Azahara CEREZO

2017

From : Girona, Barcelona, Spain
To: Valletta, Malta

Residency in Gozo (Malta)

Visual Arts

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How did this grant contribute to the realization of your project in regard to artistic exchange, local cultural development and/or the promotion of cultural diversity?

My project addresses a fragmentary and newly-recognised population phenomenon in the Mediterranean: the International Retirement Migration. That is to say, citizens aged 55 or more who reside (almost) permanently in another country. The first part of the research took shape as a work entitled “Mediterranean Sunset”. It was presented in 2015 within “The culture of ageing”, a group exhibition curated by Lennard Dost and Mare van Koningsveld in St James Cavalier (Valletta, Malta) as part of the VIVA Festival. The work was developed in Spain but the presentation of my work in Malta was supported by the RCF travel grant. I have developed a second step of the project as part of the residencies organized by Valletta 2018 Foundation and Fondazzjoni Kreattività. In this case, the research focuses on Gozo (Malta) as a destination for European retired citizens. Through the collaboration with members of the British Residents Association and other retired foreigners, the work intends to approach im/possible relationships between landscape and memory. The RCF travel grant has made possible my trip to Malta, where I have worked in another context, dealing with a particular population process in the Mediterranean.

How does exchange, networking and international contacts contribute to the development of your artistic and cultural project?

My projects are frequently linked to residencies, so international contacts and exchanges are an important part of the way I conceive my work.

Can you elaborate on the learning and knowledge you have gained and shared throughout this experience?

This residency contributes to take my work a step further in another context, which is not only Gozo and its own history and landscape, but also the bigger frame of Valletta as European Capital of Culture. At the same time, I have learned from the context and the people I have worked with.