The Residency Model
PRAKSIS residencies bring diverse practitioners together to work on themes and questions of mutual interest. Residents become part of a mixed, temporary community: working, conversing, socialising and learning in a research-intensive, supportive, high-energy atmosphere.
Since 2016, PRAKSIS's thematic residencies have run for a month and operated nomadically, joining forces with longstanding and emergent cultural organisations in the Oslo region. Each residency is open to Oslo-based, national and international applicants through open call: applications are welcomed from anyone with relevant experience and interest, irrespective of background, age or career stage.
Informing each residency are PRAKSIS's guiding principles:
Catalyse excellence in creative practice, through supportive group interaction and the sharing of research
Create new, lasting links and mutual understanding between individuals and organisations locally, nationally and across international borders
Increase public insight into the ideas and processes at the core of creative practice, opening art up to diverse audiences
Address topics of contemporary relevance, contributing to international creative practice and discourse
Operate in a sustainable fashion
Stay flexible, maximising the organisation's ability to make the most of new opportunities.
Thematic Residencies
PRAKSIS invites established arts professionals to convene individual residencies around a theme or research question of importance to their own practice. Working with the PRAKSIS team, they devise a bespoke schedule of residency activities, such as workshops, site visits, peer review sessions, seminars, reading groups or discussions. They take part in the open call selection process, and work during the residency period alongside and/or in collaboration with selected participants.
The Residency Community
Applications to join each residency’s core community are welcomed from
Practitioners or theorists with relevant experience and interests at all stages of their careers. : the majority of residencies are interdisciplinary.
International, Norwegian and Oslo-based artists: networking and exchange across cultures is actively promoted.
Each residency is different, so the residency offer, requirements and expectations alter with each theme: specific information on facilities and activities is given in each open call for applications.
Residencies always commence with an introductory meeting and discussion, in which individual and group agendas for the residency are set out and a provisional plan of action agreed. To date, collaborative working has often become a core part of PRAKSIS residencies, but there is no automatic expectation that participants will work collectively. Residents are encouraged to work in the way most beneficial for them individually, whilst actively contributing to the residency's group dynamic and benefitting from its opportunities for the sharing of ideas, knowledge, expertise and experience.
Residents are encouraged to come with research questions of their own—something they wish to gain from participating.
The Wider Community
Local partner organisations are approached as appropriate, to support and share in the residency’s outputs.
Whenever possible, PRAKSIS arranges visits and meetings with local organisations, practitioners and others in the course of each residency and in response to each group's evolving agenda. Previous residency programmes have included networking events with visual arts organisations, diverse meetings with individuals and groups from other areas (for example: computing, philosophy, dance, archival practice, music) and visits to cultural sites and technical facilities.
Public Access
Oslo’s public is offered a window onto PRAKSIS activities wherever possible: for example, through performances, screenings, talks, open studio days, drop-in critiques, seminars and webcasting. Residents are encouraged to explore Oslo’s thriving studio-group culture, and to share expertise and ideas with the city’s creative communities. Residency by residency, documentation of PRAKSIS’s activities is being built into a growing, publicly accessible archive.
Online Platform
PRAKSIS's Internet Projects is a virtual space for the display of digital projects and artworks.
Editions
PRAKSIS editions (multiple works by former residents) are available for purchase online.
