A Place for ‘Crossing Cultures’ in Paris

‘In order to take a place in, I need a base' says photographer and artist Liz Johnson Artur in this video. ‘Being offered a studio on top of Paris is wonderful because it allows me to focus on my work.’  Johnson Artur is speaking from Montmatre in Paris, France where she is one of 20 artists selected for the 2021—22 Art Explora residency in partnership with Cité internationale des arts.

As well as figures including Rina Banerjee, Anri Sala and Natsuko Uchino, joining Johnson Artur on the same time six month residency is Mexico-based artist Adriana Lara, who welcomes the experience as chance to focus on a kind of otherness she identifies as helping to 'to open your mind.’ Painter and musician Chino Amobi, usually based in the USA, perceives Paris as conveying a sense of the past, present, and future. ‘All these things exist simultaneously in a way,’ he notes ‘which I think Paris truly embodies.’ 

The mission of Art Explora is to share art and culture with everyone; to share ideas as well as build communities, and the residency at Cité internationale des arts extends this. As Artistic Director of Art Explora, or Blanche Lestrange, explains in the video: the residency artists are ‘all gathering with this idea of being involved here in Paris’: whether that mean collaborations between themselves, or with other local institutions and researchers. ‘It’s a good setting for crossing cultures’, Johnson Artur concurs.

Applications for Art Explora’s residency program at the Cité internationale des arts of Montmartre in Paris are now open. Apply here: https://www.artexplora.org/project/en-residences-montmartre-candidatures-2022