Apr 9 | Marjolijn Dijkman residency at Clare Cottage
Clare Cottage | new residency
Marjolijn Dijkman is selected for inaugural international residency programme at Clare Cottage
Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman has been selected to undertake the first international residency at Clare Cottage in Helpston, Cambridgeshire.
In April and May this year, Dijkman will be living in the cottage that was once home to the renowned English poet John Clare. The cottage was restored 
last year and is now a centre which celebrates Clare’s life as well as 21st century environmental concerns.
The residency will be organised by four partners: the Royal Society of Arts (London), Visiting Arts (London), firstsite (Colchester) and Clare Cottage.
The residency will present Dijkman, the people of Peterborough and surrounding villages with an opportunity to explore ideas, establish points of dialogue and create connections with each other. The extraordinary surrounding countryside and beautiful village of Helpston coupled with the urban fabric of Peterborough will provide a fertile context in which the artist can extend her practice and locals can engage with issues relating to contemporary art, ecology and land use.
This rich and diverse context represents some of the most significant challenges facing the UK today: how to reconcile the traditions of village life with the rapidly changing nature of the workforce, the landscape and cultural identity in 21st century Britain. This state of flux is mirrored in the concerns voiced by John Clare concerning the huge agricultural and economic changes brought about by the Enclosure Acts of the early 19th century.
Marjolijn Dijkman is a Dutch artist who is based in Rotterdam. She works in a wide range of media and has realised many events, projects and exhibitions including an installation at the 8th Sharjah Biennial in 2007, a project for Cao Yang Public Art 2009 in Shanghai, an exhibition at Bloomberg in London 2009 and research expedition sailing from Bermuda to the Azores with Maarten Vanden Eynde in 2010.
Dijkman is interested in how we locate a sense of place, how human interventions can be seen in the landscape and what will remain of these traces in the future. Her work often focuses on the overlooked, concealed and memorized while her practice references other disciplines such as journalism, anthropology, sociology, cartography and urbanism.
RSA’s Citizens of the Future programme
This residency is a precursor to the RSA’s Citizens of the Future programme which is focused on Greater Peterborough, with the arts integrated into a two year programme to be delivered in partnership with a number of organisations and individuals including Peterborough City Council and Arts Council England.
Picture above: Rave Nature by Marjolijn Dijkman / Maarten Vanden Eynde, Maastricht, 2005
Notes
Clare Cottage is located in the small village of Helpston in North-West Cambridgeshire, six miles from Peterborough. The cottage is named after the poet John Clare (1793-1864) and was his family home for forty years. The cottage is a centre for arts educations and the environment which aims to enrich people’s knowledge of the lyrical and scientific wonder of the countryside.
Visiting Arts encourages dialogue and strengthens intercultural understanding through the arts. It works with artists and cultural professionals across the world, expanding knowledge, horizons and opportunities for exchange. The Clare Cottage residency reinforces Visiting Arts’ current programmes and thinking by encouraging organisations to work with artists in an expanded field of cultural, social and political practice.
firstsite is a visual arts organisation based in Colchester in the East of England. The organisation commissions and presents new work, contextualises contemporary practice through talks, publications and events and delivers an ambitious range of projects to schools, community groups and artists living in the region.
The Clare Cottage residency programme is managed by Jes Fernie.
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