ARTISTIC RESIDENCIES
Residencies promote interaction with the local culture and the deconstruction of economic and social paradigms
The residency program was the starting point for the foundation of the Usina de Arte and has become its most important differential.
The artists in residence, whether national or international, are completely free to develop their creations, the sugar-alcohol past is not denied but revisited in several ways.
The artist residencies focus on contemporary art and have been held since 2013, even before the formalization of the project that would result in the Usina de Arte. The program took shape after designer Hugo França visited Santa Terezinha, creating furniture sculptures from the trunks of condemned trees.
The project was first structured in 2015, when José Rufino reconfigured the former Hangar of the mill, which was then used as a mechanical workshop. The artist set up a permanent exhibition in the space, with works developed from the history and materials of Usina Santa Terezinha. And in 2016 the Associação Socioambiental e Cultural Jacuípe was formalized and began managing the environmental and cultural actions of the Usina de Arte project, including the residency program.
Also in 2016, the Associação Socioambiental e Cultural Jacuípe signed a partnership with the Associação de Amigos do MAMAM - Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães (Friends Association of MAMAM - Modern Art Museum Aloísio Magalhães). By means of the agreement, the participation of artists from Pernambuco in the Usina de Arte residences is increased, while at the same time resources are mobilized for MAMAM. Engaged in the cause, the participating artists committed themselves to pass on to the museum part of the amount received for the execution of their works.
Each artist invited to participate in a residency at the Usina de Arte is challenged formally and conceptually, with new benchmarks for thought and work. These are large-scale projects, destined to exist outside large urban centers, created based on different scales, labor, environmental and technical constraints.
It is the possibility of being influenced by the surroundings that drives the entire process of creation and production, in total interaction with the environmental, social, and cultural aspects of the region. The works created in the residences become part of the artistic-botanical collection of the Usina de Arte, in an organic and permanent exhibition.
In recent years the Usina has hosted a number of artists. In 2022 the French sound artist Igor Porte participated in the program. Before him, Matheus Rocha Pitta built his work “A Field of Hunger”. In 2020 Juliana Notari left her mark on the landscape by creating the controversial work “Diva”. Liliane Dardot after researching the region created “Cabanos em mata de água preta” in 2019. Also in residence, among others: Márcio Almeida, Paulo Bruscky, Paulo Meira, Marcelo Silveira and José Rufino.
