Interview with Stupin (Taiwan)

October 2020

Karla Kracht / Barcelona

DIGITAL ART CENTER

TAIPEI STUDIO Taipei

CASE STUDY

STUPIN: What does artist residency mean to you?

Karla: An artist residency is an opportunity to dive deeply into an investigation, a project work without having to worry about daily issues and basic survival needs. It also a great opportunity to meet other artists and different communities and to learn to know different cultures from inside.

STUPIN: How do you know the STUPIN platform?

Karla: Stupin contacted me after a residency period in Pier2 in Kaohsiung. Since then we have been loosely in contact.

Can you talk about your experience of STUPIN project? How did it differ from your previous residency ?

The special thing about Stupin is, that it is a platform organized by artists instead of officials, administrative staff, or curators.
It’s the people who know best what artists need. The treatment is very personal, case to case based, there is no fixed structure, rather a platform that connects different needs with spaces and institutions. Creation, connecting with a community and possibilities for exposition are the priorities, rather than paperwork, contracts and boring administrative procedures. It’s very relieving and easy going.

STUPIN: How was your creating process during this period?
Wonderful. I had a great space at DAC, an awesome institution. It is a very professional and super friendly team, everybody cared a lot and supported wherever they could. It was very easy and fluid to work at DAC. I could completely concentrate on creative work.

With the studio connected by STUPIN, how did you connect to the community of local?
There are other artists in the space and some of them I already knew, it was easy to connect with them, we also had some meeting in the beginning with other Stupin artists, some of whom I became friends with.

STUPIN: How do you think of STUPIN? Can it help the artist to exchange or share the resource (studio/friend) ? Which part is your mostly need?

Karla: Stupin is a great initiative and very important. Artists need space and connection with other artists or cultural workers, both parts are basic for survival. It helped me also in a strange situation where international travel (i.e. going back home as planned) was impossible, to continue working without worries. Also, as it is very personal, it made me feel totally at home.

STUPIN: What plans do you have next (works/residencies)?

Karla: At the moment I’m quite happy to work in my new home and studio back in Spain, continuing on the project I started at Stupin/DAC and working on some new projects. The next planned residency will be a collaboration with Portuguese artists next spring, but COVID will be the factor who decides de shape and manners of this residency/collaboration.