Self-made, Self Wild Project

We are writing to you to share our project "Self-Made, Self-Wild".

This project is a form of self-residency, something that comes out of creative impulse and the need to explore forms of emancipatory artistic practice. A group of artists, researchers, musicians and performers from various ranges of knowledge and focus come together in the forest of Voxnabruk, Sweden to explore and exchange different approaches to performance. The goal of this project is about finding natural systems and structures for creative partnership and wonders about the places and people we need to foster sub-genre, reinvent art forms and create experimental seedlings. The participating artists, researchers and musicians are Lui Surreal, Magdalena Petrova, Tingyi Jiang, Ratri Notosudirdjo, XIELLA (Ella Wang Olsson) and Lili Ullrich. This self-residency is supported and facilitated by SAMODIVA platform (founder Magdalena Petrova & Lui Surreal). This program is created and coordinated by Xiella (Ella Wang Olsson) and Ratri Notosudirdjo.

WHEN?

We plan to go from October 5 - October 20, 2023!

URGENCY

Many of us working across the creative field struggle to find a sustainable position to develop our practices and sustain basic costs of living. Many of us work in spaces that are temporary like anti-Kraak studios or homes, Schiekade Block & IJzerblock Studios in Rotterdam etc. This project comes from the urgency to address the challenges of working in these problematic spaces we mention above. Without support our visions, questions and work stays underdeveloped, our bodies overworked and feeling left without agency at times. Individually it can be hard to push forward, but collaboratively we can strengthen our efforts. Six artists, musicians and researchers with a performance-oriented practice come together to enrich each other's practices and explore questions on structural survival within the arts.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

We are forming a type of self-residency, most of us work in the underground art scene often referred to as "lower culture" but in actuality is a space where there are so much fertile grounds for new ideas, social transformations and experimental practices to be discovered! These spaces need support and so we have taken it into our own devices to organize ourselves. Xiella's Grandmother has offered us her home in Voxnabruk, Sweden to develop a program where we can cultivate new works, collaborate on different performance approaches and facilitate workshops on structural means for sustaining an artistic practice. We can not always depend on a second job, funding schemes, volunteering, internships, and fundraising to sustain our practices. We want to have the space and time to talk about facilitating continuity within the underground artistic community.

WHAT WILL COME FROM THIS?

We hope to share our research with you! In the month of October or November, we will be organizing a few days of workshops and sketch presentations with free registration. The research accumulated from this will be presented in the program titled "Will We Even Be Here Next Year?", which poses the questions of continuity within the space we work in, the maintenance of new practices and collaborations (between individuals and also organizations), as well as the future of the temporary buildings we have found community in.

More information will be announced as we develop further on this journey! If you are interested to keep up Ratri will be facilitating a monthly newsletter. Please contact instagram: saynotosu if you'd like to sign-up!

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?

Productions costs for the presentation, travel, equipment for documentation, two weeks of food, and materials for the development of the new works. We would love to raise extra to give each artist a fee for their labour but we are prioritizing the basic expenses first!

I hope we have reached you, touched you or maybe you can relate to us. We really need your help! Please donate or if you are not in the position to donate, please share this project through socials, email or word of mouth!

If you keep reading along you can find other things we are doing to raise money for this project, and especially if you love food don't miss out on the fundraiser dinner!

WHAT ARE WE DOING TO RAISE THIS MONEY?

We have developed multiple strategies in order to gain financial support, here are some below:

1) Crowdfunding: We hope to reach outside our usual communities. Crowdfunding is a good way to stimulate the project but can grow unsustainable if it is people in precarious situations supporting people in precarious situations. Hopefully, we can grow the reach of this crowdfunding to the far and wide groves! Sharing verbally and online helps us do this!

2) We applied to a development fund: We've applied for a development contribution from a funding body. But with applying for funding, it's always a risk and a chance. Subsidies have a pre-determined goal as an institution in which not every project, no matter the quality of the idea or potential of the artist, meets those goals. Not only that! Not every artist has the trained writing skills to develop a successful application. We need to recognize that factors such as ghostwriters have changed the game.

3) Going to Art Openings and finding potential investors: We are trying to find sponsorship within the art-patron audience. Creating a direct line of financial support helps us to move sincerely toward our visions! This is a space that is rare to find but can potentially widen the network and bring different communities of practitioners and patrons closer.

4) Street Fundraising: We will hit the streets of Rotterdam and/or Amsterdam to directly raise funds for this project by selling chocolate bars. More T.B.A.

5) Fundraiser Dinner: Ratri Notosudirdjo will be organizing fundraising through her cooking! The menu will be a fusion of Indonesian food, mixing, Balinese, Padang and Central Javanese cuisine: Ayam Betut, Sayur Gulai, Tempe Mendoan served with rice and Sambal Matah (google this!). The capacity for guests is limited to 20 people and 30 euros per plate. If you would like to join please send her a DM on Instagram: saynotosu

You will get information on place + time.

6) Donations or Sponsorships from smaller organizations: We are researching small organizations that can potentially make a contribution to this project and contact them!