PARADISE Knot Digital Artist Residency 2021

PARADISE AIR is implementing a program called “PARADISE Knot,” which carefully searches for connections between artists-in-residence (AIR) and individual solutions for better encounters between AIR and artists.

Due to the spread of the COVID-19, it has become difficult to physically invite artists from abroad to stay at PARADISE AIR (especially this year due to the border measures against the omicron variant). We have decided to use this period as a time to prepare for welcoming future resident artists to Matsudo and to communicate online with artists who plan to stay at PARADISE AIR in the coming year and beyond.

The three artists participating in this program are Nora Aurrekoetxea Etxebarria and Maite Leyun, based in the Basque Country, Spain, and Uzi Weil, based in Israel. During the program, the coordinator introduced the concept behind PARADISE AIR and what Matsudo is like, gave a virtual tour of the facilities and rooms, and showed how the artists staying under the SHORTSTAY Program actually use their rooms and talked about their impressions of their stay. After that, Nora, Maite, and Uzi, who had learned what kind of place PARADISE AIR was, spent a month developing a plan for production during their stay, collaborations with Japanese artists, and so on, then presented it.