Borderland Residencies, Heerlen en Venray

Greylight Projects is a visual art platform that focuses on the development and presentation of visual and contemporary art projects. Greylight Projects is keen to stimulate collaboration and connection between artists, to unite makers and give them the opportunity to engage.

Since 2020, the artist-driven organisation has been based in a former school building close to the centre of Heerlen, once the epicentre of Dutch coal mining. The building has various spaces supporting a range of uses, including a large multifunctional exhibition space, ‘the Salon’, a well-equipped workshop, a canteen and a large garden. The location has a strong connection with the neighbourhood, the city and the region. Guided by the open question ‘Where are we now?’, Greylight Projects invites artists to consider the relationship between art, space, time and the audience. How do we experience the changing (mental) architecture? The residency is especially keen to attract artists who have a connection with these concerns, and who work using research, installations (video, sculpture, or audio), performances or other media. The Greylight Projects team will supervise the artist during the residency.

Odapark is in Venray, North Limburg, a region that is home to a ‘raw material’ that is urgently needed in the Netherlands: space. The countryside is currently seen as the solution to a wide range of urban problems. It is in this space that wind farms are envisaged, but also new housing estates, meandering rivers, data centres, migrant worker hotels, forest gardens, sanctuaries, sunbathing areas, mega farm sheds, psychiatric treatment clinics and asylum seekers’ centres. But is there sufficient space in the Netherlands to realise all of these ‘dreams’? The planned changes in North Limburg evoke intense responses and emotions – both positive and negative – from people living in the area, sometimes with clear differences of opinion between generations. Odapark wants to be actively involved in the discussion, and present (alternative) proposals that are driven by the imagination. The residency is especially keen to attract artists looking to work on projects for or in harmony with the natural environment and surrounding landscape, in the shape of installations, material research, performances or sound walks. The guest studio offers views of the surrounding park and woodlands. The artistic team from Odapark are on hand to assist residents.

The Euregion offers fertile ground for artistic development and reflection. Eight organisations in the Dutch-German border area – Kunstmuseum Bochum, Schloss Ringenberg in Hamminkeln, Kulturforum Alte Post in Neuss, Kunstgenerator in Vierssen, Internationales Atelierstipendium Mönchengladbach, Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo, Greylight Projects and Odapark – collaborate within Borderland Residencies. The organisations have created a programme that provides residents with the time and space to develop their work and broaden their network. The Borderland Residencies programme consists of multi-day field trips, meetings with curators and institutions, lectures, presentations and workshops, on both sides of the border.