About Yildiz and Kine artist residency: a summary

Trust, searching, listening to personal stories and changing dynamics of work. Read about the residency process of the first participants of the residency exchange “Whose voices are being heard?” in Wrocław – Kine Michelle Bruniera and Lill Yildiz Yalcin!

If I were to choose the word that best describes the first month of the residency in Wrocław, it would be trust. Lill Yildiz Yalcin and Kine Michelle Bruniera spent four busy weeks with us. It was quite a challenge for everyone – we met for the first time in person, with no idea of what to expect from each other, how our collaboration would work, and what the results would be.

That being the case, we had to trust each other and the process we had become part of from the very beginning. We knew we should not rush our residency projects, as it could work to their disadvantage. Yildiz and Kine were also quickly swept away by the whirlwind of art events happening in Wrocław in May, and simply finding oneself in a new environment can be stimulating, sometimes even overly so. Such a short residency program requires skillful balancing of time between getting to know places and people, working, and just being alone. It is not entirely possible to plan and predict it all, so one is left to trust their intuition. During the month-long residency, reality accelerates and intensifies, things happen simultaneously, and often not in the order we would like them to, and things of most importance happen somewhere in between.

A photo of an artist talking about her practice in a residence apartment. Pasted on the walls are photos of the artist — photo by Jerzy Wypych

photo of the artist in her studio, where she is cutting a metal rod with an angle grinder. Sparks are flying spectacularly all around, forming a half circle — photo by Jerzy Wypych

Over the course of May, each of us had moments of anxiety, doubt, and fatigue. It was vital that we permitted ourselves to feel this way, trusting that these moments are part of the process and that they are just as important as those filled with creativity and productivity.

In their ideas for activities in Wrocław, both residents focused on listening to the stories told by the people they met.

Kine was looking for stories surrounding abortion, and sharing them required a great deal of trust. The accounts she collected will be used to build a visual narrative, including pieces of biographies, legal and moral norms, cultural and social frameworks, or the constraints they create. The Catholic Church plays a significant role here as a regulator of popular and individual beliefs.

photo of a corkboard with attached photos, notes, flyers and stickers creating a map of the residency process and a kind of archive of the Kine residency — photo by Jerzy Wypych

aerial shot of the artist looking through an album of family black and white photos from the previous century — photo by Jerzy Wypych

The development of Yildiz’s work followed a similar course, as she spent the first part of her residency researching stories about human relationships with other animals. These inspired her to create an object out of reinforced steel acquired from Wrocław’s demolition sites. The artist gave it new meanings by bending it into animal shapes and then combining them all into one hybrid form, resembling a cage and being its contradiction at the same time.

A photo of an artist using a special machine to bend bars of steel by using the force of her body to give them a new shape — photo by Jerzy Wypych

photo of the artist measuring the bends of the steel rods with a string by spreading the objects on the floor — photo by Jerzy Wypych

I trust that all of these stories have only just begun during the residencies and that they will continue in the form of the autumn exhibition, but also as a driving force for subsequent activities, and that their energy will live on in the relationships established in Wrocław.

Agata Ciastoń – art curator

Ressidency project: “Whose voices are being heard?”

Residents: Lill Yildiz Yalcin i Kine Michelle Bruniera
Place of residency: Wrocławski Instytut Kultury (Wrocław, Polska)
Practice: visual effects, sculpture, documental areas

Local partners :MiserArt
Organizers: Wrocławski Instytut Kultury, private art institution Hvitsten Salong in Hvitsten (a small town with difficult access to culture) i NGO Safemuse z Oslo.

„Whose voices are being heard? Exchange program for foreign artists from Poland and Norway” is a project co-financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway from the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 under the Culture programme.