Frac Grand Large Dunkirk artist residency open call for visual artists based in Northern Ireland

Magnetic 2 has been designed to foster artistic development through exchange and to enhance sustainable cooperation between the UK and French visual arts scenes in the longer term. The programme is characterised by several strengths. Societal and environmental issues will be at the heart of the programme, with the eight selected artists expected to work in resonance with each specific context –geographical or historical, societal, artistic etc.

Northern Ireland based visual artists can now apply to take part in the Fran Grande Large residency in Dunkirk. To make an application, candidates must submit a CV and a proposal outlining their motivations and intentions in relation to the concerned venue and its context. All applications must be submitted via the Fluxus Art Projects website https://fluxusartprojects.com/apply where additional information regarding the programme can be found. Applications are now open and will close on 29 August 2023

The Frac Grande Large residency in Dunkirk is run by the Frac Grand Large in partnership with the Ecole Supérieure d’art Dunkerque | Tourcoing. Located at a geographic and cultural crossroads (United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, etc.), the Frac Grand Large is the leading organisation of a network of regional and European partners promoting the circulation of ideas, artists and artworks. Its artistic project is based on its collection, conceived as a tool to build relations with local communities, and its invited artists and curators who anchor their reflection within a context marked by its industrial history and its transformations.

Artists will receive a threshold monthly fee of 2500 € / £2100, as well as curatorial mentoring. Each two-month residency will be tailor-made in discussion with the institutions’ curatorial teams, providing the artist with networking opportunities throughout their stay. Artists will be provided with accommodation and access to a work space.

The Frac and Ecole Supérieure d’art Dunkerque | Tourcoing welcome applications that shed light on the artistic, social, and economic links and tensions between art and industry, at a time of ecological urgency and the Anthropocene. The Frac is also particularly interested in research related to art deployed in the public space. More information on this particular residency can be found here. 

Suzanne Lyle, Head of Visual Arts, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, added, “The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is delighted to collaborate with the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni, our arts funding colleagues across these islands, British Council, the Institut français and the French Ministry of Culture, in this terrific Franco-UK initiative. This important programme offers a valuable opportunity for visual artists from NI to engage with their counterparts in France with the aim of using the arts to connect, exchange and develop a shared understanding through the creation of new work.”

Applications are now open and will close on 29 August 2023. To make an application, candidates must submit a CV and a proposal outlining their motivations and intentions in relation to the concerned venue and its context. All applications must be submitted via the Fluxus Art Projects website https://fluxusartprojects.com/apply where additional information regarding the programme and the eight institutions can be found.

The Magnetic 2 laureate artists will be announced mid-October 2023 and residencies will start in Autumn 2023.

For further information on all Arts Council NI funding opportunities visit www.artscouncilni-org/funding

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Notes to editors:

Magnetic is a new collaboration conceived by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni and Arts Council England, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council Wales and Creative Scotland, joined by the British Council, the Institut français and the French Ministry of Culture. Magnetic is produced under the umbrella of Fluxus Arts Projects, a charity founded and run by the Institut and supported by French and UK public partners and private donors. Over the past thirteen years, Fluxus Art Projects has become a marker of notoriety for artists and venues, supporting exhibitions and curatorial research both in France and in the United Kingdom.

Magnetic 2 has partnered eight leading institutions in France and the UK. This year, to strengthen relations between the institutions across the Channel, the programme will be based on a tandem partnership between a French region and a UK nation. The artists based in a French region will apply for a residency in a UK nation, and vice versa. Tandems will associate CAPC in Bordeaux/Nouvelle-Aquitaine with Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge/England, Frac Bretagne in Rennes/Brittany with Aberystwyth Arts Centre/Wales, Frac Grand Large in Dunkirk/Hauts-de-France with Flax Art Studios in Belfast/Northern Ireland, and Villa Arson in Nice/Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur with Cove Park/Scotland.