4 days ago
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- Qatar Tribune
3-2-1 QOSM, Olympic Museum, Lausanne announce new initiative
Tribune News Network
Doha/Lausanne
The 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum (QOSM) and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland have announced the Olympic Heritage | Artists-In-Residence for 2025 programme, during which artists will take part in residencies supported by the museums to create new, boundary-pushing artworks that enhance the appreciation of sports culture and the Olympic Games. The artists' final works will also be included in the Cultural Olympiad at the Summer Olympic Games LA28.
Rayvenn D'Clark, selected for QOSM by the international jury, has been granted a two-month residency with studio space at the Doha Fire Station. Alioune Thiam will similarly take part in a two-month programme at the Olympic Museum with studio space at La Becque Artist Residence. Both artists will receive mentorship opportunities from members of the esteemed international jury, and will have a unique opportunity to explore the museums' collections, archives and storylines relating to sports culture and the Olympic Games.
'These residencies bring together the creative power of digital art with the Olympic Games' historic and cultural significance,' said Abdulla Yousuf Al Mulla, director of QOSM. 'We are proud to be part of this initiative and to work closely with the Olympic Museum in Lausanne to offer this rare and important opportunity to emerging artists. We invite artists to be part of future open calls for this remarkable programme, which will be offered annually until the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.'
The residency, which marks the first year of a partnership between QOSM and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, will run from 1 October to 1 December 2025. The artists' work will be exhibited at the Summer Olympic Games LA28 as part of the Cultural Olympiad and enter the respective museum's permanent collection.
'Since its creation, the Olympic Museum has strived to preserve and share the rich legacy of the Olympic Movement while embracing innovation to keep that heritage alive and relevant,' said Yasmin Meichtry, Olympic Museum Associate Director and Chair of the Jury. 'The Olympic Heritage | Artists-in-Residence Programme embodies this spirit perfectly by honouring the past through the lens of young contemporary artists working with digital media. We warmly congratulate Rayvenn and Alioune, our inaugural residents, and look forward to seeing how their creativity and innovative use of digital tools will open new artistic pathways to express and transmit the Olympic values to today's audiences.'
29-year-old Rayvenn Shaleigha D'Clark is a digital sculptor from London. Her practice explores race, representation, and digital hybridity in contemporary art. Her work blends digital with sculptural methods, focusing on nuanced representations of Black anatomy.A Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree (2024), her recent work includes a major public commission for the Equal Justice Initiative, Montgomery, Alabama.
32-year-old video artist Alioune Thiam is from Senegal and specialises in projection mapping and interactive work explores the impact of digital technology on Senegalese and African culture through immersive audio-visual 2022 he became the first Senegalese artist in residence at Les Dominicains de Haute Alsace Cultural Centre in France with his project 'ARTIST 2.0 The Creative Scope of Digital Technology'.
Rayvenn D' Clark and Alioune Thiam were selected by an international jury from a pool of applicants representing 20 nations across six continents. Jury members included Nita Ambani, International Olympic Committee Member and Founder and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation; Khalifa Al Obaidly, photographer and Director of Fire Station's Artists in Residence Programme; Rachel Falconer, digital art curator and Head of Digital Arts Computing Goldsmiths University London; Jonathan Kearney, digital artist, researcher and lecturer at Central Saint Martins London; Britt Salvesen, curator and head of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department and the Prints & Drawings Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Susan Hayward, QOSM Deputy Director (Collections, Conservation and Digital), and was chaired by Yasmin Meichtry.
The call was open to artists between the ages of 18 and 34, who work with any form of digital media, including AI, data-driven art, and augmented and virtual reality, any of which may also be combined with physical media.
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