A community-based project that can save a historical art residency from disappearance

- by Clare Patrick, L'AiR Arts guest curator and aluma resident (South Africa), as part of the collaborative endeavor for Atelier 11, backed by Artpool.

Paris, for me, feels hyper-real. From the history-washed buildings and precise pavement markers to the golden light in shop windows and the crazy array of flowers growing everywhere. In Paris, the Surrealists turned to its grime, interrogating its sicknesses, its erotic grit and upeneded its lanscapes. The impressionists found light and cats and picnics and Sundays in the park. Picasso, Klein, Matisse and Orloff wandered the very streets I walked down, visiting similar shops, perhaps they even watched Satie perform in the cramped little theatre I sat in, where words washed over me allowing for a puzzle-piece translation, surely as bizarre as he would have wished it.

On Site is a call to return, to resume and reconnect after years (which we hoped would be weeks) of being dislocated. To return to Paris and the creative possibilities it evokes. The On Site artists and their practises span continents and time zones, mediums and techniques. In this NFT space, we are all fresh and inspired to connect and reimagine. To rethink and reconsider our own spaces and imaginings. From postcard-sized experiments, to infinitely generative forms, we explore and offer our findings in support of history and thinking to the future.

In working digitally, the artworks take on new forms and potentials: buzzing and blinking like Barbara Wildenboer's, glowing and pushing like Juan Hinojosa's, shifting and ripping like Valentina Ezyaguirre's, circling and holding in Yen Ha's and exploring and expanding in both Una Laurencic and Yong Hee Kim. On Site is an effort to support and encourage the continuation of intercultural exchange, partnership and engagement at Atelier 11, the new home of L'AiR Arts. The home that has housed the stories of so many artists before, and to those we can't wait to help welcome in years to come.
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• Read more about this initiative on the Artpool curators' blog.
• Learn what artists have to say about their engagement to help Atelier 11 to survive.

All proceeds of the NFT fundraiser will go towards restoration of Atelier 11 - L'AiR Arts residency space in Paris.