Artist-in-Residence Program AIR InSILo
2020/2025
In the end, artists often find themselves in conditions of isolation and deprivation. Closed off from the exchange of ideas, creative random encounters, activities apart from professional ones, rest and creativity for the sake of creativity.
We believe in the importance of communal solidarity in general, and particularly in the field of art. We are concerned about the policy of isolationism and protectionism, which came into effect before and was amplified by the pandemic lockdown. We are concerned about the exploitative tendencies in the art market, which allow a small minority of artists to receive a decent wage for their labour. We want to oppose disintegration and support an international community of artists with our professional creativity.
Since 2021, AIR InSILo has sought to provide a different kind of space: isolated from metropolitan pollution, obligations, productivity, deadlines and generic motivations. Focused on the interests of the community, whatever shapes it, and the calm, scrupulous research of hidden layers of the average and unremarkable countryside area instead.
By this, AIR InSILo wants to facilitate a safe environment for recharge from burnouts and provide black soil for new sprouts of creativity. Apart from that, AIR InSILo launched an Emergency Program in order to invite and host artists, curators, and cultural workers who suffer difficult life circumstances due to crises, wars, and political persecution.
We believe in the importance of communal solidarity in general, and particularly in the field of art. We are concerned about the policy of isolationism and protectionism, which came into effect before and was amplified by the pandemic lockdown. We are concerned about the exploitative tendencies in the art market, which allow a small minority of artists to receive a decent wage for their labour. We want to oppose disintegration and support an international community of artists with our professional creativity.
Since 2021, AIR InSILo has sought to provide a different kind of space: isolated from metropolitan pollution, obligations, productivity, deadlines and generic motivations. Focused on the interests of the community, whatever shapes it, and the calm, scrupulous research of hidden layers of the average and unremarkable countryside area instead.
By this, AIR InSILo wants to facilitate a safe environment for recharge from burnouts and provide black soil for new sprouts of creativity. Apart from that, AIR InSILo launched an Emergency Program in order to invite and host artists, curators, and cultural workers who suffer difficult life circumstances due to crises, wars, and political persecution.
The Artist-in-Residence Programme AIR InSILo is an independent initiative, organised by artist and curator Ksenia Yurkova and artist and curator Martin Breindl. It is located in a quiet rural area 50 kilometres north of the city of Vienna, in the town of Hollabrunn (Lower Austria), within five minutes walk from the local train station.
Hollabrunn is an agricultural small town, with about 11,000 inhabitants, in the centre of Austria's largest wine-growing region ("Weinviertel"), 20 kilometres south of the border to Czechia. The residency offers the hosted artists workshops to work with wood, metal, any forms of sculpture, media projects, and/ or conceptual art practice and to have space for thinking and research. The residency encompasses an entire floor (70 m2) with a separate entrance in an alone-standing house, shared workshops (60 m2), a spacious courtyard (120 m2), and a garden (300 m2); it can host up to 3 artists with their partners or children (3+ y.o.) simultaneously. The contemporary art world puts artists in the position of private entrepreneurs, ultimate individualists, pursuing their own goals and lacking time to rest or to establish accidental social connections not spudding the prior aims.
Hollabrunn is an agricultural small town, with about 11,000 inhabitants, in the centre of Austria's largest wine-growing region ("Weinviertel"), 20 kilometres south of the border to Czechia. The residency offers the hosted artists workshops to work with wood, metal, any forms of sculpture, media projects, and/ or conceptual art practice and to have space for thinking and research. The residency encompasses an entire floor (70 m2) with a separate entrance in an alone-standing house, shared workshops (60 m2), a spacious courtyard (120 m2), and a garden (300 m2); it can host up to 3 artists with their partners or children (3+ y.o.) simultaneously. The contemporary art world puts artists in the position of private entrepreneurs, ultimate individualists, pursuing their own goals and lacking time to rest or to establish accidental social connections not spudding the prior aims.
AIR InSILo is an artist-run independent initiative, located near the city of Vienna in the town of Hollabrunn (Lower Austria). After selecting the artists via direct invitation or through the thematic call once a year, it offers time and space for process-oriented work on media or conceptual art projects. The residency is equipped with wood and metal workshops; an isolated room for every resident; inside and outside spaces for an undisturbed and focused creative process.
OBJECTIVES:
Understanding artistic creation as a basic need, we are inviting those artists, curators, and researchers who urge to contribute their thoughts and energy to conceptualise the takes on the sustainability of individuum’s lives and ethical challenges and boundaries of sustainability of artistic production; to think of artistic production as non-commodity; to imagine alternative economic systems to sustain artistic production; to define boundaries of living space and workspace, leisure time and work time; to meditate on open-source appropriate technologies and open-design; to find the ways of collaborations of disjoint decentralized communities. We continue rethinking the Umwelt for artistic production, withdrawn from the hindering and repressive frames of cognitive capitalism and commodification logic of the art market.
