IKOB x Borderland Residency 2024

In collaboration with Borderland Residencies, for the first time in its history IKOB - Museum of Contemporary Art is offering an artist residency in Eupen.

The open call for the IKOB x Borderland Residency invited artists to propose projects on the theme SUPERNATURAL. The residency invites an artist to connect with the region through an exploration of the unseen, the mystical, and the otherworldly. It also offers the opportunity for an artist to broaden their practice through the development of new research and to expand their network as part of the Borderland Residencies framework. IKOB received over 300 applications from all over the world, a clear sign of the need for artist residencies in the region.

The artist Francisco Correia was selected for the residency. He lived and worked in Eupen for three months, from September to November 2024. Francisco's work has a particular taste for highlighting the absurdity of the invisible systems that agency everyday life. Work, economy and extinction (both individual and collective) are oftentimes taken into the realm of fantasy in order to create narratives that operate on the border of reality and fiction. 

During his residency, Francisco developed the project Doris, inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula. He was particularly fascinated by the opening scene of the novel, where the lawyer Jonathan Harker assists Count Dracula in a real estate transaction. Francisco explored parallels between gentrification, the real estate market, and the supernatural.

The residency resulted in the publication Doris, in which Francisco Correia combines a short story with a series of architectural drawings of supermarkets in Eupen. The artist explores the pervasiveness of the vampire figure in popular culture and its metaphorical relationship to real estate with a narrative that draws upon Bram Stoker's Dracula. The protagonist of Correia’s story fills the gaps in his love life with a narrative that draws from the book, and speculates whether a love story can surpass reality to the point of becoming inseparable from fantasy. The bulletin can be viewed and downloaded as a PDF here, and is also available to order in our shop.

Francisco Correia was born in Lisbon and lives and works in Brussels. His most recent solo shows are "NO STRESS" at Super bien! (Berlin), "Midlife crisis" at Galeria Nave (Lisbon), and "Eat the frog, swallow the ebb" at Cas-co (Leuven). Together with Siebert Mispelon, Francisco is co-director of Double Minutes, a project which proposes to challenge the format of an artist talk. 

Borderland Residencies is a Euregional network of residencies at art institutions. It is a joint initiative of artist residencies in the border area of the Rhine-Meuse. The Borderland programme supports the members’ activities by organising multi-day field trips for artists from all the participating residencies, through meetings with curators and institutions from the region and with a public programme including lectures, presentations and workshops. The programme offers participating artists the opportunity to forge contacts on both sides of the border, with both fellow artists and institutions. The field trips also focus on broader themes in the region, such as energy production, agricultural transition and the aging population.