The swap, titled 'Almost You', is being realised for the fourth stage which explores hospitality and how art can inspire new understandings and practices of hospitality.
Exchanging office positions is not only about swapping locations but also about changing roles, attitudes and decision-making responsibilities. At base, the office swap aims to come to grips with the ethical implications of hospitality between artist and arts funder and to challenge the conventional funder-funded relationship.
Will Jeanne's experience and 'outsider' input in the daily dynamics of ECF change anything? and vice versa, from his perspective as an arts officer, what will Igor lean during his working time inside an arts organisation?
Stay tuned for the first exciting episode of 'Almost You'...
Every week on Wednesday, Jeanne will continue with her work related to the Blue House but will also take on the role of arts programme officer by exercising her perspective and ideas with other colleagues working in the ECF. Likewise, Igor will transfer his office environment to the Blue House where he will continue to operate the arts programme while also contributing to the development of activities ocurring within the Blue House such as M2M (Migrant to Migrant) — a weekly radio programme broadcast from the Blue House and organised by radio maker Jo van der Speck.
This office-residency hospitality exchange is intended to challenge the usual distinctions between guest and the host, in particular between artist and cultural funding programme, raising questions like: what happens when a 'funding' officer becomes part of an artistic environment and when an artist has the opportunity to practice her work in the rooms and company of others working within the sphere of funding and cultural administration?
“…This (ex)change of physical working environments... is an experiment to see to what extent Jeanne can be influential in the running of the ECF arts programme and its decision-making policy...Here, the cultural practitioner becomes a guest, observing the institution from inside...to share, to recognise, to question and maybe even to clash." — Igor Dobricic