Organizer Information
UNIDEE Residency Programs is the international artist residency and research programme of Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte, founded by the internationally renowned Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto. Cittadellarte was established in Biella, Italy, as a cultural institution dedicated to using art as a catalyst for responsible social transformation. Its approach is rooted in Pistoletto’s Progetto Arte manifesto, which proposed a role for artists that extends beyond the conventional art world into social, political, environmental, economic, and cultural life.
UNIDEE—originally known as UNIDEE – University of Ideas—was founded by Pistoletto in 1999 as an international four-month residency programme. It has since developed into several residency formats, including UNIDEE Modules, Research Residencies, Connective Residencies, and UNIDEE Projects. The programme brings together artists, curators, researchers, and other cultural practitioners for interdisciplinary research, knowledge exchange, experimentation, and the development of socially engaged artistic practices. Since its establishment, UNIDEE Residency Programs have hosted more than 3,000 participants from 52 countries.
The Fall Season 2026 UNIDEE Residency Modules form part of the wider Languages, Please research programme, curated by UNIDEE Visiting Curators Nina Fiocco and Gaia Martino. The programme examines language not simply as a communication system but as a geopolitical, embodied, social, and political space. It encourages participants to investigate how language, perception, memory, bodies, and collective forms of knowledge influence artistic practice and relationships between people and their environments.
Title & Description
OPEN CALL – UNIDEE Residency Modules: LANGUAGES, PLEASE / Fall Season 2026
UNIDEE Residency Programs and Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte invite applications for the final two modules of the Languages, Please programme. The Fall 2026 season consists of two intensive, week-long residential modules, each exploring language, perception, embodiment, politics, and collective forms of artistic inquiry from a different perspective.
Module IX – Beyond the Phrase, led by writer and translator Haytham el-Wardany, takes place from 9–13 November 2026. The module investigates how language can be re-learned and reconfigured in moments of political danger, social rupture, and violence. Through texts, sounds, films, poetry, and collective study, participants will consider how language can resist oppressive structures, create solidarity, and imagine possible futures. The study group includes works by figures such as Karl Marx, Frantz Fanon, June Jordan, Iman Mersal, Refaat Alareer, Derek Walcott, Michel Khelifi, Sarah Zeryab, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
Module X – Returning to the Body: Sensory (Un)Knowing and the Politics of Perception, led by choreographer and interdisciplinary artist Sara Mikolai, with guest Jee-Ae Lim, takes place from 23–27 November 2026. This module explores the body as a primary medium of perception and investigates how sensory experience is influenced by historical, social, and political conditions. Activities involving attention, listening, movement, and voice will be combined with theoretical frameworks and South Asian aesthetic concepts, particularly rasa, to examine embodied knowledge, affect, intuition, language, displacement, and cultural memory.
Both modules are designed as immersive collective experiences rather than conventional courses. Participants will live at Cittadellarte and work alongside peers, mentors, and invited guests, combining discussion, research, experimentation, and artistic practice.
Categories
- Visual Art
- Performance
- Dance
- Choreography
- Literature
- Writing
- Poetry
- Film
- Video
- Sound Art
- Music
- Interdisciplinary Art
- Socially Engaged Art
- Research
- Curatorial Practice
- Design
- Cultural Practice
- Activism
There are no restrictions regarding discipline, medium, or methodology.
Eligibility
The opportunity is international and open to participants from all backgrounds working across cultural practice and research. Artists and cultural practitioners from any discipline may apply, including:
- Artists
- Musicians
- Performers
- Curators
- Storytellers
- Writers
- Theorists
- Designers
- Activists
- Interdisciplinary practitioners
Both individuals and collectives may apply. Collectives must specify the number of participants and describe the nature of their collaborative practice.
Selection is based primarily on the relationship between the applicant’s artistic practice, concerns, and research interests and the curatorial framework and themes of the selected module. Applicants should also demonstrate an interest in active exchange, participation, and collective processes. Up to 12 residents will be invited to participate in each module.
English is the common language for interaction, although the programme explicitly welcomes multilingual, hybrid, non-codified, and expanded forms of communication.
Program Benefits & Awards
- Participation in an immersive one-week international artistic residency.
- Accommodation at Cittadellarte.
- A single room with bedding and towels for individual participants.
- Shared-room accommodation for members of participating collectives.
- Access to communal spaces and basic cooking facilities.
- Opportunities for intensive exchange with international peers, mentors, and invited guests.
- Participation in practice-based workshops, discussions, research activities, and collective experimentation.
- Access to the artistic and cultural environment of Cittadellarte.
- Opportunities to explore Biella’s urban and rural surroundings as part of the programme.
- Support and guidance regarding visa applications and travel arrangements.
- Documentation that may assist participants seeking additional funding from local arts councils or international funding bodies.
- A limited number of partial travel bursaries for applicants who would otherwise be unable to participate. Applicants must request consideration for a travel bursary in their application.
This is primarily a residency and professional-development opportunity, rather than a competition offering a cash prize.
Application Fee
The programme uses a participatory contribution model. The stated fee is €280 per module, covering accommodation at Cittadellarte and administrative expenses. However, the programme states that the contribution is connected to each selected resident’s financial context, monthly income, and personal circumstances, and participants will be invited to share their proposed contribution after selection.
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 30 August 2026
- Module IX – Beyond the Phrase: 9–13 November 2026
- Module X – Returning to the Body: Sensory (Un)Knowing and the Politics of Perception: 23–27 November 2026
- Arrival: Afternoon of the day before the selected module
- Departure: Afternoon of the day after the selected module concludes
- Residency Duration: Approximately one week per module
Location
Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy
Additional Details
The two Fall 2026 modules have substantially different artistic emphases, so applicants should choose carefully.
Module IX – Beyond the Phrase is particularly relevant to artists, writers, filmmakers, researchers, and cultural practitioners interested in language, poetry, political resistance, translation, social conflict, solidarity, and speculative futures. Its programme is strongly text- and discourse-oriented while also incorporating sound and film.
Module X – Returning to the Body is particularly relevant to practitioners working with dance, performance, movement, sound, embodiment, sensory research, cultural memory, perception, and non-Western approaches to aesthetics. The module combines practical exercises with theoretical inquiry.
Participants are expected to engage actively with the collective nature of the residency rather than simply use the programme as individual studio time. The selection process therefore considers not only the quality and relevance of an applicant’s existing practice but also their willingness to participate in dialogue, exchange, and collaborative research.
The accommodation is relatively simple: individual residents receive single rooms with shared bathrooms, while collectives are accommodated together. Participants can use basic cooking facilities and communal areas. UNIDEE also states that participants with children or small pets can be accommodated where possible and that accessibility requirements can be discussed individually.