Exchange Residency The Mothership

The Mothership and MORPHO are delighted to inaugurate their collaboration in 2024 with an international residency exchange. The Flemish-Moroccan cultural centre Darna supports the participation of two artists from Flanders going to Tangier for an eight-week residency, as well as an artist from Morocco going to Antwerp for a three-month residency.

The residency in Tangier lasts for 8 weeks, in the period of May 1 – June 30, 2024.

The Mothership offers (see below for an elaborate description)

• Funded opportunities to artists across disciplines, looking for space and time to conduct research, develop their projects, and retreat
• Accommodation with private bedroom and private bathroom, with access to common living spaces, laundry and housekeeping, and 2 meals per day, WIFI
• Access to Dye house, library, production space
• Bi-weekly studio visits
• Project presentation or exhibition

For whom?

• This opportunity is open to artists living in Flanders (including Brussels).
• Interdisciplinary artists, craft-based practitioners, designers, chefs, writers, musicians, filmmakers, architects, photographers, scientists, and gardeners are encouraged to apply, especially those interested in the art, science and history of natural dyes, craft, botany, bio-design, conservation of natural resources and regenerative practices.

Financial support

• Up to 500 euros round trip travel costs are covered. The residency also provides a 2,000 euros living stipend and a one-time production and material stipend of 1,000 euros per artist.
• In exchange, residents will be expected to share their work at the end of their residency, through an artist talk, workshop, or any other community activation. In addition, The Mothership asks residents to donate one original artwork/illustration created while in residency, to be used to reproduce posters and banners fundraising for the project.

About MORPHO

MORPHO, a non-profit arts organisation working in Antwerp since 2008, is committed to the development of artistic practice. We give time, space and resources to artists with the aim of fostering a dynamic and sustainable context for artistic work. We do this by creating studio space in the city and setting up residency exchanges with partners abroad. In our artist residency, located in a twentieth-century mansion behind Central Station and the Zoo, we annually host around twenty Belgian and international residents whom we provide personal guidance in their projects and trajectories. The programme consists of weekly collective sessions in an environment that encourages critical dialogue and playful experimentation. We also regularly organise events and presentations in the adjacent former monastery where the residency studios are located. We share the monastery site and accompanying garden with our partner Kunsthal Extra City. Our operation is supported by the city of Antwerp and the Flemish government.

About The Mothership

The Mothership is an artist-led project by Yto Barrada creating space and time for research, artistic exploration and retreat, inspired by natural dyes. Based in Tangier, Morocco, the project is envisioned as an ‘eco-campus’ for growing, making, and learning natural dyes and indigenous traditions, and a place for experimental collective artistic practice through art residencies and workshops. The Mothership will be “a place to conjure pan-African eco-feminist practices into being”.

STUDIO & FACILITIES

DYE HOUSE
The Dye House serves as the main studio of The Mothership, a space for artistic and scientific exploration, research, and production using natural dyes. The Dye House includes a dye lab equipped with traditional and state-of-the-art facilities and tools for natural dyeing, a space for exhibitions and lectures, and a textile library based on Yto Barrada’s personal archive of Moroccan and international textiles and fabrics.

THE NATURAL DYE GARDEN
Residents will have access to The Mothership’s Natural Dye Garden for research, dye materials, and inspiration. The Natural Dye Garden is located within The Mothership’s forest garden and features indigenous and domesticated natural dye plants, including cosmos, oxalis, acacia, black-eyed susans, coreopsis, madder, hollyhocks, and indigo.

STUDIOS & WORKING SPACES
Additionally, The Mothership currently provides several working spaces, including a wet studio with sinks, a multi-use outdoor pergola/working space, a tree house, and several spaces within the garden forest for possible activation.

LIVING & HOUSING

ACCOMMODATION
The Mothership is located in a forest garden on the Old Mountain Road, just above the beautiful bay of Tangier Morocco, about 15 minutes' drive from the city centre. The property offers views of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic Perdicaris National Park is situated very close to The Mothership property.
The resident will be housed in a private room with a private bathroom, with a view of the Natural Dye Garden and the ocean. At the Main House, residents will have access to a shared kitchen, a living room, and a library. Access to the ocean is a 15-minute walk through a private path.

MEALS
The Mothership will provide residents with 2 daily meals, breakfast and dinner, featuring local products and The Mothership’s garden produce. All dietary restrictions will be accommodated, as much as possible. Beyond that, residents are expected to research and make arrangements to live and work independently.

TRAVEL
Transportation from the Tangier airport and/or train station will be arranged by The Mothership. Additionally, weekly trips to Tangier city will be arranged to source materials, equipment, and other supplies. Any additional trips should be arranged directly by the resident.

• Reisverslag Leontine Coelewij over The Mothership (Stedelijk Studies)
• Interview Yto Barrada over The Mothership (Art Basel)
• Interview Yto Barrada over The Mothership (apartamento)
• Instagram The Mothership

About Darna

Darna (Brussels) is a Flemish-Moroccan cultural centre that works towards more interaction and exchange between Flanders and Morocco. It is their generous financial support that makes these residency opportunities in both directions possible.
Darna (Tangier) is also the name of the local organisation founded by Yto Barrada's activist mother. Starting in the 2000s as a shelter for street children, today, among many other initiatives, Darna also runs a women's weaving workshop, which The Mothership collaborates with.