Other modes of residency

IRIS LAM: ARTIVISM AND ARTISTIC RESIDENCIES IN COSTA RICA

by

17/01/2025 18:00

  • “Envenenadas ESTAMOS” (Poisoned WE ARE) by Mariela Richmond (2023), at the exhibition “Derecho de vida: Miradas ecofeministas en el arte costarricense” (Right to Life: Ecofeminist gazes in Costa Rican Art) at the Centro Cultural de España en Costa Rica.

  • Obra de Mariela Richmond, “Envenenadas ESTAMOS” (2023), en la exposición “Derecho de vida: Miradas ecofeministas en el arte costarricense” en el Centro Cultural de España en Costa Rica.

Iris Lam: Artivism and Artistic Residencies in Costa Rica
Date: Friday, 17 January, 2025. 19:00.

Talk by Iris Lam at the conclusion of her residency in Bulegoa z/b. The residency program has been organised in collaboration with the Centro Cultural de España en Costa Rica in the framework of its program “Experimentation in Creative Processes”, and in a two-way relationship in which an artist or curator from the Basque Country will travel to San José, Costa Rica, in 2025 to carry out a residency with the aim of promoting research and the exchange of cultural agents between the two spaces.

ARTIVISM AND ARTISTIC RESIDENCIES IN COSTA RICA
This talk presents a review of the Costa Rican cultural panorama and the artistic residencies in Costa Rica, underscoring the conceptual and strategic lines that form the basis of the program of the Centro Cultural de España, an institutional ally of Bulegoa z/b. By means of an overview of the social and political framework and its impact on contemporary artistic practices, an analysis is made of how these residences become spaces of reflection, action and resistance from the cultural sector.

During the session, the Costa Rican context will be addressed, emphasising its strong interest in the ecology and feminist struggles, elements that are intertwoven in a natural way in the country’s artistic panorama. Examples will be presented of projects and artists for whom the residencies have provided a place for developing narratives that question and transform.

This talk is designed to provide relevant information for people interested in participating in residences in Costa Rica in the future. Through this immersion, keys will be provided for understanding how art becomes a tool of change in a context where the frontiers between the political, the social and the artistic are diluted.

Iris Lam Chen has a Master’s Degree in Strategic Management from the UNED in Costa Rica. She has been cultural manager and curator at the Centro Cultural de España en Costa Rica since 2018. She is a founder and director of Global Metro Art and a member of the Management Board of the New York Odyssey Film Festival. As a student on the Master’s Degree in Artistic Administration at CUNY, she holds a grant from AAUW and PEO Sisterhood 2024-2025. Her area of specialisation includes the visual arts and contemporary art, with a focus on themes such as feminisms, LGTBIQ, migration and sinology, via strategic management, the artistic market and the creation of interinstitutional alliances between public, private, independent and academic bodies. Her work has been outstanding due to her skill in generating alliances and projects, both nationally and internationally, which have strengthened the Central American cultural network.