Each year IASPIS in Umeå awards two international artists a three-month grant for a residency in Umeå. The residence holders for 2021 are Yingmei Duan from Beijing and Geoff Robinson based in Melbourne.
Yingmei Duan is part of the Chinese avant-garde, working creatively for many years living in the legendary art district of Beijing’s East Village. In 1995 she participated in the performance To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain which is considered to be one of the classics of Chinese contemporary art. Being based in the East Village as freelance artist between 1993-1995 prompted her curiosity, which led to her interest in performance art and has had a great impact on her later art career. The final turning point came when she began to study at Marina Abramović at HBK Braunschweig/Germany in 2000, Since that time Yingmei Duan has dedicated herself to performance art as her artistic expression.
Geoff Robinson is a Melbourne-based artist working on Wurundjeri country. Robinson creates event-based artworks that utilise the temporal qualities of sound and performance and the spatial conditions of physical sites to unravel the durational layers of place. Robinson has presented projects with Titanik, Turku; Bus Projects, Melbourne; Liquid Architecture, Melbourne; and MoKS, Mooste, Estonia. He was awarded the Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2014 and completed the PhD project Durational Situation at MADA, Monash University, Melbourne, 2018.
IASPIS is The Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Programme for Visual and Applied Artists. The grant holders are nominated and hosted by the local partners. IASPIS partners in Umeå include: Umeå Kommun, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Bildmuseet, Vita Kuben, Museum Anna Nordlander och Verkligheten.
