With the objective of supporting the artistic activity of emerging artists, this program, spearheaded by the ARCUS Project, was first launched in 1994 through an initiative by the provincial government of Ibaraki, organizers of the event. In its twenty years of history, ARCUS has been inviting 8 artists from 27 countries to support their artistic and research projects during the time of their residencies. The program emphasizes the "process" of creation and, therefore, avoids turning the final presentation into the central focus of the projects and, instead, encourages research in situ within an established period of time. It also requires that the research or artistic project be open to the public with the objective of sharing the goals and experiences. The proposals for these residencies must be conceived as temporary pieces that guarantee the return of the area in which it was placed to its original state once the project has ended. Since the program targets the promotion of international exchange, those who apply for the residency must be nationals of any country except Japan. Only one artist per country/region will be considered. The call is open to emerging artists involved in contemporary visual production or in other fields associated with it, who have an acceptable handling of the English language that permit them to communicate with the colleagues and sponsors participating in the program. Only individual applications will be accepted. For group proposals, please include the group's name in the application and follow the instructions available at the ARCUS Project website. The program will be developed from the end of August through the beginning of December of 2014, during a period that expands 100 days. Each artist in residence will be provided with a personal space-studio, lodging with basic conveniences. The residency will also cover roundtrip traveling expenses; will give each candidate 150,000.00 yen for food and 450,000.00 yen for any expenses associated with the production of the project. There will be a permanent support office staffed with ARCUS team members and a guest curator. They will be entrusted with organizing activities around the development of the works and will be available to assist artists with whatever they need to develop their proposals. The deadline to receive in Japan all applications is May 9 of 2014. Any applications received after that date will not be accepted. The artists selected will be announced at the beginning of June, 2014. For the complete rules of the call and to download the application form visit:
www.arcus-project.com