Understanding artistic creation as a basic need, we are inviting those artists, curators, and researchers who urge to contribute their thoughts and energy to conceptualise the takes on the sustainability of individuum’s lives and ethical challenges and boundaries of sustainability of artistic production; to think of artistic production as non-commodity; to imagine alternative economic systems to sustain artistic production; to define boundaries of living space and workspace, leisure time and work time; to meditate on open-source appropriate technologies and open-design; to find the ways of collaborations of disjoint decentralized communities. We continue rethinking the Umwelt for artistic production, withdrawn from the hindering and repressive frames of cognitive capitalism and commodification logic of the art market.
- During the 2023/2024 round, AIR InSILo aims to create a space for reflection and self-reflection of an artist working in a neoliberal contemporaneity. The conditions of artistic work can be described by the term 'precariat,' which means a newly formed class whose hallmark is a lack of job security, continuous search for employment (on average, one artist applies for 50-70 open calls, spending around up to 300 unpaid hours annually) and funding. The notion of artistic creativity continues to be romanticised to exploit the creators' pursuit of fame and success. It leads to tragic stories of self-exploitation, burnout, and severe inequality, where only 1-3% of successful artists get more than 50% of profits.
- During the 2024/2025 round "Non-Utterance", AIR InSILo aimes to analyse the oppressive atmosphere in the artistic environment and explore censorship and self-censorship in art.
- The inauguration call of AIR InSILo is inspired by the ideas of Leopold Kohr (1909 – 1994), a prominent but underrated Austrian philosopher, whose concept ‘Small is Beautiful’ has saturated the thinking of subsequent researchers and influenced the notions of decentralization with inclinations to localism and post-development theory, degrowth theory, bioregionalism, and the principle of sustainability.
- The Round 2022/2023 aimed to meditate on the present state of technology. The task of the residence – which is a space, an entity, a future community that urges us to be aware of issues of consumption, energy, climate, and equality in a non-capitalist way – is to provide a proper environment that can maximally render the potential of the invited artists. But if we speak about technology, which strategy to choose? We focus on and put the clash of two approaches, degrowth and acceleration, in the centre of our discussion.
OPEN CALLS:
The thematic open call is launched once a year and is usually announced in late spring/ early summer. Every call has its own thematic direction and is designed with the goals and objectives of the residency program.
Facilities
2025
* Separate floor with
- two rooms, 12 m2 and 16 m2
- common kitchen/ dining room 16 m2
- office room 14 m2
- common bathroom 4,5 m2
* Basement 70 m2 with
- storage rooms
- workshops
* Barn 50 m2 with metal/wood workshops equipped with tools
* Equipment to hire (list)
* Spacious courtyard 100 m2
* Garden 300 m2
* 3 Free bicycles
5 min walk from the train station
and nearest shops
45 min travel to the centre of Vienna.
- two rooms, 12 m2 and 16 m2
- common kitchen/ dining room 16 m2
- office room 14 m2
- common bathroom 4,5 m2
* Basement 70 m2 with
- storage rooms
- workshops
* Barn 50 m2 with metal/wood workshops equipped with tools
* Equipment to hire (list)
* Spacious courtyard 100 m2
* Garden 300 m2
* 3 Free bicycles
5 min walk from the train station
and nearest shops
45 min travel to the centre of Vienna.
The critical approach to the concept of sustainability is one of the core research directions of the InSILo residency. For instance, the inauguration call (2021/2022) focused on the notions of decentralization with inclinations to localism, post-development theory, and bioregionalism. The second call (2022/ 2023) focused on a clash of two approaches, degrowth and acceleration; the third call (2023/2024) revolved around the precarity and current state of artistic labour. The fourth call (2024/2025) aimed to analyse the oppressive atmosphere in the artistic environment and explore censorship and self-censorship in art. We also understand sustainability as reciprocity and welcome our residents to see us as collaborators and co-creators rather than elements of infrastructure or service.
But coming to the sustainable infrastructure, in the house, we use solar panels to produce electricity and compost to recycle organic waste and fertilise the garden; we grow our own fruit and vegetables, aim to produce zero waste and burn wood and paper to heat the house. We do not separate the ecology of everyday life from the ecology of artistic production; that is why we repurpose, reuse, and upcycle materials.
But coming to the sustainable infrastructure, in the house, we use solar panels to produce electricity and compost to recycle organic waste and fertilise the garden; we grow our own fruit and vegetables, aim to produce zero waste and burn wood and paper to heat the house. We do not separate the ecology of everyday life from the ecology of artistic production; that is why we repurpose, reuse, and upcycle materials.
