YAHAHA

INTERNATIONAL RESIDENCY FOR THE ARTS IN TAIWAN

台灣國際藝術村

HAPPENING NOW
2024 WINTER: do i need another layer?

The YAHAHA artist-in-residence programme is designed to foster a communal environment for our artists to grow in their individual daily practice while living alongside others.

Most residency progammes focus on the independent practice of each artist, YAHAHA puts a bit more focus on the collective experience through a more directed approach. We do this through emphasis on the following key aspects of our programme: seasonal themes, structured time for collective activity, quality and specific audience engagement, and living life. These key aspects form the foundation of the activities unique to the YAHAHA artist-in-residence programme experience.

The YAHAHA artist-in-residence programme is structured seasonally in Spring (March-May), Summer (June-August), Winter (October-December), over 3 months each time. Each season will have a theme serving as an overall guide for the nature of the programming. Spring and Summer will feature more outdoor and physical activities because of the sun while Winter will feature more indoor and contemplative activities because of the cold.

Like in real life, we believe it is necessary to learn how to strike a balance between structured and non-structured time, in order to “get things done” while preserving a sense of spontaneity, or to encounter others while having our own personal time. In order to create an environment of collective learning and sharing, YAHAHA will facilitate structured group activities for individual artists to interact intentionally with each other. These activities can range from the casual Small Assignments to the proposed internal Workshop (more details below under “MAIN ACTIVITIES”). Beyond these activities, artists can work on their own projects, relax, or collaborate with one another.

While it is helpful for most artists to isolate themselves for work, part of the growth of an artist (or any person) is learning how to share their work with an audience. Besides conventional forms of exhibition that can become too result-oriented and perfunctory, we propose more meaningful ways to engage the audience through our external Workshop, seasonal YAHAHA FESTIVAL and publication (more details below under “MAIN ACTIVITIES”).

Society and media likes to romanticise the life of an artist (regardless of whatever definition you adopt), but conveniently neglects that the lived reality can be as similarly effortful or boring as any other person—we all eat, use the toilet, sleep. At a residency programme, we have the privilege of time and company to witness and question how we each live our daily lives, and can offer support along the way. In order to create a healthy communal environment for learning about art or life, we expect our artists-in-residence to also be partially responsible for taking care of what is around us. This will be done through the preparation of our daily meals and the quality maintenance of our shared living spaces. More information on this under “LIVING LIFE” below.

Finally, YAHAHA understands it is not easy for strangers to learn to live and work together so closely over three months in a foreign place. There will likely be disagreements and moments of discomfort. We sincerely ask all artists-in-residence to similarly exercise patience and openness with us and with one other. While we hope our artists-in-residence can participate actively in our activities, we perfectly understand that life doesnt always go according to plan and participation can become a struggle due to health or personal reasons. In these instances, we hope our residents can find ways to communicate their difficulties with us directly and as clearly as possible. We will never force anyone to do anything they are against doing.

PROGRAMME

Below is a list of the main activities artists are expected to take part in every season:

• Workshop (internal and external)

Workshops are split into internal and external workshops. Internal workshops are held only for our residency artists. They are an opportunity for artists to articulate their own creative processes in a hands-on way, and learn from how other artists do it. External workshops are ticketed and open to registration from the public. These allow artists to share their own work with the public on their own terms, and receive feedback in a focused setting without the pressure of presenting something “complete.” Every residency artist must host two workshops (one of each).

• Small Assignments

Small assignments are offered every week to artists. They can be as “easy” as producing a 10-min sketch of each other, or as “difficult” as making a functional table together. The point is they should be simple enough so that artists dont lose sleep over it, but not too simple that artists are bored by it. We hope the small assignments prod resident artists to experiment with unfamiliar modes of making, and serve as a casual way to get to know each other’s work through sharing.

• SATURDAY NIGHT AT YAHAHA

SATURDAY NIGHT AT YAHAHA is an event where special guests can come stay with us on a pre-decided saturday night to have a quick taste of our residency programme. These guests have the opportunity to host an exclusive workshop for us, or simply have dinner and talk late into the night. Each iteration will be unique to each guest. The aim is for our artists and guests to exchange in a more intimate setting, for our artists to encounter something “new” while staying in our premises, and for guests to have an exclusive access to how YAHAHA works.

• Publication

During each residency period, we will work collectively on our seasonal publication from scratch to finish: from generating content, to design, to print. The publication serves as a record of our time together and will feature the documentation of our residency activities. This is a way for the public to understand what the YAHAHA residency programme is like. All artists-in-residence will get to keep a copy.

• YAHAHA FESTIVAL

YAHAHA FESTIVAL is a seasonal weekend festival that occurs at the end of every residency season. Each iteration will be a little different but will likely include a daytime tour of our space, dinner with guests, a late night event such as a movie screening, and external workshops offered by our artists. The festival is our unique way to show and celebrate with the public what we have completed together over each 3-month residency season.

MAIN ACTIVITIES

Depending on the theme, resources and opportunities of each season, our artists can also expect to take part in these other activities. These are all special opportunities for our artists to have a glimpse into what the arts & culture of Taiwan is like beyond YAHAHA:

• Exhibition

Sometimes, we may partner with an external exhibition space to install a simple exhibition featuring the artworks we have done during the residency season. This is an opportunity for artists to take part in a collaborative installation process and to present their works in a more professional setting.

• Lecture

Sometimes, we may partner with an external institution or organisation to offer a lecture or participate in a discussion-based event. For example, we may be invited to talk about the model of our residency programme with a university. This is a great opportunity for other people to understand what we do. Artists can choose if they want to lead or take part.

