Stuart McAdam - To The Bears

To The Bears, 2019

The Arctic Agency for Environmental Research Methodologies and Artistic Practice, 2019

~Residency and Slow Pilgrimage

In 2018, James Lee and Ruth Aitken asked me to participate in their new curatorial project Failure, Understanding, Care, and Kunst (F.U.C.K). The rationale for the project in a broad sense was to look at how the work we make as artists impacts on the environment. The location for the project was in Tromsø, in the north of Norway.   
There were some rules or guidelines to frame the residency:

 1. No artist or artwork to be transported by air.
 2. No new materials to be bought in the creation of new work.
 3. Any energy used to present work has to be renewable.

Outside of these rules, there was no restriction on what I could do / make / produce / involve myself in. 
I decided to base my response to the project around riding my bike to the Arctic Circle, again using this as an opportunity to explore the themes that I am interested in -- slow travel, extreme mobility, pilgrimage, durational performance. 

The residency took place in a converted caravan. It was situated in various locations in Tromsø and was open to visitors. Direct interaction and conversation with the public being an important part of the work. 

On Thursday 18th July 2019 I gave a talk at Small Projects in Tromsø to introduce my work and talk about the bike ride there.

At the end of the residency, I made a small presentation about what I had been working on during the time in the caravan. This was focused around stories about the relationship I have to the materials I use in my work. I also handed out physical objects as sort of postcards for the trip.

I have made a film from footage that I shot during the trip, which will be released in 2022.

Below you can watch a presentation I gave as part of the Berwick Pecha Kucha 8 Event in September 2021. This Pecha Kucha was focused on themes to do with the environment. 

Tromso FUCK
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