Tracy & Edwin were delighted to be in residence as Agents of Change with artconnexion in Lille, France, acting as critical friends.
Tracy & Edwin were delighted to be in residence as Agents of Change with artconnexion in Lille, France, acting as critical friends in 2020.
Having transformed the gallery space through the introduction of designed components, a series of structured sessions and informal conversations allowed them to delve into an organisation that is shaped by an extremely committed team. As positive provocateurs, they worked with Amanda Crabtree, Sébastien Deltombe, Elisa Lombard, Zoé Baetens and Hélène Sumian who generously shared their experiences of a small scale independent entity, and their ambitions for its future.
In public and private meetings with various stakeholders including board members, interns, students, artists and other art professionals, artconnexion’s role as an organisation that connects art, society and publics has been confirmed as vital to the cultural infrastructure in their part of the world. Exchanges were guided by the question ‘What’s the purpose of artconnexion in a changing world?’. And a radical change was certainly underway at the time of the residency, as the COVID-19 Coronavirus impacted greatly on the daily lives of people around the world and governments struggled to devise and implement strategies to protect their citizens against the pandemic.
In its programme that is made up of ‘new patrons’ commissions, exhibitions, events and activities such as education, research and publishing, artconnexion continues to make a significant contribution to cultural production in Lille and beyond. During the residency Tracy & Edwin supported the team in renewing its philosophy, devising a code of practice and describing a sustainability agenda, and contributed to the development of the 2021 programme.
artconnexion is re-articulating its main areas of interest and modes of production. Refreshed definitions have been used to structure the publication made during the residency that records the process of Tracy & Edwin’s engagement. The artconnexion Observations offers action points to empower the team to realise what it aimed to achieve during the Agents of Change: Refresh! project.
