Early in the morning on August 24th, just after AVAMAA, some construction workers peered through the windows at the back of MoKS only to find some artists sleeping on the hay inside. Tere hommikust! The renovation of MoKS has begun. First the facade and re-grading of the exterior will be done, while it is warm I suspect. In parallel the basement will be worked on to secure the foundation. Then they’ll move on to the interior, heating system and other details. The amount of work is significant yet according to plan, everything should be ready by the end of 2010. Lets see… check here for updates.

This means some temporary changes will be made to the residency program, particularly for 2010. We are looking into some option to keep the residency open but probably scaled down and at another location. If you are planning to apply, please write and ask about the status of the program and be prepared for a flexible situation.

Evelyn and John from MoKS are spending a few weeks in Dresden Germany in a residency at 7.Stock. This literally means 7th floor which is what it is. We occupy a studio on the 7th floor of an old DDR administrative building in the center of the city. The building is mostly empty with the exception of a number of artist studios on the 6th and 7th floor. While this is an almost ideal situation there are a number of ongoing problems, mostly of a political nature with different administrative departments of the city. These problems essentially keep the 7.Stock project from growing and going more official. Nonetheless this artist initiative has hosted many artists and events over the past few years in a sincere and well coordinated manner.

Our aim here is rather open, to work on continuing personal projects and to prepare for a performance in Berlin. There we will take part in the parahouse12 multimedia event organized by Marko Kosnik in cooperation with X-OP project.