Tankwa Artscape Residency, founded in 2017, is a yearly FREE artist residency for 10-12 national and international artists in the Tankwa Karoo, South Africa. It is a 12-14 day residency for artists working in the fields of site specific sculptural art, spoken word/sound, movement/performance art. It is a unique experience in the desert for the most part using found materials or/and body and vocal performance, diving extremely deep into the creative sources.

Applications for permanent artworks are encouraged, however go through an additional selection process. Much is ephemeral or performance based, and some of the work involves the gathering of experiences / ideas / possibilities that will translate into artworks at a later stage.

The conceptual focus is on interacting creatively with the vast environment of the Tankwa Karoo and the history, politics, ecology and culture of the place. Tankwa Artscape aims at providing a space for conscious confrontation of the artist with harsh, relatively unspoiled nature. Each artist then deals with this confrontation in an individual creative way, giving rise to artworks that render this confrontation visible, audible, touchable. Documentation is through video, photography and audio podcasts. We provide a group of photographers / videographers to document artworks and artistic processes.

Accommodation and board are free. Tankwa Artscape trys to partially support travel to the Tankwa Karoo for national artists. International artists please try to secure travel funding from your national agencies, Tankwa Artscape gladly sends you an official letter of invitation if you are selected. To help finance the residency a modest application fee of R 200 for national artists, EUR 20 for international artists will be charged.

Only applications by email will be accepted. Please write your complete application on a doc file and when you have completed it save it with your full name as file name as a pdf.

If you are on Instagram and/or facebook please add links
Send images (considerably under 1mb per image) of 5 of your artworks. If your images need some explanation add 100 words max per image to the pdf. Save your images with your name and number them 1-5.
For videos/audios please send us links to your youtube or vimeo channel or links to your website.
Send application pdf and images in ONE email with your full name in the subject line.
A brief biographical statement. What have you done, and where? (max 250 words) Why do you apply for Tankwa Artscape Residency?(max 250 words)
Give some ideas of what you would like to create at Tankwa Artscape. (max 500 words).

Send your application to lelihoch@gmail.com

tankwaartscape.co.za