Between the Rains residency

Art Inside Out invites you to an artistic residency where “ecological literacy” is used as point of departure for a movement through two similar ecological conditions: the meeting between the sea and the river Viskan north of the city of Varberg and the earthy landscape surrounding the city of Laholm.  

Between the rains, is a temporary space for action, in between downpours and radical fluxes in water flows. It also provokes a scanning of landscapes as entangled ecological systems difficult to delimit, and suggests an inescapable turning point in an unsustainable line of development, or a concept of time where we wait in silence and anticipation for the rain to once again fall. 

Between the rains wishes to evoke other modes to understand and relate to ecology and ecological systems. Cartographic readings that are not contained in a singular run-off map, analysis of soil quality, inventory of species or socio-spatial mappings, but instead consolidates them in a interconnected gleam of nuances, subjects, relationships, cross-readings and layers. Therefor we are inviting artistic practices that are nurtured by the many interdisciplinary questions about ethics, politics and knowledge which escort such a shift. Artistry that are interested in working within a decentralisation of human activities and are searching for equal alliances between species where coexistence, mutual learning and carefully managed relationships are brought in to focus and replace an endless quest for surplus and dominance.  

Throughout the residency, and in concurrence with present research about climate change and community transition, we try to develop our understanding of the systems and places we engage with. We are hoping for the residency to facilitate explorations into the capacity for artistic competences and critical imagination—especially within planning and transition processes—to bridge knowledge gaps, expose conditions, nudge norms, inverse perspectives and indicate alternative acting spaces.  

Art Inside Out is inviting four artists to a twelve-week residency in 2022. The residency schedule is as follows: research (May 30–June 17), production & presentation (August 29–October 30).* 

Each accepted artist will receive equivalent to 138 000 SEK (F-taxable, exclusive VAT, paid by invoice) for a 12 week long residency, and a production budget of 20 000 SEK. The artist is responsible for paying applicable taxes in their home country. Art Inside Out covers associated costs such as travel, housing, workspaces and process management.** 

Two artists will primarily be situated in Varberg, and two in Laholm. The artists will have the opportunity to work independently and together. The residency will conclude with public presentations of the artistic processes in Varberg and Laholm and other locations in Halland and Sweden. Public meetings will be held regularly throughout the residency. 

Application period  
October 8, 2021–November 5, 2021 (23:59 CET) (decisions will be announced during January 2022). 
Apply via this link.

Practical info 
Two will be staying in the accommodation in Varberg, and two in Laholm. Each artist will be staying in a private room. 

The residency begins with a comprehensive introduction to the locations and various sites. During the residency, the residency artists will be introduced to local people and activities in Varberg and Laholm. Artistic support will be given throughout the residency period. 

Sites: municipalities of Varberg and Laholm 
The site descriptions below can be read in parallell with each other and are to be considered as starting points for further investigations. The ecological systems surrounding the river Lagan in Laholm are in many aspects analogous to those of Viskan in Varberg. And the same can be said about the soil and its histories. Both municipalities are also coastal communities. How these perspectives and conditions will be adressed, in Laholm and Varberg respectively, depends on the selected artists and their practices. 

Varberg / Water
The mouth of the river Viskan is located in the community Åskloster, in the northern part of the municipality. Here, at Klosterfjorden, freshwater from the lake Tolken is mixed with tributary flows from farming, industrial and forestry areas in Borås, Mark and Varberg, as well as with salt water from the sea Kattegatt. On the north side of the fjord the paper pulp factory of Södra Cell rises towards the sky. When the wind is strong from the west, which it is likely to be, the smell of sulfite can reach almost as far into the land as Viskan itself. Even further north the nuclear plant of Ringhals glimpses through the landscape.  

From this point, where large scale industrial planning meets agricultural land use, fishing and coastal cultures, fragile ecological balances and historical traces, the river meanders through the valley Viskadalen, towards Borås and former textile industries. In a valley that for centuries has been struggling against recurring floods. Touching upon complex connections between nature and culture that has been renegotiated over and over again and which we now once again need to survey.  

Laholm / Earth 
For a very long time the region of Halland was a penurious farming area characterized by endless and futile battles against drifting sand. In the 19th century the living conditions here gradually changed for the better, as did the communities engagement with soil and the strategic use of land. Extensive land ordinance acts, and agrarian reforms, contributed to this socioeconomic shift as well as a shift to more rational, industrial and large scale organization of agricultural production. Thus, the grueling work to improve the soil was made easier and more effective—new ideas and methods for soil conditioning was a driving force behind this development. This transformation of economic, social and productive conditions affected the constitutions of societies, landscapes and ecological systems alike.  

The farmscape surrounding Laholms begins at the coast and by the sea front vacation settlements that were developed on the drifting sand fields in the 1930’s and now are being converted into temporary housing areas and year-round communities. From here it stretches like a quilt all the way to the adjacent region of Småland. The southern border is framed by the steep slopes of the horst “Hallandsåsen” and in the center the river Lagan is winding its way even further into Sweden.  

We are all connected by earth and historic fluctuations in our relationship to earth and soil has made up the foundation for the life we live here. But it is a fragile balance and an entangled system that is difficult to isolate and that requires new imaginary horizons for us to describe, co-exist with and carefully tend to it.  

For any questions write to artinsideout [​at​] regionhalland.se  

*Residency dates are subject to change, and can be adjusted by the host in case of an extraordinary event or such. Any changes in the dates will be advised prior to the residency. 

**To avoid paying taxes also in Sweden, every non-Swedish citizen needs to apply to be exempted from the taxation (30% of the promised sum). Application will be sent to the Swedish tax office, if/after the artist has been selected to the residency.