The second round of applications for the Finnish Cultural Foundation and MORPHO’s residency programme for Finnish and Finland-based visual artists is now open.
Applications are now open for a five-month working grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation for the MORPHO residency programme in Antwerp, Belgium. The application period is 10.8.– 30.8.2024 until 16:00 EEST. You can find more information about the application procedure on the Finnish Cultural Foundation website.
An information session about the residency application will be held online on Tuesday, 20.8. from 15:00 to 16:30 (Finnish time). The event will be held in English on the Zoom platform.
The working period is 1.8.– 31.12.2025, and the working grant amounts to €13,500 per five-month residency.
MORPHO is an artist residency and studio provider that organises residencies focusing on local development and international exchange. Residents receive practical and curatorial support to develop their practice or project in an open environment that encourages critical dialogue and artistic experimentation. A residency includes the use of an individual studio, as well as housing in the residency house (common spaces include kitchen, living room, dining room, courtyard, basement and library).
Meet Meri Toivanen
Finnish visual artist Meri Toivanen will be the first to complete the Finnish Cultural Foundation’s five-month residency at MORPHO. Photo by Nomin Ulziibayar.
Back in May this year, our Communications Officer, Ela Suleymangil, met with Toivanen during Antwerp Art Weekend. Toivanen’s work was featured as part of ‘Bow a Head’, a group exhibition curated by art critic and art historian Tamara Beheydt and artist Guy Van Bossche.
Toivanen, a visual artist originally from Kajaani, Finland, graduated in 2022 with a master’s degree in painting from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She has lived in Belgium for the past six years and shortly after completing her studies, was offered a part-time teaching position at the academy, where she now instructs figure drawing.
She kindly takes her time to guide me around the exhibition at the Annie Gentils Gallery, where her paintings are showcased alongside the works of 16 other artists, spanning two floors. Some of her pieces are so freshly painted that they were still wet when selected by the curators. She shares with me the vulnerability of displaying a painting that is still so new.
I ask her how she knows when a piece is finished, she admits that it’s a difficult decision. A smaller painting by the door titled Cannonball (2023) is a lot brighter than the others, it has an almost summery feel to it. She tells me this work was made in Finland and our conversation turns to how the spaces where she creates influence her style. She brings me to a work upstairs titled Creatures of Habit (2024), strikingly different with its use of pink—a colour absent from her other works on display. “Can you see what it is?” she asks, as I hesitantly guess, “A boxing ring?” Toivanen smiles, confirming my answer, and tells me more about her interest in Finnish post-war films and how recently she has been focusing on gameplay as a symbol for power relations and struggles.
Toivanen’s work has been featured in duo and group exhibitions across Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Finland. In February 2025, she will begin her residency at MORPHO, culminating in her first solo exhibition. We eagerly anticipate the new directions her work will take. Follow Meri Toivanen on instagram.
To read more about Toivanen’s work, check out her interview with Laura Iisalo published on the the Finnish Cultural Foundation website.
For more information about the residency grants:
- Johanna Ruohonen, Special Expert, Museum Director | +358 (0)9 6128 1247
- Annina Majanlahti-Binaku, Coordinator | +358 (0)50 528 8826
Features photos by Nomin Ulziibayar, provided by Meri Toivanen.