Organizer Information
SOPRA SOTTO is an international interdisciplinary residency platform founded in 2023. Rooted in the Hermetic axiom "As above, so below", it approaches artistic practice as a tool for collective imagination, cultural resilience, and social transformation. Through communal living, creative exchange, and co-created learning, SOPRA SOTTO cultivates temporary communities grounded in collective care, reciprocity, and experimentation. After organising residencies across Italy and the Netherlands, SOPRA SOTTO begins a new chapter from its permanent home in the Gallura hills of Sardinia.
Title & Description
Sound of Resilience: A Sonic Exploration of Belonging, Memory, and Collective Imagination
Hosted at a rustic farmhouse in the green hills of Gallura, Sardinia, this two-week communal residency brings together an interdisciplinary group of artists, musicians, researchers, and cultural practitioners to explore sound as both an artistic medium and a social practice.
Approaching sound and music as a language beyond the intellect, the residency explores how music, voice, rhythm, vibration, silence, storytelling, and listening can foster connection, healing, remembrance, cultural resilience, and collective imagination. Inspired by Sardinia's rich traditions of song, sound, and dance, participants are invited to engage with intuitive, sensory, and embodied ways of communicating, creating, and imagining alternative futures.
Residency Format
The residency is process-based, communal, and co-created. Rather than focusing on finished outcomes, it prioritises experimentation, creative exchange, and collective learning through workshops by and for residents.
Daily life revolves around communal cooking, shared meals, morning check-ins, individual practice, and time in nature, alongside listening sessions, performances, field recording, movement, rituals, discussions, walks, and excursions exploring Sardinia's landscapes and cultural traditions.
Categories
The residency welcomes musicians, sound artists, filmmakers, writers, performers, researchers, educators, curators, activists, healers, and interdisciplinary cultural practitioners from around the world.
While music and song form an important point of departure, the residency embraces practices ranging from traditional and folkloric music, communal singing, and vocal practices to experimental and electronic sound, field recording, performance, film, writing, social practice, healing, activism, and interdisciplinary work where sound intersects with other artistic forms.
Eligibility
- Geographic Scope: Open globally to national and international applicants from around the world.
- Practice Benchmark: Open to artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, performers, researchers, educators, curators, activists, and healers at all career stages.
- Format: Designed for 6–8 interdisciplinary residents who thrive in process-oriented, co-created communal living environments.
Program Benefits & Awards
- Dedicated Workspace & Setting: Extensive indoor and outdoor spaces for artistic practice, field recording, movement, and reflection set within Gallura's natural landscapes.
- Communal & Cultural Integration: Shared daily life including communal meals, morning check-ins, listening sessions, guided excursions exploring Sardinian traditions, and workshops facilitated by and for residents.
- Network & Platform Platforming: Inclusion in SOPRA SOTTO’s inaugural cohort at its permanent Sardinian location, establishing long-term ties with an ongoing international network of eco-cultural practitioners.
Application Fee
- Submission Cost: Free to apply.
- Residency Program Fee: As an independent platform, SOPRA SOTTO operates a self-funded contribution model to cover living costs and infrastructure. The fee ranges from €350 to €550 per person for the two-week duration (varying by accommodation type).
Application Requirements
Applicants must submit their application in English as a single PDF document to the selection committee. The PDF must contain:
- Personal & Identification Data: Full legal name, age, current address, email, phone number, and a copy of an official ID.
- Digital Portals: Website link and/or professional Instagram account.
- Portfolio & CV: A portfolio and CV (or an alternative format that authentically represents your creative practice).
- Short Bio & Practice Statement: A concise summary of your practice (maximum 1 page).
- Letter of Intent: A motivation statement explaining why you wish to join the residency and how your practice connects to the theme Sound of Resilience (maximum 1 page).
How to Apply
Compile all required application materials into one PDF file and email it directly to the organizer.
- Application Email Destination: soprasottoresidency@gmail.com
Video calls with shortlisted applicants will take place in the days following the deadline. Final selections will be announced at the end of August.
Key Dates
- Application Submission Deadline: Sunday, August 23, 2026
- Shortlist Interviews: Conducted via video call in the days immediately following the deadline.
- Final Selection Announcement: End of August 2026
- Residency Arrival Date: Sunday, October 4, 2026 (before dinner)
- Residency Departure Date: Sunday, October 18, 2026 (afternoon)
Location
Gallura, Sardinia, Italy — hosted at a rustic farmhouse in the green hills near the coast. The peaceful setting is surrounded by forests, wildlife, and nature, offering extensive indoor and outdoor space for artistic practice, communal living, and reflection.
About the Place
This residency marks the first edition at SOPRA SOTTO's permanent home in Sardinia and the beginning of an ongoing programme of eco-cultural residencies rooted in the island's landscapes, communities, and cultural traditions.
Residents share a simple, DIY way of living based on collective care, curiosity, reciprocity, and slow rhythms, where process and exchange are valued over productivity and finished outcomes.