13-14 November 2025 at Greylight Projects, Heerlen & Kunsthaus NRW, Kornelimünster
AiR Cross Border meeting is a two-day expert meeting including presentations, panels, workshops, and a field trip, for artist-in-residence organisations, artists and art professionals, about working in the border region and what cross-border collaboration entails.
Borderland Residencies c Jan Lemnitz
The work-related mobility of individual artists, and the welcoming culture of artist-in-residence (AIR) programs contribute significantly to an on-going cultural and social cohesion between countries and regions, which is crucial to the European understanding. Many residency programs that operate in the cross-border regions are located in rural areas, either in small villages or in the countryside. Here they provide space and time for artists to conduct research, engage with their community, and provide facilities and contacts to produce new work. Similarly, they function as platforms for presentation and exchange through organizing open studios, exhibitions, workshops or talks, promoting professional as well as civic and neighborly exchange.
DutchCulture|TransArtists and IGBK, together with a consortium of regional partners, initiated this meeting amongst peers who share transregional contexts and interests, to foster reflection on how local conditions intersect with broader European discourses around mobility, cultural policy, and border dynamics. What are the artistic and political implications of borders in 2025, given current developments in the EU? Can we understand borders as transitions, which (new) cultural borders do we encounter in practice, and how do artists deal with this?
Resident artist Kenneth Moreno Kiernan tells about his residency during the open studio presentations at Greylight Projects (c Greylight Projects)
The program consists of a two-day gathering upon invitation (approx. 50 persons). On the first day, participants will come together at Greylight Projects. Keynote speakers Dr. Norbert Cyrus (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION), and Joep Vossebeld and Ingrid Misterek-Plagge of Borderland Residencies Program, will introduce the border region from a social-political and artistic stand point, followed by in-depth exchanges and dinner together.
On the second day we start with a field trip to former mining villages in the Aachen region, in collaboration with the Borderland Residencies program. We will lunch together at Kunsthaus NRW in Kornelimünster where we will participate in the Reading the Region conference hosted by the trinational cross-border network Very Contemporary. In different panels and presentations, the conference will address the connections between artists and institutions, as well as the challenges and opportunities in fostering collaboration across borders.
The event takes place in English.
Overview of Program: 13 and 14 November 2025
Thursday 13 November - Day 1 – GREYLIGHT PROJECTS in Heerlen (Schaesbergerweg 58, 6415 AJ Heerlen, Netherlands)
13.00: Welcome with coffee, tea & cake at Greylight Projects
13.15-14.00: Tour along Greylight Projects with Wouter Huis
14.00-14.30: Welcome and program introduction by Wouter Huis - Greylight Projects, Constanze Brockmann - IGBK and Heidi Vogels - DutchCulture|TransArtists
14.30-15.00: Short introduction participants
15.00-16.20:
Keynote 1 "Constraining and Enabling - How Borders Shape Realities and Imaginations" - Dr. Norbert Cyrus (Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, Frankfurt/ Oder)
Keynote 2 - Borderland Residencies Program - Joep Vossebeld (Curator Contemporary Art at Odapark Venray) and Ingrid Misterek-Plagge (Managing Director Kulturraum Niederrhein e.V.)
Q&A with Dr. Susanne Ristow, Landesbüro für Bildende Kunst NRW
16.20-16.30: Break
16.30 - 17.30: Panel with Wouter Huis (Greylight Projects, Heerlen), Julia Haarmann (Künstlerdorf Schöppingen) and Brenda Guesnet (IKOB, Eupen), moderation Heidi Vogels
17.30 - 18.30: Workshop with participants, moderation by panelists and team
Participants will join small-groups for a hands-on workshop that builds on key points raised during the panel (moderated by the panelists and team)
18.30 - 18.40: Presentation about Culture Moves Europe’s Individual Mobility and Residency Actions, current opportunities for artists and AiR programs by Jelle Burggraaff (Head Creative Europe Desk NL at DutchCulture)
18.40 - 19.00: Break
19.00 - 21.00: Dinner at Greylight Projects
21.00 - 21.30: Walk 20 min to hostel
Friday 14 November - Day 2 – FIELD TRIP & Reading the region conference by Very Contemporary at Kunsthaus NRW, Kornelimünster (Abteigarten 6, 52076 Aachen)
8.00 - 8.30: Breakfast
8.30 - 12.45: Field trip Art and Dilemma, with Joep Vossebeld of Borderland Residencies and artist Silke Schatz
13.00-14.00: Lunch at Kunsthaus NRW
14.00-17.00: Very Contemporary conference: "Reading the Region": If Belgium, the Netherlands and the German Bundesland North Rhine-Westphalia are taken together, they form a uniquely dense network of art production and exhibition venues in Europe, a triangle of Art. The conference will address the connections between artists and institutions, as well as the challenges and opportunities in fostering collaboration across borders. Find the "Reading the Region" conference program at Kunsthaus NRW here.
