Résidence [43.5], an artist-in-residence programme specialising in artistic research and creation, was launched in 2011 in Aix-en-Provence at the initiative of Michèle Cohen, director of the art gallery La Non-Maison, with the support of the ALMAYUDA FOUNDATION. Résidence [43.5] is a member of CIMAM, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art.


 

Résidence [43.5] is located at number 22 on Rue Pavillon in Aix-en-Provence, a street made famous by the drawings and watercolours by the painter Léo Marchutz. Rue Pavillon is in the city’s old quarter, just a short walk from the Granet Museum, the brasseries on Cours Mirabeau and the shops on Rue d’Italie. It is also very close to the villages in the Pays d’Aix region and Montagne Sainte-Victoire, the mountain ridge so dear to Cézanne. Refurbished throughout by an architect, the property occupies 150 m2 on two floors and a mezzanine, and is situated above La Non-Maison art gallery. On the top floor, below the glass roof, is a well-lit studio, the heart of the residence, a privileged place for creation and research.

Time is suspended

Le plasticien Badr El-Hammami pendant son séjour. Réalisation Melania Avanzato.

Résidence [43.5] was created as a way to contribute to the development of contemporary art and to foster encounters between artists. It offers them a change of scene and an opportunity to experience an intermission, time suspended in an unfamiliar place, and to reinvent the links between their art and their lives. By withdrawing from their everyday life, the artist can rediscover the ‘place of retreat’ necessary for creation: no longer being there so that something else can exist.

 

No longer being there so that something else can exist

Supported by the ALMAYUDA FOUNDATION, Résidence [43.5] accepts international artists (plastic artists, photographers, exhibition curators, art critics and filmmakers) for a period of three months. At the end of their stay, the artists share their knowledge, networks and ideas, contributing to making the residence a place of exchanges and encounters, from which will emerge other invitations and other projects led by co-opted artists.

Every June, Résidence [43.5] organises a group exhibition entitled A Corner of the World featuring the work produced by the artists who have come from all four corners of the world to spend a period of time in residence here, and displaying it to advantage before the attentive eyes of invited curators. These and other artists will make this house where they have worked an artwork in its own right, from the cellar to the attic, including the drawers and cupboards!

Ever since it opened in January 2011, Résidence [43.5] has accepted almost 30 artists from around the globe: Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, the USA and elsewhere. It is extremely proud, not only to have enabled some artists to spend time abroad for the first time in their lives, but also to have facilitated some excellent encounters that have led to fruitful projects.

For example, Bernard Plossu and Abdellah Karroum combined forces to publish Maroc 1975; during his residence, John Cohen raised the ALMAYUDA FOUNDATION’s awareness of the cause of the Q’eros people of Peru; and Didier Ben Loulou set off to India to work with the young orphans at Ramana’s Garden. Many are the projects supported by ALMAYUDA that have departed from the strictly cultural sphere and have made forays into other realms and towards other horizons.

Photos and vidéo : Mélania Avanzato

Testimony

Harel Luz

“At the start, I thought it would be difficult for me to be intellectually stimulated in such a quiet place because I was used to the tumult of Tel Aviv. I was extremely surprised to find the opposite was true. The unique atmosphere at the residence helped me to focus better on my work, on the task I was engaged in and, as I spent a huge amount of time on my works, I needed silence. Moreover, I could work without worrying about the problems of everyday life, the rent and so forth.”

Ivan Boccara

“These two and a half months in residence have enabled me to collect, put into order and organise 27 years’ worth of photographs. The residence is a space and a precious time; it fosters creation, isolation, encounters and the flow of ideas.”

 

Useful link : www.residence43-5.com