Organizer Information
Itinera Arte is an independent platform for contemporary art founded in 2019 and based in downtown Rio de Janeiro, dedicated to research, education, and the dissemination of artistic practices. It operates at the intersection of education, creation, and curatorship, running courses, artist residencies, exhibitions, study trips, and cultural mediation programs. Guided by its own pedagogical project, Itinera Arte conceives its residency program as a space for shared learning, where artistic practice becomes an exercise in listening, reflection, and research, linking critical formation, aesthetic experience, and engagement with territory. The International Artist Residency Program is now in its 3rd cycle, coordinated by curators Thiago Fernandes and João Paulo Ovídio.
Title & Description
Itinera Arte International Artist Residency 2026 — Expanded Field
Expanded Field is the 3rd cycle of Itinera Arte's International Artist Residency Program, proposing a critical and sensitive investigation into practices at the intersection of languages, media, and regimes of visibility. The title evokes art historian Rosalind Krauss's notion of the "expanded field," formulated in her 1979 essay Sculpture in the Expanded Field, which identified the collapse of traditional sculptural categories and the emergence of practices operating in an expanded territory. The program seeks artists whose research challenges stable disciplinary categories, shifting boundaries between painting, sculpture, photography, performance, video, sound, writing, and other hybrid practices, as well as artists who wish to use the residency to reinvent their poetics through experimentation with new media and materials. The cycle also extends the idea of the "expanded field" beyond language into a geographic and symbolic expansion, investigating how contemporary artistic practices relate to multiple territorialities and questions of belonging, displacement, and border. Selected artists will be accompanied by the Itinera Arte team throughout the residency.
Theme
The "expanded field" — the collapse of traditional disciplinary categories in contemporary art and the emergence of hybrid practices operating across painting, sculpture, photography, performance, video, sound, and writing, extended into questions of geographic and symbolic territoriality, belonging, displacement, and border.
Categories
- Interdisciplinary Arts
- Painting
- Sculpture
- Photography
- Performance
- Video/Film
- Sound/Music
- Writing
- Residency
- Multimedia
Eligibility
- Open to artists internationally, with distinct fee tiers for artists residing outside Brazil and for Brazilian artists/artists residing in Brazil
- Applicants must be able to communicate in Portuguese or English, as all applications must be submitted in one of these two languages
- Applicants for the full scholarship must additionally submit a letter justifying their interest in the residency and their need for the scholarship, meeting the program's stated criteria (socioeconomic, race, and/or gender vulnerability, plus relevance of the candidate's CV and alignment with the residency's conceptual framework)
Program Benefits & Awards
- Studio space in downtown Rio de Janeiro, 25 m², equipped with a work table, in individual or shared format
- Weekly curatorial follow-up with the program's curators
- Portfolio readings and critical monitoring of the works developed throughout the residency
- Conversations with curators, artists, and/or invited professionals
- Engagement with the local art scene through visits to studios, galleries, cultural institutions, and exhibitions
- Cultural activities in the central region of Rio de Janeiro
- Institutional promotion of selected artists through Itinera Arte's communication channels
- A collective exhibition and open studio at the end of the residency
- Support with information and guidance for finding accommodation, and practical recommendations about the city and its cultural programming
- 2 full scholarships available for artists residing in Brazil, covering total exemption from the residency fee, based on socioeconomic, race, and/or gender vulnerability criteria
Application Fee
This is a paid residency; the amount depends on the applicant's place of residence and studio format:
- Artists residing outside Brazil: €1,100 for the full 2-month residency period in an individual studio, or €850 for the full period in a shared studio
- Brazilian artists and/or artists residing in Brazil: R$2,500.00 for the full 2-month period in a shared studio (a partial exemption of approximately 50% off the full residency fee)
- Fees do not include accommodation, travel/tickets, food, production materials, local transportation, or personal expenses
- 2 full scholarships are available for artists residing in Brazil, covering complete exemption from the fee (see Program Benefits & Awards and Additional Details)
Application Requirements
- Updated portfolio
- Curriculum/CV
- Artist statement
- Application submitted through the official online form, in English or Portuguese
- Scholarship applicants must additionally submit a letter of interest explaining their motivation to participate and their need for a scholarship, per the stated criteria
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 20 July 2026
- Residency Period: October 5 – November 30, 2026
- Pre-selected residents contacted by: 31 July 2026
Location
Itinera Arte, downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Additional Details
- 10 artists will be selected for this edition
- The edition is coordinated by curators Thiago Fernandes and João Paulo Ovídio
- The final group exhibition presentation will be defined based on each artist's process developed during the residency, in dialogue with Itinera Arte's curatorial team
- Scholarship selection considers socioeconomic, race, and/or gender vulnerability criteria, as well as the relevance of the candidate's CV and its alignment with the residency's conceptual framework
- Thiago Fernandes is an art historian and curator at Itinera Arte, holding a PhD in Visual Arts from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), and has curated exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Art of Rio (MAR), Paço Imperial, and the Bispo do Rosário Museum of Contemporary Art
- João Paulo Ovídio is an art historian, independent curator, and museum educator, currently a PhD candidate in Art History at PPGHA/IART/UERJ, and founder and editor-in-chief of Revista Desvio, an online academic publication on art, memory, and heritage