NAN

In December 2008, Basement Art Project was granted a NAN Go and See bursary to travel to the Netherlands for research and development. Artists’ Networks Coordinator Emilia Telese talks to Yu-Chen Wang of Basement Art Project about the bursary and its impact on the group:

ET: Yu-Chen, tell us about Basement Art Project.

YW: We are a contemporary art network I lead together with a group of international artists, curators and researchers. We have no fixed premises and we started in July 2005 as an internet-based project space. Recently we curated a number of exhibitions addressing the artists’ practice reflecting on contemporary life and the exploration of presenting works in different context, including ‘New life and the Dream Garden’ at Fieldgate Gallery, London; ‘Two Hopes’ at Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, Georgia; ‘My Still Life as a Personal Object’ at Alma Enterprises, London; ‘Out of Place Day to Day’ at alternative art fair: De Kunstvlaai A.P.I. Amsterdam.

ET: What did you want to achieve through your NAN bursary?

YW: We wanted to travel to the Netherlands to investigate the notion of artist-run space and to establish some analogies on why how these artist-run spaces exist and their significance or influence in the art world and policy-making in Dutch cultural industries.

BasementArtProject.com is interested in creating dialogues between the artists, artist-run spaces and the projects they produce. Also to make contacts and create opportunities for future artists’ collaboration between the Netherlands and the UK.

ET: What did you find out during your trip?

YW: The visit was an inspirational learning experience for us. We had the opportunity to visit four artist-run spaces and to extend the contacts we have made last year during taking part at Kunstvlaai, Amsterdam. The trip helped to develop future collaboration between our projects in the UK and Netherlands. We have learned the spaces’ history and how these spaces currently operate. The experience and development they have offer us creative thoughts and practical advices. The most interesting aspect is to exchange the idea of how artists running a space and the influence on their individual practice.

ET: What do you think will be the effect of your NAN bursary for your group in the long term?

YW: For the past few years, following by the growth of the project, I have been thinking whether to find a base in London or continue to organise exhibitions in different spaces. The visit to artist-run space had offered us some different point of view and their experience, so continuing to develop international collaboration is one of our interests. The visit was a networking platform for both BasementArtProject.com and the four artist-run spaces in the Netherlands. All of them had shown the interests for the future working relationship.The NAN bursary offered a great opportunity and learning experience for our project. The trip was very inspirational for our future development. The articles on a-n magazine and the website helped introduced some new audiences to our project. I am very pleased!

See Basement Art Project’s NAN profile on www.a-n.co.uk/nan/organisation/62359

First published: a-n.co.uk August 2009