Designer in Residence program in 2015

Create in Residence is a new, multidisciplinary international program that was initiated in 2014 by The Swedish Institute and is dedicated to residential stays of artists from Serbia with partnering institutions in Sweden, as well as of Swedish authors in Serbia. Exchange programs in the fields of literature and design were realized last year, the latter coordinated in Serbia by Nova Iskra.

Interdisciplinary work, careful planning of each of the residencies according to the needs of their users and the specifics of the organization that will host them are the main features of the program. At the same time, it is also a platform through which the residency format itself will be placed in a new context through the development of a new model of cooperation that can be applied in other creative industries and geographic areas.

In 2014, 82 authors applied for the Designer in Residence open call in Serbia. The young authors Nenad Dodić, Mirjana Utvić and Manja Lekić had the opportunity to spend a month each in Malmö. This year, the open call will be announced for two residential stays for the period of two months each, with a full scholarship and covered travel and accommodation costs, as well as additional professional support. The hosts of our designers will again be some of the leading Swedish institutions and design centers in Malmö – Cultural Center Stpln (http://stpln.se/), University of Malmö (http://mah.se/) and the Form/ Design Center(http://www.formdesigncenter.com/), while in the same period (Oct-Nov 2015) two selected Swedish designers will reside in Belgrade and work at the Nova Iskra workspace.

In addition to the initiators from the Swedish Institute, this year the program is joined by one of largest Swedish organizations that supports art production and residencies as our partner – IASPIS (http://www.konstnarsnamnden.se/default.aspx?id=11328). During April, IASPIS will announce the open call for Swedish designers for residency stays in Serbia, while by the end of the month the open call for designers and architects in Serbia will be announced.

Nova Iskra and the Designer in Residence program will also be publicly presented in Sweden this April, through public presentations that will be organized by IASPIS in Stockholm and Form/ Design Center in Malmö. More details about the open call and the propositions of the Designer in Residence program in 2015 will be available soon at the Nova Iskra website and Designed.rs portal.