Glenfiddich Announces the Winners of the 2019 Artist-in-Residence Prize

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Glenfiddich Announces the Winners of the 2019 Artist-in-Residence Prize

World-class scotch whisky leader Glenfiddich has awarded Canadian artists Christof Migone and Marla Hlady the 2019 Artist-in-Residence prize. Valued at $20,000, the prize includes airfare, accommodation, living expenses and a substantial production budget. Migone and Hlady will be spend the summer working on a new project together, at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, in the beautiful Scottish Highlands.

The three-month program hosts eight artists from around the globe to produce new works  inspired by the distillery, history, heritage, people, and craftsmanship of the surrounding area. While in Dufftown, the artists live in crofts, and are encouraged to share in a dialogue with one another and to foster cross-disciplinary ideas. Hlady and Migone’s proposal to explore the congenial gesture of ‘raising a glass’ perfectly encapsulates this spirit.

Marla Hlady is a kinetic and sound artist who works in sculpture, drawing, audio and installation. Christof Migone is an artist, curator, and writer who often works with language, voice, bodies, performance, intimacy, complicity, and endurance. Their work is celebrated across the country, and internationally.

"We're excited to be among those chosen for the 2019 Glenfiddich Residency,” says Hlady. “We each have long-standing individual art practices and started to work collaboratively in 2015. What we envision for our time at The Glenfiddich Residency can only occur as a collaboration, as we focus on the it-takes-two gesture and custom of ‘the toast’, its impetus, dynamism, spirit. What better place?”

Established in 2002, the Glenfiddich Artists-in-Residence program has become wildly acclaimed in the art world for providing artists an original setting, space, and community to create new work. The program captures the maverick spirit of the scotch whisky maker to relentlessly push boundaries and experiment with new ideas. Since its inception, the program has hosted more than 150 artists from 20 countries. Fourteen Canadian artists have previously participated, including Jon Sasaki (Toronto), Daniel Barrow (Montreal), Myfanwy MacLeod (Vancouver), Lee Henderson (Toronto), Vanessa Maltese (Toronto), Damian Moppett (Vancouver), Eleanor King (Halifax), and the late Annie Pootoogook (Cape Dorset).

Hlady and Migone were selected from over 100 entries, by a panel of six esteemed artists, curators and educators from Canada’s arts community. From the applications, the jury creates a shortlist of ten finalists, and the winning selection is made by the program curator Andy Fairgrieve, who says:

“We are delighted to welcome Christof and Marla to be our fifteenth artists in residence for Canada. The standard of all this years short listed artists was as always, incredibly high so it was a very tough choice. However their proposal to explore the ritual and ceremony of toast making while drinking is clearly a perfect fit for a whisky residency. I do feel that drinking Glenfiddich is a very social activity and making toasts embodies this sociality with a sense of performance. There is also a very social aspect to our residency programme and I am sure this summers cohort of artists will be raising glassing on the odd occasion.”

Fairgrieve and the artists are available for interviews, please contact ddyment@rogers.com.