‘HouTian Project Young Artist Residency Project’ is an artist residency project initiated and developed by HouTian Project. With ‘local’ acting as a base, as well as a research target, residency participants are sought to realize projects that radiate surrounding areas. Through investigation, research and exchanges in the sociocultural environment, focus on specific characteristics of the area and understand the local cultural atmosphere. Simultaneously, artists will be sharing and exchanging with other professional researchers from other disciplines, thus breaking from the context of one’s own conventional artistic practice. The artists will engage in interdisciplinary thinking and artistic exploration, leading to the creation of outstanding and thoughtful work with greater possibilities for artistic breakthrough.

‘Parallel connection’ is the theme of this artist residency project. Individual artists at the three residency spaces are connected in their common experience, yet juxtaposed by the obvious differences in the three residency environments: an urban village, a wood factory and a fishing village. Another common context is that these three sites are facing similar problems related to economic development and the process of modernization from traditional production models, as well as the organization of local workers, the transformation of traditional crafts, and the settlement of new villagers. The decisive isolating happening between the traditional and the present, the civilized yesterday and today is the reality we still have to face.

Modern culture and local culture and value systems constantly permeate one another. Each draws inspiration from the other, producing a new social ‘landscape’.The global epidemic, in which everyone is connected in parallel, is already changing our lives, transforming and refreshing our perceptions, and forcing us to adapt to new realities.

The "effectiveness" of art in the countryside lies in the realization of the communication between man and man, between man and nature, and between man and tradition or history and culture. We are looking forward to young artists being innovative and academic; Being able to independently carry out new on-site creative, cultural and artistic research projects or interdisciplinary practice; Using realistic media to act both as observer and creator, raising questions and imagining new possibilities; Deeply staying at the residency and combining it with the specific field as the research background of creation or exhibition to carry out project activities.

During the residency, artists at the three locations will develop artistic creation simultaneously, exchange and share with each other. During the post-epidemic period, with the village community acting as a theater environment, the artists will explore a series of related subjects, finally taking form as online and offline exhibitions combining the three residency artists’ work.

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