The Davidoff Art Initiative in collaboration with Altos de Chavón School of Design is pleased to announce the first five international artists who will participate in the Davidoff International Art Residency at the newly built residency facilities at Altos de Chavón School of Design in La Romana, Dominican Republic, from January 18 to April 5, 2015.
DAI studios, under construction.
This is a major and defining step for the Davidoff Art Initiative, which has already supported Dominican and Caribbean artists since 2013 by providing opportunities for them to take part in renowned residency programs in New York City, Berlin and Beijing. Now, rounding out the global initiative into a fully two-way cultural exchange, Davidoff is launching its first residency for international artists visiting the Dominican Republic.
Nominated by a global network of art professionals and selected by the Davidoff International Advisory Council, the five artists in the inaugural group represent a diverse range of artistic practices and backgrounds. They are deeply interested in engaging with the social and cultural fabric of the Dominican Republic.
The five artists are: Alia Farid (b. 1985, Kuwait/Puerto Rico), Nuria Montiel (b. 1982, Mexico City, Mexico), Cathleen Mooses (b. 1982, Chicago, IL), Mathilde Rosier (b. 1973, Paris, France), and Soledad Salamé (b. 1954, Santiago, Chile). In addition to pursuing their own work during the residency, the artists will have many opportunities to engage with the Dominican cultural community, as well as with students and residents of Altos de Chavón and the surrounding region.
“Ever since we initiated the Davidoff Art Initiative, we knew that we wanted to engage a dialogue between the Caribbean and the rest of the world,” said Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Oettinger Davidoff AG. “Our primary means to do so was to make sure Caribbean artists could spend time overseas and international artists could spend a meaningful amount of time engaging with the arts and culture of this country and region. With the selection of the first group of incoming international artists, this aspiration is now becoming a reality, and we could not be more pleased with the exceptional artists who were selected for the first year. We look forward to many more.”
The Davidoff International Art Residency hosts emerging and mid-career artists for a period of ten weeks. They will work in new, custom-built artist studios designed by Adolfo Despradel, Director of Planning and Design, Costasur Dominicana S.A. at Altos de Chavón School of Design, the country’s leading institution for art and design education. A graduate of Altos de Chavón, Adolfo Despradel has previously worked in the architectural firm of David Chipperfield in London.
Davidoff International Art Residency plan.
The nominators for the 2015 Davidoff International Art Residency Program were: Aaron Cézar, founding director of Delfina Foundation in London; Amanda Coulson, co-founder/executive director of VOLTA and director of the National Gallery of the Bahamas; Charles Desmarais, president of the San Francisco Art Institute; Mareike Dittmer, co-publisher of Frieze d/e Magazine and publishing consultant of Frieze Magazine; Pablo Helguera, director of adult and academic programs in the Department of Education at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Irene Hofmann, the Phillips Director and Chief Curator of SITE Santa Fe; and Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.
Final decisions were made by Davidoff’s International Advisory Council, which includes Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Associate Curator of El Museo del Barrio, New York, Dominique Bluhdorn, President of the Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation, Dominican Republic, Sara Hermann, Dominican art historian, curator and Founder of the creative collaboration agency Estudio de Sur, András Szántó, New York-based, Budapest-born writer, researcher and Chief Consultant to the Davidoff Art Initiative, Pablo Léon de la Barra, UBS MAP Curator, Latin America, Guggenheim Museum, and Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Oettinger Davidoff AG.
“Altos de Chavón welcomes the Davidoff Art Initiative as affirmation of the global importance of arts in the Caribbean,” said Stephen Kaplan, Secretary of Altos de Chavón Cultural Center Foundation and Rector of Altos de Chavón School of Design. “We are honored and feel privilege to be part of the meritorious project. The diverse group of international artists who will be welcomed in Chavón will bring us to the world and the world to us. Thank you, Davidoff Art Initiative for the opportunity to be part of your marvelous enterprise.”
About the Artists
Alia Farid (b. 1985, Kuwait/Puerto Rico) is a contemporary artist who works at the intersection of art and education through the activation of spaces for critical thinking and action. Alia holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from La Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, USA; a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Visual Arts Program at MIT, Cambridge, MA; and a Masters in Museum Studies and Critical Theory from the Programa d’Estudis Independents at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. She has completed residencies at Beta Local in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Casa Árabe. Córdoba, Spain; the Serpentine Gallery, London, UK; and Mathaf, Doha, Qatar. She currently works at Kuwait’s Heritage and Museums Department of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters in developing public programs and enhancing cross-institutional relationships. Farid is also a curator and she recently curated the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for Architecture 2014. For her International Davidoff Art Residency program she will be researching pre-colonial culture and the relationship between various cultures between the Caribbean Islands.
