorial Gestures 3 will also have the perfect chance to ask about the residency and the application process.
Paula Kolar, curator of contemporary practices, Holocaust Centre North said: “It’s been amazing to be running the Memorial Gestures artist-in-residence programme again this year, with four incredibly diverse artists. We have tweaked the residency structure a little for year two, to ensure we can better support artists in their research. Ultimately we want Memorial Gestures to be a programme that enables meaningful and engagement for artists with our archive and community members.
Next year’s open call to artists will be going out again soon, so for anyone who might want to apply for Memorial Gestures next year, this is the perfect chance to see what it is all about and ask us all any questions about the residency.”
The Memorial Gestures Open Studio runs from 5.30pm to 7pm on Thursday, June 27 and is free to attend. All interested parties must book a free ticket via the Holocaust Centre North website after which they will receive the zoom link for attendance on the night: https://holocaustcentrenorth.org.uk/events/open-studios-online/
Location: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
