International Residencies
Collaborating with and presenting international artists are constitutive of our search for artistic practices that engage with aesthetic and political urgencies. We understand and enhance ourselves in the mirror of the other. This is why cultural infusions and links are very different to political borders. Art calls upon the unexpected within us and in the society, it embodies the possibility of new relations and structures. Hearing and singing with the other create unexpected experiences. We actively value, invite and learn from such artistic conversations.
Artist residencies are particularly suitable for such artistic connections, as they allow duration and direct engagement. Wherever possible, we embrace opportunities to collaborate with and present international artists.
Nuril Basri Residency & Public Talk
In November 2024, The Moving Arts Collective had the pleasure of welcoming Jakarta-based writer Nuril Basri to Jersey for a two-week writer residency at ArtHouse Jersey Barracks and a public conversation and readings as part of Fancy A Pint artists talks at the Troubadour Pub.
Celebrated for his distinctive tragicomic storytelling, Nuril’s work blends autofiction, bildungsroman, and strikingly offbeat narrative worlds. His characters—often eccentric, marginalised, or profoundly lonely—navigate themes of queerness, belonging, and identity with nuance and emotional honesty. His novels, including Not a Virgin (2017), Gula, Gula, Gula (2022), and the award-winning Le Rat d’égout (2023), have been translated into English, French, German, and Malay, earning him an international readership. Nuril also has explored painting and photography as other mediums as well as blogs which combine his writing and visual works. These have been exhibited in France.
Nuril's journey as a writer is as captivating as his stories. Born into a conservative Islamic community in West Java, Indonesia, and working a wide range of jobs—from mini-market cashier to cruise ship waiter—he draws inspiration from his rich life experiences, injecting humour into the everyday. His work is an act of resistance, a rejection of mainstream narratives, and an expression of his queer identity.
Nuril’s idiosyncratic way of responding to a place, which vibrates with curiosity, courage and personal engagement, have deeply moved and inspired us, as well as many artists, writers and the queer community in Jersey. He is among the very few writers in Indonesia who openly writes about his queerness. His writing doesn’t shy away from exposing his own vulnerabilities, complexities and experiences as a way to criticise society, colonial history, class structures, and sexual and political suppression. We learnt from his uncompromised voice both as a writer and an individual.
For the public event on 16 October 2024, hosted by our partner Fancy A Pint at the Troubadour Pub, Nuril shared insights into his work and creative journey in an in-depth conversation with Moving Arts Collective member Aras Amiri, followed by a special reading from his acclaimed novel Not a Virgin, published by the UK independent press Monsoon.
As part of his residency, our partner ArtHouse Jersey invited Nuril Basri to create a new piece of writing exploring displacement, international political history, and identity for the 80th anniversary of Liberation in Jersey. His work was presented in May 2025 as part of Structures & Memory (a place called Wurzach) at Capital House.
Elyas Alavi Residency
In October 2023, in partnership with ArtHouse Jersey, we were honoured to host Elyas Alavi, a poet, curator, and visual artist from Afghanistan who is currently based in Australia. His residency in Jersey formed part of a wider programme of residencies and exhibitions in the UK and Italy. During his time in Jersey, Elyas shared his insights, ideas, and poetry. We learned from his poetic artworks, his commitment to cultural identity, and his reflections on immigration, displacement, and home.
Elyas Alavi is a published poet, curator, and visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, moving image, poetry, and performance. His work examines the complex intersections of race, displacement, gender, religion, and sexuality, addressing hyper-invisibilities and challenging conventional notions of culture and belonging. Alavi’s practice often interrogates histories in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, exploring their entanglements with globalisation, settler colonialism, and the mobility and displacement of Black and Brown bodies.
Alavi has published three poetry collections, earning critical acclaim and winning several prestigious literary awards, including the International Peace Poetry Prize in Tajikistan (2012), the Annual Reporters Poetry Prize in Tehran (2009), the Young Poets Book of the Year in Iran (2008), and the Afghan Young Poets Prize (2007). His poetry has been translated into English, Greek, Urdu, Kurdish, and Spanish, and has appeared in prominent publications such as World Literature Today (University of Oklahoma) and the PARSE Journal (University of Gothenburg).
He has been commissioned by a number of galleries, artist-run initiatives, and biennales, including the Sydney Biennale, Lahore Biennale, ACE, TarraWarra Biennale, Griffith University, Hyphenated Biennale, Granville Arts Centre, Next Wave, Nexus, POP, and UTS. Alavi is also a recipient of the prestigious Samstag Research Fellowship, which enabled him to further his professional practice through in situ research in London.
Artworks from artist website