Farid Abdullayev was the Executive Director at YARAT Contemporary Art Space, a non-profit arts organization in Baku. Founded in 2011 as a pioneering platform for contemporary art, YARAT focuses its mission on nurturing and enhancing understanding of contemporary arts in Azerbaijan. They produce popular ongoing exhibitions, community interactions, educational programs and festivals. In March 2015 YARAT opened its own multi-disciplinary space which greatly enlarged their capacity for programming.

As Executive Director, Abdullayev’s work is focused on exploration of new models of community engagement and new strategies of audience development. While in the US, Abdullayev gained experience in strategic planning and public relations practices. He is also interested in the role art administrators can play in animating public space.

A sculptor, designer and performer, Albena Baeva uses a combination of elements to lure audiences into participation. In her work The Last Benjamin, audience members were invited to cycle on a simulated bicycle, perspiring in order to provide moisture to the Ficus benjamina displayed in a vitrine, thereby pointing out human impact on the environment. Her current interests explore processes of myth-making and social narration in an urban context.

Albena is a founder of Runabout, a project that investigates commonalities between art forms through an ongoing series of cross-disciplinary interactive performances. She is also co-organizer of local dorkbot activities. During her residency in the US, she looked forward to meeting with artists and students who share her interest in cross-disciplinary technological research and hoped to cultivate connections with US cultural organizations working in this area.

Website
Facebook
Instagram

In her capacity as Project Development and Fundraising Coordinator at Anadolu Kültür, a non-profit arts and cultural organization in Istanbul, Ertürk focuses on programs that use artistic production in visual arts and multi-media to bolster cultural diversity, and broaden cultural rights, participation and dialogue. Her current program, BAK: Revealing the City through Memory, brings young people together around social issues to engage in creative, collective activities and allows them to pave a way for open discussion and mutual understanding.

Ertürk looked forward to opportunities for sharing her experience with colleagues in the US and to observing diverse practices of civil engagement via the visual arts.

Facebook
Instagram

Artist and cartoonist Göksu Gül combines her talent in drawing with a deep curiosity about biological processes and the forces that bind living things together. Developed through rigorous observation of nature and the environment, her meticulous drawings reflect growth, mutation and decay. These processes are further investigated via latex and silicon in her large-scale sculptural work.

During her residency in the U.S. Gül wanted to see work which utilized the materials she employs and to create new work.

Instagram

Trained in mathematics and mechanics, Yakubov uses technology and media in the public sphere to explore the dialectic of the visible and hidden through engagements with non-art audiences. In a recent investigation of urban lighting, he used micro-electronic IR sensors to alter the behavior of the lighting in a pedestrian underpass. In addition to his artistic practice, he runs a school for young people, teaching the basics of electronics through media art projects.

Yakubov looked forward to meeting colleagues and organizations in the U.S. who were also exploring media technology. He was also interested in U.S. pedagogy relating to applied media and media theory.

Facebook
Instagram

For the last several years Jakalová has managed the Artists-in-Residence program at the MeetFactory Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prague, the largest AIR program in the Czech Republic, which hosts more than 30 artists and other cultural practitioners annually. Aside from developing the program’s artistic and managerial concepts, Jakalová curates up to 7 solo and or group shows a year. She works closely with visiting artists to develop presentation models and productions that go beyond the traditional exhibition format.

During her residency in the U.S. she welcomed the chance to elaborate on and rethink models and institutional strategies employed by artists in residencies organizations and to observe their day-to-day administration.

Instagram

The most recent interest Kubiak pursues in her practice is the power of illusion and the role of scenography. She is especially interested in the constructions and artifice of Hollywood filmmaking. Her interests extend to the ambiguity of common space and she has worked within venues and buildings that have have been demolished or altered, as was the case in her last performance, The Kiosk, which took place in an abandoned coffee and ice-cream stand in Tranas, Sweden. She has had one-person shows in Poznan and Lyon and has been included in group exhibitions throughout Europe.

Kubiak dedicated her time in the U.S. to developing a new project with American collaborators and continued her historical film research.

Website

As a freelance photojournalist, Elyor Nematov is interested in human rights, anthropology and personal stories. In 2012 he received a grant from Open Society Foundation’s Documentary Photography Project and began his current examination of migrant laborers from Central Asia. His project, I Am A Foreigner, addressed the issues and daily problems of migrants in Russia. Often undocumented, these workers can become subject to hazardous conditions and illegal situations.

Elyor also works with students at the American University in Central Asia to develop their photojournalistic skills. Besides his contributions to photo magazines and publishing houses in Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, his work recently appeared on the pages of The Guardian and among Getty Images.

Elyor continued to document migrant workers during his residency in the US. He also was interested in seeing diverse U.S. cultures and subcultures, and in sharing ideas with local photographers.

Website
Instagram

Trained in sculpture, Radić now works with photography, video and installation to draw attention to the communication gaps and misapprehensions that so frequently occur. Radić’s work explores the ways that the understanding of certain images and art across cultures can fail. Radic has participated in myriad group shows and has had over forty solo shows internationally. She is currently interested in found snapshots and amateur videography. During her residency she looked forward to continuing this research. She also hoped to gain an understanding of US culture beyond popular media imagery. 

Website

Filmmaker Ikhbayar Urchuud addresses issues of contemporary Mongolian society through his cinematic vision. His recent feature documentary, Uran Khas (The Will to Art), is an observation of the lives and resurgent shamanist interests of featured contemporary Mongolian artists. The film was presented during the 2015 Berlinale Talents master class. He is also actively involved in community engagement programs for disadvantaged youth which assist in the development of life skills and creativity.

Urchuud is the founding director of the Golden Reel International Underground Film Festival, which encourages international cooperation among experimental filmmakers in Mongolia and abroad though a slate of experimental short films.

While in the U.S., Urchuud sought access to film archives and the opportunity to engage with and develop future collaborations.

Facebook
Instagram