Photo by Ascended Lens Visuals.
BMoCA + Swoon International Artists Residency
Swoon Art House
4295 Broadway
Boulder, CO 8030
The BMoCA + Swoon International Artists Residency exists to invite creatives from around the world to explore their practice within the Boulder community. Our goal is to foster the growth of emerging and established artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and other creatives by providing them with the studio space, resources, time, and freedom to take risks and realize expansive works of their imagination. The residency emphasizes the importance of a meaningful and multi-layered exchange of ideas and fosters working relationships with local entities. The result has been an interdisciplinary collaboration between the arts, technology, and sciences in which resident artists work closely with scholars, creatives, and experts at scientific research centers to further their current work or develop new works. Established in 2015, the program has hosted eight artists to date.
Photo (detail) courtesy of the artist.
Emir Klepo - September 13 to October 15, 2023
Emir Klepo is a visual artist who specializes in the mediums of photography and film. He received his MFA from the Department of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo and is currently a professor of photography at the Graphic Design and Multimedia Department at International Burch University. Additionally, he serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Education and Humanities at the same university. He is also the BMoCA + Swoon Fall Artist in Residence.
Klepo’s work explores the significance of mementos and the fluid nature of memory. He is fascinated by how objects can hold profound meaning and evoke memories that we believed were forgotten. Through his photography and film work, Klepo seeks to capture the way in which our perceptions of the past can shift over time.
Sandra De Berduccy - April to May 2022
Sandra De Berduccy a new media artist, weaver, specialist in Andean textile techniques and researcher from Bolivia. She has worked for twenty years, producing artworks, exhibitions, texts, and research on traditional textile techniques and processes of the American continent, especially in Andean and pre-Columbian textiles.
Senga Nengudi - September 2020
During her residency, Nengudi explored new ways to work with technology and her art. At the conclusion of her residency, the program offered the public a free virtual artist talk and a free virtual premiere of Wigs-B Suite, the performance/installation Nengudi worked on in Boulder.
In reflecting about her residency and collaboration with Jiffer Harriman of the ATLAS Institute at University of Colorado Boulder, Nengudi says, “It was a germ of an idea that I would like to develop. This was only a two week residency – it took a significant amount of time to figure out the programming. With this introduction though, I’m now willing to incorporate technology in future work that I might do.”
BMoCA is delighted to see her featured in The New York Times right after her residency.
Nengudi is a visual and performance artist and teacher of the arts. Nengudi’s work explores visual arts, dance, body mechanics, and matters of the spirit using a variety of natural and unconventional materials. Her installation and performance work has been featured both internationally and nationally, including at White Cube in London, Galerie Anne De Villepoix in Paris, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York City, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and the Denver Art Museum. In 2019 Nengudi was awarded the CAA Distinguished Feminist Award and the Visual Art Leadership Award for Outstanding Contribution to Colorado’s Arts Community by the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation.
Find out more about Senga Nengudi and her work here.
Photo by Jess Robson.
Tim Atkins - October 2019
Tim Atkins has read and performed his work all over North America and Europe, including in the Houses of Parliament (in support of Pussy Riot) and in concert at the Victoria & Albert Museum. His work has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Catalan, French, and Lithuanian. The founder and editor of the long-running international online poetry journal, onedit, Atkins teaches Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton. He has also been a member of the summer faculty at The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, and a member of Carla Harryman’s Poets’ Theatre in San Francisco. His current work is the long poem NOTHING CONCLUSIVE HAS YET TAKEN PLACE IN THE WORLD THE ULTIMATE WORD OF THE WORLD AND ABOUT THE WORLD HAS NOT YET BEEN SPOKEN THE WORLD IS OPEN AND FREE EVERYTHING IS STILL IN THE FUTURE AND WILL ALWAYS BE. Excerpts of this poem will be appearing in poetry journals in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada.
James Tapscott - October 2018
In October 2018, BMoCA + Swoon welcomed Australian artist James Tapscott, primarily a land and light artist, whose work explores ideas of phenomenology and our response and understanding of natural phenomena through site-specific installations, sculpture, and photographic projects.
By using often simple materials, Tapscott seeks to create a balance between the artistic process and naturally occurring phenomena. The installations are temporary and site-determined, a collaboration between the artist and the location, and function as a visual conduit between the observer and the environment.
Find out more about James Tapscott and his work here.
Amalia Pica - October 2017
Amalia Pica joined BMoCA + Swoon for the 2017 International Artist Residency. Originally from Argentina, Pica now lives in London, England and has exhibited extensively worldwide. During her residency Pica will continue her research on exploring landscape as a romantic background for images that deal with the desire for political expression and on tools utilized to teach language to great apes during the 60s and 70s in America. More details regarding her scheduled artist talks can be found on the calendar http://bmoca.org/calendar/2017/october.
Tomoko Sauvage - July to August 2016
The second year of BMoCA + Swoon International Artists Residency brought Japanese musician and sound artist Tomoko Sauvage to Boulder for six weeks beginning in July of 2016. BMoCA + Swoon International Artists Residency provides international creatives with the studio space, resources, time, and freedom to realize expansive works of their imagination. The residency fosters the growth of emerging and established artists, musicians, writers, curators, and other creatives by encouraging them to take risks, experiment, and explore their creativity.
Berndnaut Smilde - April to May 2015
Meet celebrated Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde was the first artist to visit Boulder through the BMoCA + Swoon International Artist Residency. Smilde hosted an introductory lecture about his work and plans for his Boulder-based art projects.
Find out more about Berndnaut Smilde and his tenure spent with the BMoCA + Swoon Art House International Artist Residency. Highlighted in National Geographic “Picture Stories” Smilde goes into detail about his discoveries during his time in Boulder with BMoCA + Swoon.