Dennis Hollingsworth

AIR.CAT L'ENTREMIG

My partners Gerry Smulevich and Alberto Barcia Fernández and I had to postpone our planned AIR.CAT summer artist residency program. We are going to do some interesting things in the meantime...

AIR.CAT Press Release, Summer 2020

Due to worldwide travel limitations imposed by the COVID19 pandemic, AIR.CAT (Artist in Residency, Catalunya) has been forced to postpone its planned Summer 2020 artist residency program for next year, Summer 2021.

AIR.CAT is an artist residency program based in Tossa de Mar whose mission is to bring artists from around the world to Costa Brava to learn about Catalunya and the special character and history of Tossa de Mar, make art and exhibit their work in Tossa's Municipal Art Museum, the first contemporary art museum in Spain. Tossa was the destination of international artists who sought refuge from the turmoil of war in the 20th century. In those years, artists such as Marc Chagall, André Masson, Georges Bataille, Oscar Zügel, Otho Lloyd and Dora Maar and many others lived and created and exhibited art in the seaside town of Tossa. AIR.CAT's ambition is to restore Tossa as a destination for active contemporary artists.

Rafael Benet called Tossa the "Babel of the Arts" and since then this phrase has been proudly adopted by Tossa to convey this special distinction. AIR.CAT seeks to reinvigorate the spirit of this distinctive identity with a yearly recurring flow of artists who will have the opportunity and time to reflect on contemporary issues that preoccupy the international art world. The four-week program will expose these artists to the artistic treasures of Catalunya with field trips to Barcelona, Girona, and the Empuries. Tossa de Mar has several dimensions of natural wonders that the artists will explore such as hiking, kayaking the coastline and exploring the undersea world of the coastal Mediterranean.

Since AIR.CAT can't bring the six selected artists of the summer 2020 program to Tossa, we have decided instead to bring Tossa to the artists!. In a monthly virtual meeting, various personalities from Tossa will be introduced and interviewed in a group online chat that will be recorded and archived for future reference. People such as local representatives of the Ajuntament, builders of historic architecture, historians, chefs, archeologists, and many others will share with the six artists their experiences and offer insights into the special character of Tossa de Mar and Catalan culture. With this exceptional circumstance of postponement, we hope to "turn lemons into lemonade" and take the opportunity to enrich next year's participating artists with a deeper understanding of Catalunya that is certain to deliver a richer and rather special summer program for 2021.