Organizer Information
INVE is an acclaimed multidisciplinary platform founded in Valparaíso, Chile, born from an active grassroots community of Latin American artists and researchers. Over its 11-year history, the organization has hosted more than 200 international creators, establishing highly successful long-term initiatives like the Proceso de Error experimental video festival, Cuerpo y Territorio performance lab, and Experimento INVE rural retreats. Since 2022, INVE has expanded its operational footprint to Spain, creating fluid transnational bridges between Latin American and European creative networks to champion horizontal learning, process-oriented experimentation, and communal care.
Title & Description
BASE ✺ Before Form Residency (2026 Summer & Autumn Editions).
This five-day immersive nature retreat serves as an intentional pause designed to step outside accelerated commercial production rhythms and ground your creative trajectory. Rather than demanding fixed outputs or finished masterpieces, BASE functions as a process-based laboratory focused entirely on creative agitation, rest, and self-care. The curatorial framework approaches the human body as an active archive, utilizing memory, territory, and autoethnography as raw materials to transform personal, intimate lived experiences into wider cultural, social, and political expressions.
The Residency Methodology Kit:
Selected participants engage in an un-hurried daily itinerary of held, non-imposed somatic and conceptual activations managed horizontally alongside international mentors:
- Site-Specific Drifts: Collaborative landscape walks and exploratory drifts to physically map the surrounding environment.
- Body Activations & Observation: Grounding multi-sensory observation exercises that approach physical presence as a site of research.
- Reflective Writing: Structured journaling and text blocks rooted in your individual technique to gently navigate and untangle creative blocks.
- One-on-One Mentoring: Private, personalized curatorial guidance and artistic critique sessions.
Categories
Visual Arts, Performance / Live Arts, New Media / Video Art, Writing / Literature, Sound Art, and Curatorial Practice / Research.
Eligibility
- Global Scope: Open to visual creators, performance artists, filmmakers, writers, sonic architects, independent curators, and cross-disciplinary researchers worldwide.
- Age & Cohort Caps: Applicants must be 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. To guarantee a tight-knit community rooted in active listening and generosity, each seasonal edition is strictly capped at a maximum of 12 participants.
- Project Framework: You are welcome to apply whether you have a project in progress or not. Shortlisted creators with active projects are encouraged to bring documentation for the mentoring sessions; those without can arrive simply with a central question, an intuition, or an open curiosity.
- Linguistic Alignment: The official working languages of the residency are English and Spanish.
Program Benefits and On-Site Resources
- Historic Rural Stay: 4 nights and 5 days of shared room accommodation nestled within Masía La Toba—a beautifully restored traditional country manor immersed in the mountains of the Castellón province.
- Full Board Gastronomy: Three homemade, locally sourced, and entirely vegetarian meals prepared daily, carefully tailored to individual participant dietary profiles or food allergies.
- Natural Sanctuary Access: Unlimited access to the surrounding valleys, wild hiking routes, and direct entry points to a clear-water river running through the property for open swimming.
- Artistic Toolkit Bundle: All baseline physical materials, workshop equipment, group transit support organization, and individual post-residency professional networking access through INVE's global platform.
Fees
- Application Fee: None (Completely free to submit your portfolio for review).
- Residency Participation Fee: 550€ per selected participant.
- Note: This all-inclusive baseline fee covers accommodation, full board, all mentoring tracks, and lab materials. Outbound or inbound international travel costs to the Valencia hub are paid by the artist, but the INVE team provides comprehensive logistical support to coordinate your arrival.
Application Requirements
Dossiers can be uploaded in either English or Spanish. To prevent data loss on the web page, ensure you format your statement of intent prior to opening the interface. The selection panel assesses profiles based on visual sincerity, conceptual curiosity, and readiness to integrate into a shared horizontal living ecosystem. Submissions require:
- Complete personal contact data and preferred session selection (July or September block).
- A professional Curriculum Vitae (CV) or background resume saved as a PDF.
- An artistic Portfolio/Dossier detailing past visual or conceptual text investigations (PDF format; direct links to external commercial clouds or personal websites are not accepted).
- A brief statement of intent outlining what specific questions, practices, or blocks you wish to navigate during the retreat.
How to Apply?
Access the administrative registration form via INVE’s site node, attach your structural CV and Portfolio PDF files, tick your desired residency dates, and lock your entry. Apply to the BASE Before Form Residency.
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: June 28
- Active Summer Edition: July 14 – July 18, 2026.
- Active Autumn Edition: September 9 – September 13, 2026.
Location
Spain, Castellón / Valencia
Additional Details
The evaluation process is executed directly by INVE’s internal curatorial committee, who prioritize applicants showing an authentic desire for collective introspection and process-oriented development over commercial final delivery.