Hold onto the Air in your Pockets

Announcing the next artist-in-residence taking place at MUŻA!

This residency brings together the work of Johannes Buch and Aidan Celeste, using their skills in digital publication to revisit and curate a narrative with experts from heritage, maritime, and the arts. This collaboration will be used to develop the history of interventions around the Grand harbour, and focus on its relationship to great storms.

How do we deal with such a radical force of nature? How does it shape our values and engagement? This project will take place under the guise of a reading room in the Residency Space, and make room for collaboration on-site and on the coastline. Its output includes events, guest contributions, publications, as well as a new design for a site-specific intervention within the Auberge d’Italie’s walls.

Aidan Celeste’s practice is based in research, publication, and a set of artistic counterpoints. Aidan developed this approach as part of the curatorial team for (nl)Data in the 21st Century in 2015. Essentially, it embeds the arts in real life scenarios, a practice that now finds a host in his contributions to the curatorial team for the upcoming (mt)FUSE in 2021, as well as (eu)AMASS until 2023.

His approach aims to ask better questions and engage critically with the world around us. In Malta, this work included What Will Fall for Maren Richer’s Dal-Baħar Madwarha in 2018, his contribution to Elaine Bonavia’s [V]room of Requirement in 2021, as well as other peer networks of artists such as Fragmenta Malta in 2015, and Momentum in 2019. To know more about Aidan’s current projects, click HERE

Johannes’ practice includes graphic and exhibition design, photography, and curation. Johannes curates with the urban fabric by designing essential details. This often takes the shape of in-situ sculpture, among other disciplines, such as his contributions to the studio, FoAM Filfla, Anna’s Weekend at Blitz Malta, and Fleeting Territories.

As an alumni of (nl)ArtEZ Institute for Art & Design, he studied Graphic Design in Arnhem, as well as Art & Communication Design in Enschede. In addition, he also holds a Master of Arts in Exhibition Design from HS Düsseldorf where he graduated by developing a multichannel cinematographic exhibition about Ethnographic Music and Film. To find out more more about Johannes’ current projects, click HERE

The Residency starts remotely and with private visits as from the 12th of November 2021. It will be open to the public for visits at any time from the 9th December 2021 to 9th January 2022.