The Ars Bioarctica open call

The application deadline is the 17th of June 2022

We are happy to announce our yearly open call for Ars Bioarctica residencies at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station for 2022–2023. The residencies are not financially supported, but we provide support in the form of a local mentor and invitation letter. The Biological Station offers the residents the same possibilities and infrastructure as its scientists and staff: a combined living and working environment, an internet connection, sauna, access to scientific equipment, laboratory facilities, the library, and a seminar room as well as the usage of field equipment. We invite applications from professional artists and artist groups from all over the world.

Since 2009 the Bioart Society is organizing the residency programme Ars Bioarctica together with the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki in the sub- Arctic Lapland in the region where nomadic Samí reindeer herding has its roots. The residency takes place in the facilities of the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station. Kilpisjärvi is a village with a little over 100 inhabitants on the border to Sweden and Norway. Kilpisjärvi has a subarctic climate bordering closely on an alpine tundra climate with only one month above the 10° C (50° F) threshold. Summertime is typically cool and rainy with crisp nights. Winter is very long, cold, and snowy. It typically begins during October and lasts into May most years. It is the best place to see Northern lights in Finland.

The emphasis of the residency programme is on the sub-Arctic environment, art&science collaboration and it is open for artists, scientists and interdisciplinary research teams.

To know more about the residency, check out the blog by our previous residents, more about the Kilpisjärvi Biological station here and about the climate here (enter Kilpisjärvi).

Applications must include:

• a completed application form below

• CV (pdf)

• Work plan (pdf)

• Proposed dates for the stay 

The prices for Bioart Society members:

•  440€/2 weeks and 730€/28 days in a private room
• 660€/2 weeks and 1050€/28 days in 2 people room (the room cost shared among the visitors).

The regular prices:

• 540€/2 weks and 880€/28 days in a private room
• 850€/2 weeks and 1340€/28 days in 2 people room (the room cost shared among the visitors).

The evaluation of the applications emphasises the quality of the proposal and its relationship to the interaction of art and science, its artistic and scientific significance, the project’s relation to the local environment, and its feasibility to be carried out at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in the proposed time. 

The selected artists / artist groups are announced by the end of June 2022.

Any inquiries can be made by contacting Piritta Puhto at piritta.puhto@bioartsociety.fi

(Image Antero Järvinen)