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Three workshop participants lean enthusiastically towards the right of the picture, smiling.

Mudlarks International Residency

Mudlarks International Residency is Complicité’s Idea Development Programme.

Artistic ideas are always beautiful. The realisations, often troubled. On this residency programme, we do not propose any solution to this problem. There is no ‘thesis’, no ‘method’. The aim of Mudlarks International Residency is to give activists and artists of any discipline the space, time and support to develop an idea, on their own terms, in their own way.

In March 2023, we piloted our first ever international residency at Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, Glouceshire, UK. We worked with Schaubühne, Bristol Old Vic, Activate Performing Arts, Nottingham Playhouse and Barbican who nominated and financially supported 6 out of 10 participants. We looked for people who:

  • Create innovative work that takes risks (and broadens what we, in the UK, might think of as a traditional forms)
  • Are committed to – or have an interest in – activism through the content of their practice or work, finding new ways of telling the story of the Climate and Ecological Emergency
  • Have an integrity of practice, depth of thought and the willingness to do things differently

2023 residency activists and artists:

Shankho Chaudhuri (Set & Costume Designer)
Rosie Elnile (Set & Costume Designer)
Alice Boyd (Sound Designer) 
Farrell Cox (Maker & Aerialist) Nominated by Nottingham Playhouse
Dom Garfield / High Rise Nominated by Barbican
Zakiya McKenzie (Writer) Nominated by Activate Performing Arts
Nora Wardell (Director) Nominated by Schaubühne
Christina Deinsberger (Director) Nominated by Schaubühne
Caroline Williams (Maker) Nominated by BOV
Stephanie Levi John (Performer & Writer)

The week was self led with provocations issued by experts from a broad range of disciplines. There was time for participants to be together with others on residency and work independently. Each participant was paired with a mentor who works outside of the UK that worked with them 1-2-1 remotely.

Complicité hopes to develop this into an annual, two-week residency.

© Camilla Adams

A participant smiles with a slightly questioning expression, while sitting down with their arms crossed
Two hands from different people cross the screen and clutch each other's wrists tightly.
Two participants talk, smile and laugh with Josie Dale-Jones as they eat dinner
A participant is caught grinning, while watching the action amongst the curtains, in the far right of the picture
A participant kneels on the floor with a post-it note covered chart, making a movement with their arms and closing their eyes tight in concentration
Multiple participants stand around a participant in the centre of the circle, who has their eyes closed.
A participant works on their laptop in a light and airy library/lounge space with book shelves on either side

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