Alia Farid – El monstruo marino, 2007 Mixed media (Workshop and public intervention) Short description: A site-specific workshop held in La Perla (a illegal sub-barrio of Old San Juan) in which facilitators and participants together thought-up and built a floating structure in the shape of a sea monster. El monstruo marino was made for exploring the Atlantic Ocean that borders the community, and is a metaphor for harnessing fear and venturing out into the unknown.
Nuria Montiel (b. 1982, Mexico City, Mexico) is interested in public art as it allows a space for dialogue and collective expression. Her work has been shown in various group exhibitions including Panamericana at Kurimazutto Gallery in Mexico City, Antena at Baffler Art Museum in Houston and The New York Art Book Fair 2012, Mx Editions at MoMA PS1 in New York City, among others. She is also a member of La Galería de Comercio, a non profit arts organization that creates public art projects in Mexico City. She studied Visual Arts at La Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (ENAP-UNAM) and attended a contemporary art class at Soma, an artist organization dedicated to cultural exchange and arts pedagogy in Mexico City. Nuria is currently in a Jackman Goldwasser residency program at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago.
Cathleen Mooses (b. 1982, Chicago, IL.) is interested in the regulation of landscapes, people and objects within specific geographic contexts. From 2004-2009 Mooses cofounded various community art initiatives in Latin America. These projects created a platform for over forty New York City-based artists to make their work and teach art in lowincome communities. In 2005, Mooses received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art, New York City, NY. In 2014, Mooses finished her Masters of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Art, Painting & Printmaking, New Heaven, CT. Cathleen Mooses lives and works in New York City.
Cathleen Mooses. Cuadernos Scribe. Concrete cast of Scribe notebooks in boxes, mirror and pencil, 2014.
Mathilde Rosier (b. 1973, Paris, France) works across a range of media including painting, music, performance and film. Rosier holds a Bachelor of Economic Sciences at Dauphine University, Paris. In 1994, she received a Master degree in Economic Sciences. From 1997 to 1999 Rosier studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Paris and in 2000, she received a diploma from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts. Her work is inspired by the aesthetics of rituals in traditional societies. In 2012, Mathilde Rosier received a Fellowship from the French Ministry Foreign Affairs ministry, where she did an anthropologic research about the groups who practice magic in present day western society. She is currently working on a performance for a theatre in Warsaw and a series of paintings for a gallery show in Milan. Mathilde Rosier currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Mathilde Rosier, All The Time I Walk with Time, 2010. Performance. Museum Abteiberg Monchengladbach
Soledad Salamé (b. 1954, Santiago, Chile) is an interdisciplinary artist who works with printmaking, installations, painting, and sculpture. Through her work, Soledad explores the intersections between technology and the environment. Soledad holds a Bachelors of Arts from Santiago College, Santiago, Chile. In 1973, she studied Industrial and Graphic Design at the Technological Sucre, Caracas, Venezuela and in 1979 she received her M.A. for Graphic Arts Instruction for Graphic Instruction at the Consejo Nacional de la Cultura (CONAC) in Caracas, Venezuela. Soledad Salomé’s work is represented in private and public international collections such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC; The Baltimore Museum of Art, in Baltimore, MD; and the University of Essex, UK. Soledad lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.
Soledad Salamé. Antenna. 2014. Silkscreen & relief printing on Fabriano paper
14.75″ X 23.25″
About Altos de Chavón School of Design
The Altos de Chavón School of Design is a study center of global impact, a pioneer in the teaching of art and design in the Dominican Republic. Founded in 1983 to meet the growing commercial and industrial demands of the Dominican Republic, The School offers degree programs in all areas of art and design in formats long and short duration: Graphic Design, Fashion Design, Fine Art, Illustration, Digital Design, Interior Design, Photography, Film Production and Architecture.
About the Davidoff Art Initiative
The Davidoff Art Initiative supports contemporary art and artists in the Caribbean, strengthens art organizations in the Dominican Republic, shares knowledge and expertise about contemporary art and fosters cultural engagement between the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
At the core of the Art Initiative, Davidoff aims to engage closely with the arts and culture life of the Dominican Republic cultural community, where much of its production and so many of its employees are based, bring opportunity and visibility to the art and culture of the Caribbean region, extending the company’s long-standing commitment to artistry, craftsmanship, community and quality.
The Davidoff Art Initiative’s four global program areas are: the Davidoff Art Residency, Davidoff Art Dialogues, Davidoff Art Grants, and Davidoff Art Editions. For more information, please visit: www.davidoffartinitiative.com