Including a panel introducing the European perspective with a.o. Lene ter Haar (Cultural Attaché at the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Düsseldorf), Natalie Giorgadze (General Manager of Culture Action Europe), Christine Heemsoth (Editor for touring artists, Mobility Info Point of On The Move in Germany) and Philipp Dietachmair (Head of Programmes European Cultural Foundation), moderation Constanze Brockmann.
17.00: Optional tour through the current exhibitions at Kunsthaus NRW
Please note that the program may be subject to change.
The AiR Cross Border Meeting is initiated by DutchCulture|TransArtists (Amsterdam) and the Internationale Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste (IGBK) (Berlin), organized in partnership with Greylight Projects (Heerlen), Landesbüro für Bildende Kunst NRW, and Kunsthaus NRW (Kornelimünster), in collaboration with Borderland Residencies Program, with the support of Pictoright Fonds and Goethe Institute Amsterdam.
IGBK and its projects are funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and by the Kulturstiftung der Lander.
Bordeland Residencies visit with all the participating artist the exhibition Overburden On Extraction And The Shape Of Things To Come (c Greylight Projects)
Field Trip: Art and Dilemma
14 November 2025 with Joep Vossebeld of Borderland Residencies Program and artist Silke Schatz
In the style of Borderland Residencies, we will start on Friday 14 November with a Field Trip to the lignite mines of Hambach and Garzweiler. To meet growing energy demand, immense holes have been created in the landscape here. Tens of thousands of residents of the region have been forced to make way for mines in recent decades, and their villages and towns have been demolished.
Accompanied by artist Silke Schatz, we will visit Manheim, one of the last villages currently being demolished. Silke will provide insight into the role of activists and local communities, what future scenarios are conceivable in the region, and how art and activism come together in her own artistry.
We continue our excursion to Keyenberg, a village on the edge of the open-cast mine. A political decision recently saved the village from demolition, but 80% of its inhabitants had already left. On site, we gain insight into the plans to bring this “ghost village” back to life and the role that art and culture will play in these plans.
Constraining and Enabling - How Borders Shape Realities and Imaginations
Keynote by Dr. Norbert Cyrus on 13.11.2025
The social worlds are constituted by borders. Applying ideas from complexity theory, I will discuss the relevance and omnipresence of borders as - originally - mental objects of differentiation that make a difference. Social world borders simultaneously emerge from and constrain/enable the interaction of human actors interconnected in complex social systems. The existence of borders rests on human actors' collective acceptance and cooperation in border maintaining. Being in a state of dynamic equilibrium, borders are subject to constant incremental alterations and rare disruptive changes. Social sciences and fine arts are not only subjected to the orders established by borders but make borders the subject of critical reflection and imaginations, thus not only contributing to the dynamics of border alterations but pointing to not yet realized border possibilities.
DutchCulture|TransArtists is part of DutchCulture, and serves as an international platform for information on artist-in-residence opportunities worldwide. In addition to the comprehensive online database, TransArtists supports the position of AiR organisations in the Netherlands through the AiR NL network. It fosters professional exchange and collaboration by organizing symposia, meetings, and other knowledge-sharing formats, connecting the Dutch AiR field with international developments.
The Internationale Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künste (IGBK) represents visual artists in Germany on national and international levels as an umbrella organization. It acts as a network, information hub, and advocacy body, supporting mobility, exchange, and better working conditions in visual arts. IGBK also promotes discourse on current cultural policy issues and facilitates international collaboration, including in the context of artist-in-residence initiatives.
The Borderland Program was initiated in the Lower Rhine region as part of the Regional Culture Programme NRW. It is a collaborative network of residency initiatives located in the border region between mid-southern Netherlands, Belgium and Nordrhein-Westfalen. Now in its fifth edition, it promotes cross-border artistic exchange and aims to strengthen the visibility and infrastructure of AiR programmes in the region.
Greylight Projects is an artist-run space and residency program based in Heerlen, located in the border triangle between the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. It offers space for artistic experimentation, research, and presentation, with a strong focus on the local and transregional context. Greylight connects visiting artists with its surroundings through site-specific projects, events, and collaborations with local partners.
The Landesbüro für Bildende Kunst NRW is a regional institution that supports the development of contemporary visual art in North Rhine-Westphalia. It acts as a mediator between artists, cultural institutions, and policymakers, offering advice, funding opportunities, and coordination for visual arts initiatives. The Landesbüro für Bildende Kunst NRW is a division of the Kunsthaus NRW.
Kunsthaus NRW in Kornelimünster is dedicated to showcasing and supporting contemporary visual arts from the region of North Rhine-Westphalia. It functions both as an exhibition space and a platform for artistic production, and hosting events that foster dialogue between artists and the public.