Giorgio van Meerwijk (NC 2020) selected for the New Contemporaries Research Residency with British School at Rome
New Contemporaries is delighted to announce that Giorgio van Meerwijk (NC 2020) has been selected for the New Contemporaries x British School at Rome research residency from 27 September to 24 October 2023.
"I am really grateful of receiving this research residency at the British School at Rome and New Contemporaries which will allow me to study St John’s Wort more in depth. I will be researching the folklore and history of this plant and its relation with the Christianisation of Southern Europe by reaching out to ethnobotanists, historians, horticulturists and librarians".
Giorgio van Meerwijk (b.1998, Toulouse) is a London-based artist working with sculpture. Mixing traditional crafts and found materials, his work is both sensorial and alluding to images as visions. Stone is carved, clay mixed with sand and straw or shaped and fired, seeds stuck on melting rosin creating assemblages of materials. Central to his work is herbalism, which intertwines folklore, medicine as a practice and its history, modern scientific research and belief systems. The intricacy of the knowledge and myths around a plant throughout history paired with a sensorial exploration of the plant are then formed into sculptural and pictorial narratives.
Founded in 1901, the BSR — the UK’s leading research institute abroad — is a centre of interdisciplinary research excellence in the Mediterranean, supporting the full range of arts, humanities and social sciences. Behind its Lutyens-designed façade in central Rome, a succession of resident scholars, architects and artists engage with the art, history and culture of Italy, the Mediterranean and the wider world through a rich variety of research projects conducted in its world-class Library, artist studios and event spaces. We create an environment for work of international standing and impact from Britain and the Commonwealth, and provide a bridge into the intellectual and cultural heart of Rome, Italy and the Mediterranean basin.
The BSR is exceptionally well networked with Italian institutions, superintendencies and universities. It also has closed links with the remarkable group of some twenty other foreign academies in Rome. As a result, the BSR is uniquely placed to add value to international training, practice and research.
The BSR supports:
About Residential Awards at the BSR
Residential awards at the BSR provide unprecedented access to Rome and Italy. They offer the superb opportunity to research and focus upon work away from normal pressures, and to use the BSR as a base to make the best use possible of the remarkable resources that the city offers.
The vibrant interdisciplinary community provides an environment such that most people have never encountered throughout their education and/or professional career. There are numerous opportunities — whether over breakfast, lunch and dinner, in workshops and lectures, whilst relaxing in the common spaces, or whilst on site visits — to exchange ideas and viewpoints, with incredible synergies emerging in expected and unexpected ways.
The regular programme of events that are open to the public enables residents to meet and interact with others in their own and other disciplines. A programme of group exhibitions gives all artists and architects the opportunity to show their work.
A wide range of awards is open to fine artists at every career stage, from immediate graduate on. Similarly in the ‘humanities’, award-holders go from postgraduate students to emeritus professors, with all stages in between. Former award-holders in the visual arts include Richard Billingham, Spartacus Chetwynd, Adam Chodzko, Lucy Gunning, Chantal Joffe, Hayley Newman, Laure Prouvost, Elizabeth Price, Florian Roithmayr, Daniel Silver, Daniel Sinsel and Mark Wallinger.
Camille Yvert (NC Alumni 2019) was the fourth recipient of New Contemporaries Residency with British School at Rome, undertaking a 1-month Research Residency in 2022.
Camille Yvert, How I naturally improved, 2021
"I am delighted to be joining the New Contemporaries Research Residency with British School at Rome. This is a unique opportunity for me to develop my current field of research and to extend my practice to new media. During the residency I will investigate both the technics of auralization: a procedure used in car design industry to simulate a virtual sound environment, and the material decisions made in car design to match luxury standards and acoustic performance. Working collaboratively with an acoustic designer, I will start a series of conversations concerned with the gender roles that lie beyond the luxury car industry narrative."
Camille Yvert
Read Camille Yvert's blog here
Leah Capaldi (NC alumni 2011) was the third recipient of New Contemporaries Residency with British School at Rome, undertaking a 1-month Studio Residency in 2021.
Leah Capaldi, Big Slit, 2021, Matt's Gallery
Read Leah Capaldi's blog here
Laura Hindmarsh (Alumni 2019) was the second recipient of New Contemporaries Residency with British School at Rome, undertaking a 1-month Studio Residency in 2022.
Laura Hindmarsh, Sea, swallow, me, 2021
Read Laura Hindmarsh's blog here
Marco Godoy was the first recipient of New Contemporaries Residency with British School at Rome, undertaking a 1-month Studio Residency in 2022.
Marco Godoy, In the service of vision, 2020, Mirrored riot shields and collaborations with protesters, Chile.
