The Maltings (Berwick) Trust is delighted to announce the 3 international artists who have been appointed to the FIRECULT residency programme.
FIRECULT (Wildfire Resilient Cultural Heritage) is a new international collaborative research project that examines the relationship between wildfires, community and cultural heritage. The residency programme is delivered by Imperial College London, Newcastle University and The Maltings (Berwick) Trust with University College Dublin, Izmir Institute of Technology and University of Palermo. It has been funded by the Belmont Forum and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
The research partners have now appointed three artists to work in the three case study areas in Ireland, Turkey and Italy to explore the relationship between wildfires and cultural heritage through artistic research, engagement and activity.
The artists are:
Shane Finan (Ireland)
Shane Finan assembles artworks from interactive contemporary technologies, found objects and traditional artistic media. His work is based in rural environments and examines technologies in human and nonhuman entanglements. He always collaborates, most recently working with and learning from artists, crustose lichen, environmental scientists, farmers and fungi.
Shane will undertake his residency in the Wicklow Mountains, Dublin from January to March 2025 with University College Dublin.
A. Shane Finan photo by Amy Bunce
Paolo Lolicata (Italy)
Paolo Lolicata explores themes of identity, heritage, contamination, and technology within the contexts of colonization and globalization. He approaches art-making as a collection of fragments, drawing from both past and future archives, while incorporating methodologies from archaeology, geography, and science to recontextualize meaning.
Paolo will undertake his residency at Monte Pellegrino e Parco della Favorita Nature Reserve near Palermo, Sicily, from April to June 2025 with University of Palermo.
E. Paolo Lolicata - image by Serena Vittorini
Aslı Özdoyuran (Turkey)
Aslı Özdoyuran is an artist living in Istanbul. Her work wanders through the territories of architecture, contextual histories and archival practices, often through the medium of sculpture. Her recent focus includes swimming pools as spaces of late modernization in Turkey, contemporary extraction in the form of wind turbines in Izmir and landownership and consumption of the ground around the iron mines of Serifos island.
Asli will undertake her residency in the Kozak Plain Region in Izmir, Turkey between September and November 2025, with Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey.
C. Aslı Özdoyuran image courtesy of the artist.
Artists will spend time in each geography working collaboratively with academic and local partners, documenting their research and artistic work to explore creative approaches to wildfires, community and cultural heritage.
James Lowther, Head of Visual Arts at The Maltings (Berwick) Trust said ‘We are delighted to have appointed three brilliant artists to this programme, whose artistic practice will throw a fascinating lens onto the opportunities and challenges the case study areas face around wildfires.’
Menelaos Gkartzios Reader of Planning and Rural Development at Newcastle University said ‘With this new project, we are continuing our long-term collaboration with The Maltings by building on the artist residency programme at the Centre for Rural Economy. We are thrilled to further internationalise this initiative by working with our colleagues in Ireland, Turkey, and Italy on such a topical and important subject.’
Yiannis Kountouris, Senior Lecturer in Economics and the Environment at Imperial College said ‘This is an exciting step towards transdisciplinary research in the fire-heritage nexus. We are excited to collaborate with exceptional artists who will deepen our understanding of the subtle links between fire use, fire risk and lived experience around fire, that will in turn contribute to the development of effective heritage and fire management policies.’
The three artists were appointed from over 100 artists who responded to an open call in Summer 2024 and were selected by a panel with representation from all the partners in the project.