ACCENTED RESIDENCY

Accented aims to develop co-operations in South East Europe (SEE), and the East Mediterranean (EM), North Africa, the Gulf Countries and the United Kingdom with key institutions that focus on artistic research.

The program will be coordinated through a relationship between six institutions – Platform Garanti CAC (Istambul,Turkey), Vector Association (Iasi, Romania), Ashkal Alwan (Beirut, Lebanon),Townhouse Gallery (Cairo, Egypt), Delfina Foundation (London, UK) and Spike Island (Bristol, UK).
Creative Collaboration grants will be made available to artists, curators and writers from countries in SEE, EM, the Gulf and the UK. Over a course of two years 20 professionals selected will be offered six to eight-week residencies at one of the participating institutions.

Accented is supported by the British Council under the Creative Collaboration Project Funds.

The selection committee included Christine Tohme (Director, Ashkal Alwan,Beirut), William Wells (Director, Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt), Eva Langret (Residency Coordinator, Delfina Foundation, London), Marie-Anne McQuay (Curator, Spike Island, Bristol), Gülsün Karamustafa (Artist, Turkey), Vasif Kortun (Director, Platform Garanti, CAC, Istambul, Turkey), Alexandru Bounegru (Residency Coordinator, Vector Association, Iasi, Romania) and Oyku Ozsoy (Residency Coordinator, Platform Garanti CAC, Istambul, Turkey).  

The individuals selected for Accented 2009 are:

Ashkal Alwan
Ashkan Sepahvand, Iran
Burak Delier, Turkey

Delfina Foundation
Ala Younis, Jordan

Platform Garanti
Maha Maamoun, Egypt
Vangelis Vlahos, Greece

Spike Island
Gordana Nikolic, Serbia

Townhouse Gallery
Sislej Xhafa, Kosovo
Rosalind Nashashibi, UK

Vector Association
Lina Mounzer, Lebanon

For more information about Accented Residency and the partner institutions: www.accentedresidency.blogspot.com

Lina Mounzer is a writer and cultural critic from Lebanon; she was born in Beirut and was educated at the American University of Beirut.
She is a regular contributor to Bidoun Magazine, a review of contemporary art and culture in the Middle East. Her work has also appeared in the second Goldfish Anthology, published in 2008.

In 2005 she received the Chevening-Said Foundation Fellowship which enabled her to complete her MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College in London. Since coming back to Beirut in 2006, Lina Mounzer has been teaching Creative Writing at the American University of Beirut. Recently she also received the Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship in 2009 and is currently working on her first novel, tentatively entitled One day in July.