Creative Europe
Desk UK
for Culture

Frontiers in Retreat is co-organised by eight art organisations based in seven and working across eight European countries. Project broadens
the understanding of global ecological changes and their local impacts on European natural environments by means provided by
contemporary artistic practices and a multidisciplinary approach. Seven of the partners are residency centres located in a range of contexts
recognized as frontiers, such as remote locations, unexploited landscapes as well as communities decreasing in inhabitation. The sites form
a Europe-wide network allowing the complexity of ecological questions to be negotiated. The urgency of the issues connects the seemingly
detached environments.
Twenty artists from across Europe, selected together by the partners, are invited to the residencies to research and develop new artworks in
response to the particular ecological contexts. As artists are able to move between the residency locations, their work can draw from the
different sites creating sustainable dialogue between them. The residency centres offer curatorial support in the artists’ projects according to
their specific focus areas.
All the partners host incubator workshops, which allow for the curators and artists close engagement with one another’s practices and the
different locations. With invited experts from various fields, the incubators are platforms for multidisciplinary brainstorming. In addition, the
project includes seminars in affiliated art education and research organisations. Frontiers in Retreat communicates with the public through a
web platform, archives providing information on the source materials and outcomes of the project, exhibitions that take place at all the
locations simultaneously, and a publication which weaves together the key results of the project. Context-specific educational activities target
local audiences, whereas international outreach programme and online tools reach public across Europe.