Artist Residency 2023
An Jay
Through its residency programmes, the Goethe-Institut seeks to provide a space for new perspectives. Particularly in the age of globalisation, it is especially inspiring for artists and culture producers to ground their works in specific, real places and to pursue their projects for a while, free from economic considerations and to build up or deepen lasting professional contacts. Artists will be nominated. Applications are not possible. Each year, with its residency programmes and their variety of focuses, the Goethe-Institut New Zealand offers artists and other culture creator’s opportunities to live and work in Wellington or Christchurch for a period of time. The residency programme’s focus is not on one-time presentations. Instead, the projects’ success and significance become evident in long-term exchange and lasting co-operation between the artists.
Artist Residency 2023: An Jay (Andreas Chetkowski)
An Jay (Andreas Chetkowski) is a German hip-hop artist with over 20 years of experience in the music business. From 2000-2015 he produced and performed in numerous music and theatre projects in Berlin, including the Deutsches Theater, 48 Stunden Neukölln, Berlin Lacht und Interkunst. Furthermore, An jay performed regularly in cultural projects for the German Embassy and the Goethe-Institut in Bulgaria, Poland, Turkey, Tunis and Zimbabwe. Since five years An Jay cooperates on an interdisciplinary basis with artists from different genres, primarily paining and art performance. In his artistic work he plays with the interaction between natural surroundings and digital media. He focuses on the interplay of digital and analog forms of representation.
Next to his music, An Jay has worked for the last seven years in Lublin (Poland) and Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria) as a DAAD lecturer. He is also writing his doctoral thesis in philosophy, dealing with information structures in the digital age.
During his time in New Zealand, An Jay will give rap workshops at schools, next to his own performances and lectures. In these workshops he will teach the German language through rhythms and wordplay to help students in their learning process. An Jay visits schools in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland.
