Organizer Information
The opportunity is organized by INVE Experimental Arts Platform, an independent arts organization dedicated to experimental and interdisciplinary artistic practices. For more than eleven years, INVE has developed international residency programs, laboratories, and collaborative artistic encounters focused on live arts, performance, audiovisual experimentation, installation, writing, and process-based artistic research.
Through its residency initiatives, the platform has hosted more than 200 artists from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds. INVE is recognized for creating spaces centered on artistic experimentation, collective learning, self-reflection, and alternative forms of creative production outside conventional institutional structures.
The organization’s BASE residency programme emphasizes artistic process, embodied research, self-care, and collaborative methodologies. Rather than focusing exclusively on final production outcomes, the residency supports artists in deepening their relationship to creative practice through dialogue, mentorship, observation, movement, writing, and site-responsive exploration.
The 2026 edition of Residency BASE, titled “Before Form,” continues INVE’s commitment to supporting artists working across disciplines while fostering environments rooted in care, listening, ecological awareness, and sustainable creative exchange.
Title & Description
OPEN CALL RESIDENCY BASE “Before Form” 2026
Residency BASE “Before Form” is a five-day international residency programme taking place in the natural landscape surrounding Valencia, Spain. Organized by INVE Experimental Arts Platform, the residency invites artists and creative practitioners to engage with artistic practice as a space for research, reflection, transformation, and self-care.
The programme is conceived as a process-based laboratory where participants can reconnect with the foundations of their creative methodologies outside accelerated production systems and institutional pressures. Through collective and individual experiences, artists are encouraged to investigate how artistic practice can function as a site of embodied knowledge, memory, observation, and experimentation.
Hosted in a restored countryside house immersed in nature, the residency combines communal living, mentoring sessions, reflective exercises, and artistic research practices. Participants engage in a range of activities including site-specific walks, body-based activations, writing sessions, observation exercises, and one-on-one mentoring designed to expand artistic language and deepen creative inquiry.
The residency embraces interdisciplinary and hybrid artistic approaches, welcoming practitioners working across performance, installation, film, sound, visual arts, writing, and experimental media. Rather than requiring a finalized project proposal, the programme supports open-ended exploration and encourages artists to arrive with questions, intuitions, ongoing processes, or emerging ideas.
BASE frames artistic creation as both a personal and collective act capable of imagining alternative ways of relating to the world. The residency therefore prioritizes care, collaboration, dialogue, and shared reflection while creating a temporary community rooted in generosity, listening, and creative exchange.
The 2026 edition will take place across two separate residency sessions in July and September 2026, each hosting a limited group of participants in an immersive natural setting near Valencia.
Categories
Eligible disciplines and artistic practices may include:
- Performance
- Installation
- Video/Film
- Sound/Music
- Writing
- Literature
- Interdisciplinary Arts
- Multimedia
- Media Arts
- Visual Arts
- Site-specific
- Hybrid
- Cross Disciplines
- Research
- Choreography
- Dance
- Audiovisual
- Culture
- Art
- New Media
Eligibility
The residency is open internationally to:
- Emerging artists
- Mid-career artists
- Interdisciplinary practitioners
- Writers
- Performers
- Researchers
- Filmmakers
- Sound artists
- Visual artists
- Creative practitioners from all disciplines
Applicants must:
- Be over 18 years old
- Be interested in artistic research and process-based practice
- Be willing to participate in collective residency activities
- Be comfortable working in collaborative and reflective environments
The programme welcomes applicants both with and without an existing project. Participants may arrive with completed concepts, ongoing research, open questions, or exploratory ideas.
Working languages are English and Spanish.
Program Benefits & Awards
Selected participants will receive:
- Five-day immersive residency programme in rural Spain
- Accommodation for 4 nights / 5 days
- Full vegetarian meals throughout the residency
- Individual mentoring and artistic guidance
- Access to shared creative and resting spaces
- Participation in workshops, observation exercises, and reflective practices
- Site-specific exploration activities
- Collaborative artistic environment
- Networking with international participants
- Supportive process-oriented research environment
- Opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange and experimentation
The programme is specifically designed to support artistic reflection, creative transformation, and sustainable working methodologies within a nature-based setting.
Application Fee
- Residency Fee: 550€
The fee includes accommodation, meals, artistic programming, mentoring, and materials.
Travel costs to Valencia and the residency venue are not included.
Application Requirements
Applicants are required to complete the official application form.
Participants may also be asked to provide:
- Personal and contact information
- Artistic background information
- Short statement of interest
- Information about current practice or research interests
- Project materials or documentation (optional)
- Portfolio or artistic references (if applicable)
Artists with ongoing projects are encouraged to bring materials or documentation for mentoring sessions, though having a finalized project is not mandatory.
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 28 June 2026
- Residency Session 1: 14–18 July 2026
- Residency Session 2: 9–13 September 2026
- Participant Capacity: Maximum 12 participants per edition
Location
Valencia, Spain
Additional Details
Residency BASE strongly emphasizes slow artistic processes, collective care, embodied practices, and ecological awareness. The residency environment is intentionally designed as an alternative to productivity-driven artistic structures, allowing participants to reconnect with their creative rhythms and methodologies.
The residency includes shared accommodations arranged according to participant comfort and accessibility needs. Vegetarian homemade meals using locally sourced ingredients are provided throughout the programme, and dietary requirements are accommodated.
The surrounding landscape offers access to hiking routes, natural environments, and a nearby river suitable for swimming, further supporting reflection and connection with place.
Rather than focusing solely on production outcomes, the programme encourages participants to explore artistic practice as a dynamic field of transformation, memory, embodiment, and social relation.