CPR 2024: WIBH brings up to 8 international curators to Finland, Norway, and Sweden in September-October 2024 to research the regional art scene with the ambition to get a better understanding of the complex history and current political situation in the Nordics.

The Curatorial Program for Research has facilitated an international network of curators, artists and institutions since 2015. CPR 2024: WIBH is a 3-week intensive curatorial research residency that will invite up to 8 international curators in September-October 2024 to visit Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The fully-funded fellowships allow curators to participate regardless of financial ability and, coupled with the open call, promotes equal access to knowledge and international networks.

CPR 2024: WIBH is CPR’s ninth research program for curators. Since our launch in 2015, CPR has expanded its reach with residencies for artists in Buenos Aires and New York. CPR has funded over 106 artist and curatorial fellowships and has worked towards the representation of underserved artistic communities worldwide.

The open call and programming is organized by CPR Founding Director Carmen Ferreyra; Europe Director Susanne Ewerlöf; with key local specialists: Ruben Steinum (Director, Office for Contemporary Art, Norway), Lena Malm (Head of IASPIS Visual Arts Program), Mariangela Méndez Prencke (Director, Havremagasinet Länskonsthall Boden), and Kati Laakso (Director, Finnish Cultural Institute of New York).

Through the expertise of key local collaborators, and complemented by readings about local socio-political history, curators will partake in a conceptually connected program of visits to artist studios and art institutions - an immersive introduction to the artistic practice, production, and dissemination in the host locations and an opportunity to connect with peers.

The theme of the program will address the ability we have to hear each other’s voices. CPR’s program will delve into the perspectives that are put forward by curators and institutions, searching for those that are left out of conversations. Curators also give back to the visited communities by giving public presentations about the work they are conducting in their home environment and by engaging in critical conversations with hosts and artists in the places we visit. The conversations that start as formal or informal chats during our program lead to actual collaborations within the next few years. Relationships formed during CPR 2022: Back to the North! resulted in three artists being invited to international exhibitions within six months of the program.

The basis of our organization is strong partnerships. CPR grows organically through a continuously expanding network of art practitioners, which results in an organization that keeps on developing its international reach.

Building on our seven years of experience and networking, our 2024 program will continue to work towards Nordic collaboration and representation abroad.

This project is realized with generous support from The Nordic Culture Fund, Frame Finland, The Finnish Cultural Institute of New York, The Office for Contemporary Art, Norway, IASPIS, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Programme for Visual and Applied Arts, the Visual Artist Support Center, Norrbotten, The Swedish Art Council, and The Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York.

In this time of crisis and conflict it is more important than ever to make sure everyone is heard; underrepresented groups, people from the periphery, the non-human and perhaps also echoes from the past. With this in mind we will visit cities and countryside; meet established and emerging artists and actors in adjacent fields. We will discuss if we can bear listening more, listening wider, listening within and even listening to those we don't agree with. This will open a network of discussion that carries the potential to engage the visiting curators with all the experiences they have from their respective places of residence where these issues may have other specific meanings.

We hope to access this through the work of the artists we meet and the research we do collectively on site in each locality. Our local hosts, being experts on these matters, will share literature with the curators to provide further context. Discussions will be encouraged during formal and informal sessions throughout the program and the participants will be expected to provide knowledge based on their own experiences and expertise as well.

The morning sessions will consist of lectures with scholars, community members and other people while afternoons will typically include visits to artists and art institutions ideally with certain topics steering the conversation during one whole day, while others are continuous threads that will reoccur as the program progresses. Minority representation is a topic that we believe curators can share knowledge on based on their professional and personal experiences while hosts and artists can expand that notion to the specific situation on these sites.

Participating curators are not expected to have a previous understanding of the local history of the sites we visit but they are selected based on their interest in the culture of this region including problematic aspects of the history of the Nordic countries and the political issues that are affecting people and non-humans in this geography today. We welcome applicants who already immerse themselves in issues such as the environment, equality, migration, dis-placement, decolonization and indigenous knowledge.

While our program focuses on connecting, educating and training a core group of up to 8 international curators with the local Nordic art scene, the relationship is twofold and in each of our programs, curators privately meet with a minimum of twenty artists per visited city, thus exponentially growing the opportunities for international exposure in the future.

In addition, curators will conduct at least one public presentation per visited country. This ensures that our programs are reachable by a wider audience, and while highly fine-tune production takes place prior to each encounter, we offer a space for spontaneous meetings and relationships to arise. We also create more informal meeting settings by fostering after program meetings at art galleries and artist homes where the personal perspective takes precedence over the professional connection. This ensures more prosperous and long term relationships between local artists and international curators.