• Pop-ups

Sometimes, we may attend a pop-up event such as the Taipei Art Book Fair or a community market to exhibit and put up our items for sale. This a rare opportunity for artists to meet other artists and makers beyond our network. Artists can choose if they want to put up their works for sale.

• Excursions

Sometimes, we may host an outing to a specific location or establishment that is related to the theme of that residency season. These can include attending a private viewing of a museum collection, visiting the indigenous tribal communities of Taiwan, or going to a historical site. This is a great opportunity for artists to experience local Taiwanese culture.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Besides the more obvious “making art” aspects of our programme, we also want to emphasise how important it is to learn how to live life. As part of our residency programme, we require our artists-in-residence to labour together to create that shared environment of learning through cooking, cleaning, and playing.

As a general rule, we provide all meals only in the form of a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet that we will learn to prepare and have and cleanup together in-house. There will be opportunities for grocery shopping together, dining out, or visiting the nearby convenient store for our residents who prefer a non-vegetarian diet.

There will be a weekly schedule of cleaning duty where we collectively tidy up our shared living spaces (the studio, the kitchen and dining area, the toilets, etc). Residents clean their personal spaces (the shared bedrooms) and belongings (laundry, artist tools, etc) at their own leisure. See “LIVING SPACES" below.

Other than the daily chores, we may also organise general communal activities of play such as movie nights, day hikes, or game time. We are open to fun activity suggestions!

The everyday task of cooking, cleaning, playing—living!—together is our proposed way to facilitate relationship-building, communication, creative problem-solving, and cross-disciplinary learning, all of which are signs of a meaningful residency programme, and necessary skills for an artist-in-residence to develop. We hope our artists can find this portion of our programming to be as equally if not more enriching than making art.

LIVING LIFE

Covering an area of approximately 1,500 square meters, YAHAHA consists of a two-storeyed Taiwanese villa with residential rooms, a rooftop gallery, a detached library, an outdoor stage and green spaces. Our site features ample natural light filtering through our many windows and glass walls. The space is currently still undergoing renovations, so we apologise that we will only be able to share photographs at a later time, hopefully in august!

LIVING SPACES

The first floor is where most group and public activities will take place. The co-owners have their private bedroom and office here.

• The Studio

The Studio is a large multi-functional co-working space (size) with desks and chairs enough for every artist-in-residence. We provide basic art and craft materials such as papers, colouring materials, cutting materials, tape, etc and basic tools like the electric drill, screws, etc. This is a suitable space for most artistic work that will not require specific tools or environments, such as writing, planning, sketching, painting, etc. There is no specific allocation of space for each artist and actual usage is negotiated upon in-person. Take note that there is limited wall space.

• The Kitchen and Dining Area

The Kitchen and Dining area is separated from the Studio by modular furniture. Here, we will prepare and have most of our meals. The kitchen is fully equipped with a makeshift island pantry, an oven, fridge, sink, dishwasher, compost bin, crockery, utensils. There is a large dining table that comfortably seats 10 people, with a large window view of our outside garden.

• The Garden & Green Spaces

The Garden is just outside our kitchen and dining area. Here, we hope to grow a modest collection of flowers and herbs for every day use! All around our premises are green spaces that can be used for relaxation or outdoor activities.

• The Public Toilet

The Public Toilet is the most special toilet in all our premises.

• The Office

The Office is where you will most often find the co-owners doing YAHAHA-related work.

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• The Outdoor Stage

The Outdoor Stage is a sheltered multi-purpose area just outside our main building. This serves as a modest rehearsal and performance space, a gathering site, an exercise spot, amongst others. It can also be used as a temporary spot for sheltered “dirty” work such as woodworking. There is a built-in three level platform and benches along the square perimeter, accompanied by a simple lighting rig, so performance and audience areas can remain flexible. Can comfortably seat 30 people at a time.

• The Library

The Library is a detached building just outside our main building that we use mainly for publication work. It is also a clean meeting space for guests and for conducting our workshops. When there are no events, the space is free to be used for reading and computer work. We are still acquiring facilities like a printer and computer, but we hope to eventually have our own functional printing system where we can plan, design, and print in-house. We are also always looking to stock an exciting curation of book-like objects for browsing!

The second floor is a private area with a living room, guest room (+ en suite bathroom), three artist rooms and a shared bathroom. This area is reserved only for artists and overnight visitors.

• The Living Room

The Living Room is the main relaxation space for our artists and overnight visitors. It comes equipped with a projector and screen (for movie nights!) and a lounging area.

• The Artist Rooms & Shared Bathroom

The Artist Rooms are where our artists-in-residence will stay during their time with us. We have three rooms, and each room has two beds and basic furniture like a desk and chair and wardrobe. Depending on our intake and the residency season (3 for WINTER, 3-6 for SPRING and SUMMER), artists can expect to share a room with someone. One of these rooms has access to a shared balcony. The shared bathroom is in the living room. We will provide basic toiletries (toothpaste, shampoo, etc).

• Guest Room & En Suite Bathroom

The Guest Room and en suite bathroom can be reserved for our overnight visitors like Invited Teachers, workshop participants, and accommodates up to 6 people. There are two single beds and four foldable tatami-style floor beds. It also comes with a small balcony.

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The third floor, or rooftop, features the gallery and rooftop garden. It can be accessed by the public with our outdoor staircase, or privately through our indoor staircase.

• The Glass Gallery & Rooftop Garden

The Gallery is a modest gallery space for simple exhibitions.
It can also be a quiet space for meditation or reading, or a separate studio space for when there are no ongoing events. Just outside is our rooftop garden, accompanied by a beautiful view of Nantou city.

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