Saturday, June 1, 2013
Astrid Bussink studied fine art at the Academy of fine Arts, AKI, Enschede (BA) in the Netherlands and her Master in film at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. During this Master she shot her award-winning documentary 'The Angelmakers' (First Appearance Award IDFA, Little Stamp award, ZagrebDOX, Best short Documentary, Dokufest, nomination Grierson Award and more). After this she made the short films Rückenlage / Upside Down (Best Short Experimental film at Vermont International Film Festival, nominated Silver Cub, IDFA 2006), The 9 lives of my car (a.o. Dutch Filmfestival 2007) and I shot the mayor (Or: Plan B) (a.o. nominated Silver Cub, IDFA 2007, official selection Zagrebdox and HOTDOCS).
 
Bussink now lives and works in Amsterdam where she made her first feature length documentary 'The Lost Colony' (Official Selection Rotterdam International Filmfestival, HOTDOCS a.o.) and has now finished her new personal documentary MijnEnschede, about the Enschede fireworks disaster that happened in 2000, in which 23 people died, 1000 were injured. 'My Enschede' has premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2010. During her artist in residency program in New York she started her project Constructions of (www.constructionsofhappiness.com) which she showed in galleries in New York and Edinburgh. Back in the Netherlands she is now continuing her COH project and is working on the documentary by the same title.
 
Astrid stayed in Batumi residensy program in the framework of the cultural exchange project "Now Wakes The Sea" - NWTS 
 
The cultural exchange project 'Now Wakes The Sea' started in 2012 with Turkey in the context of NLTR400.ECF provides funding to continue the project with Moldova and Georgia.
 
The project NWTS is initiated by Dutch Satellietgroep and involves research based artist in residence programs for artists/architects/filmmakers in coastal transition areas in countries surrounding the Black Sea and North Sea to develop new works, select existing works and program traveling film festivals for public screenings and debates on venues, both on the coast of the Black Sea as on the North Sea.
 
Artist run initiative Satellietgroep is based since 2006 in The Hague, The Netherlands, a country with a strong historic art and innovative relationship with the sea. Satellietgroep explores through arts and culture how the sea and waterways influence cities, people, communities and environment. Satellietgroep’s aim is to enhance public and professional awareness on coastal transitions. Satellietgroep developed a new method, an ‘artist in residency program’ for research and exchange of local knowledge on a global level. It invites international artists and scientists to jointly develop and present research articulating a cultural, innovative and sustainable significance of the sea and its coasts by doing on-site research, engaging with local communities, collaborating with local experts and connecting to international networks. It interconnects coastal communities by connecting contemporary research and new works to historic and future coastal developments.
 
Project was supported by ECF through Collaboration Grants program.