Research & Development
Grants 2020/21
About Forma’s R&D Programme
Each year Forma awards Research & Development grants in the support of new ideas, enabling the time and resources needed for artists to experiment, take risks and learn new skills.
Our grant awarded to josiane m.h pozi will be delivered in collaboration with the London-based artist-run organisation and project space, Auto Italia
Research & Development Grants
Onyeka Igwe and josiane m.h pozi
2020 – 2021
We are pleased to announce Onyeka Igwe and josiane m.h pozi as the recipients of our 2020 Research & Development Grants. Forma is driven by the needs of artists and aims to be nimble and reactive in how we support the sector. We see R&D as a crucial step in supporting talent development and the creation of new, challenging and exciting work.
As part of the process, each artist will receive £2,500 towards the time and resources needed to experiment, take risks and learn new skills. In conversation with Forma, Onyeka Igwe will begin work on an original screenplay that integrates questions related to the aftermath of societal wrongdoing. In collaboration with London-based organisation Auto Italia, josiane m.h pozi will experiment and develop ideas for the production of a theatrical play and multichannel moving image installation, to be commissioned and premiered at Auto Italia in 2021.
Forma’s Artistic Director Chris Rawcliffe recently commented: I am incredibly excited by Forma’s two new Research & Development grant announcements for Onyeka Igwe and josiane m.h pozi. Both artists represent a new generation of practitioners that are not afraid to infuse their work with personal experience and histories to create compelling and challenging works. Research and Development is a key area of work for Forma, allowing us to engage and support artists to experiment, take risks and learn new skills. I’m also looking forward to collaborating with our partners Auto Italia, who are working with josiane m.h pozi to develop her Forma Research and Development into a full commission, launching at Auto Italia in 2021.
Through this research grant we aim to build a strong working relationship with Igwe, pozi and with our new partners Auto Italia, and we very much look forward to sharing progress and outcomes of each R&D in early 2021.
Find out more on Onyeka Igwe here
Find out more on josiane m.h pozi here
Auto Italia is an artist-run organisation and project space that commissions new work, bringing together international networks of artists committed to the development of emerging practices and discussions in contemporary art.
www.autoitaliasoutheast.org
Forma is one of the UK’s leading commissioning agencies and production companies. With a distinct emphasis on collaboration, creative inquiry and production values, Forma works with artists and partners to develop interdisciplinary, site-specific and large-scale projects for audiences worldwide, from community collaborations to institutional programming. In early 2021, Forma will officially launch its new cultural hub in Southwark.
www.forma.org.uk
Artist Biographies
Onyeka Igwe is an artist and researcher working between cinema and installation, born and based in London, UK. In her non-fiction video work Onyeka uses dance, voice, archives, sound design and text to create structural ‘figure-of-eights’, a format that exposes a multiplicity of narratives. Her works have been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Dhaka Art Summit, Berlin Biennale, and the London, Rotterdam International, Essay and Smithsonian African American film festivals. She has exhibited at articule, Montreal, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Jerwood Space, London and The Showroom, London. She was awarded the New Cinema Award at Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival 2019 and the 2020 Arts Foundation Fellowship Award for Experimental Film.
www.onyekaigwe.com
josiane m.h pozi is an artist working in film. Her first solo show Pingey – by josiane m.h pozi curated by Robert Snowden and Marc Kokopeli is currently showing at Gandt Gallery, New York. Previously she has produced and screened work for South London Gallery in conjunction with Liz Johnson Artur’s If you know the beginning, the end is no trouble (2019), in Unorganised Response a group exhibition at Auto Italia (2019), and at Serpentine Galleries Park Nights in Klein, Lifeline in collaboration with musician Klein.
https://thisismycv.tumblr.com/
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Onyeka Igwe, the names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered (2019), image still. Courtesy of the artist.
Josiane m.h. Pozi, Pingey (2018), image still. Courtesy of the artist.
About Forma’s R&D Programme
Each year Forma awards Research & Development grants in the support of new ideas, enabling the time and resources needed for artists to experiment, take risks and learn new skills.
Our grant awarded to josiane m.h pozi will be delivered in collaboration with the London-based artist-run organisation and project space, Auto Italia