This year’s Artists Development Programme (ADP) has just come to a close. After spending five weeks in Luxembourg, four artists produced exceptional bodies of work that have just been acquired by the EIB. Following the example set in 2020, the EIB Arts & Culture team remained committed to supporting artists throughout the pandemic, adhering to all COVID-19 guidelines.
Agnieszka Mastalerz (Poland, pictured right) produced Supports in collaboration with Service des Parcs Ville de Luxembourg, Kintzelé Pépinières and Philharmonie Luxembourg. The body of work was inspired by the structures used to support plants as they grow. It comprises three sculptures, two photos, and a video for which she collaborated with a Luxembourg-based choreographer.
Alexandra Hunts (Netherlands, pictured left) produced a series of embroideries that intertwine the themes of art, science, and feminism. Partially crafted in the artist’s native Ukraine on old Soviet tablecloths, the embroideries tell the story of the “scanner girls”, whose job it was to examine and record the nuclear and particle tracks that were observed in the Bubble Chamber detector at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. While the particles they observed went on to contribute to Nobel Prize-winning research, the names of the women who detected them for the first time were invisible – until now.
Jošt Franko (Slovenia, pictured left) started out his ADP residency in Bosnia and Herzegovina before coming to work in Luxembourg. He produced Keine Chance…, a collection of 13 photographs that strives to give recognition to the thousands of migrants who have been trapped on the outskirts of the European Union on their journey towards a better life.
Andrej Polukord’s (Lithuania, pictured right) practice explores the aftermath of deforestation. His ADP work Wood Statues was created from photos of previous performances done in Lithuania, in which the artist stands precariously on deforested tree stumps that he calls “plinths”. He incorporated these photographs with a found object that is itself the by-product of deforestation in Luxembourg: Initiator’s Heel. By integrating the Luxembourgish locale with his previous work, Polukord makes a connection between the effects of deforestation around Europe.
The ADP is a unique talent accelerator that prides itself on unfurling the potential of emerging artists. Artists come to Luxembourg for six weeks to produce an artwork(s), meet with key figures in the art world, and exhibit at the EIB, all under the mentorship of a renowned contemporary artist – in this case the Finnish photographer Jorma Puranen.
Since its creation in 2013, 31 artists or artistic duos from 18 EU Member States and Turkey have participated. Many of them have since gained international recognition, such as Cooking Sections (ADP 2016), who were recently nominated for the Turner Prize.
Stay tuned for the 2022 edition, which will launch in autumn 2021.
Photos: David Laurent
