Artists

Paula Castro (b. 1978, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a visual artist. She studied Graphic Design at the University of Buenos Aires and in 2015 she participated in the Artists Program of Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. She received the 3rd prize in sculpture at the Visual Arts Contest of FNA (2020), the Creation Scholarship from FNA (2019), the Oxenford Collection Travel Grant (2018), and the Individual Aid for Plastic Arts Projects from the City Hall of Paris, France (2011). She had solo and group shows in Argentina, France, Belgium, Spain, and the United States. Castro has lived in Paris for eight years and currently resides in Buenos Aires.

The Grant will be used for the production of sculptural works conceived in relation to the public space, based on an ongoing research project. The artist will produce a series of sculptural recreational games that review and investigate playful situations found in fragments of works from Argentine art history.

Artists

Campo Sucio is a collective project led by visual artist and writer Teresa Puppo (b. 1952, Montevideo, Uruguay) and multidisciplinary artist and landscaper Alejandro O'Neill (b. 1986, Rivera, Uruguay). Campo Sucio aims to transform the perception of local flora in Uruguay and culturally reintegrate so-called "weeds," questioning the hegemonic narrative surrounding the natural landscape.

The Grant will be used to replicate a "chircal," a community of low-maintenance plants that adapt to the local climate without the need for irrigation. A permanent 450 m2 plot will be planted in the North Courtyard of the EAC (Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo) in Montevideo. To create the garden, a call will be made to art and landscaping students, generating a space for collaboration and reflection on natural resources, local identity, and nature.

Artists

Rafael RG (b.1986, Guarulhos, Brazil) is a visual artist and writer. He gained his BA in Visual Arts from the University of Fine Arts of São Paulo. His practice focuses on sexual and affective relationships and their political implications as well as issues of racial identity. Working with institutional and personal archives, he presents his research through workshops, installations, performative texts, publications and objects. His residencies include Black Rock Senegal, Dakar (2019): Gasworks, UK (2018); and The Iberê Camargo Scholarship for residency at Künstlerhaus Bremen (2014), among others. His works were included in various exhibitions in Brazil, Germany, Colombia, Spain, Poland and Australia. He lives and works between Guarulhos, Recife and São Luís, Brazil. He lives and works between Belo Horizonte and São Luís, Brazil.

The Grant will be used for the production of new work. The project Caminhos da Liberdade has as its starting point the research on escape routes that enslaved Afro-descendants developed in three Brazilian territories that have had different events related to the history of emancipation: Bairro do Bexiga (SP), Redenção (CE), and Florianópolis (SC).

Artists

Sofía Córdova (b. 1985, Carolina, Puerto Rico) is an artist whose work considers science fiction as an alternative history, the liberating dimensions of music, colonial contamination, climate change and migration, the revolution - both historical and imagined - within the matrix of class, gender, race, late capitalism, and its technologies. Recently, her work was featured in Aperture magazine and was part of the exhibition There Is No Post-Hurricane World: Art and Activism after Maria at the Whitney Museum, New York. She currently resides between Oakland and Puerto Rico.

The Grant will be used for the production of video for the series The Hand of Work, which the artist has been developing as part of GUILLOTINÆ WannaCry, a project that examines various sources of struggle and resistance, and how organizing is historicized.

Art and social engagement

Solar dos Abacaxis is an autonomous and collaborative institution dedicated to experimentation through art and education. Its purpose is to develop, strengthen, and radiate initiatives that seek social transformation through cultural, artistic, and educational projects. Based in Rio de Janeiro, but with activities throughout Brazil, it is devoted to the development of new forms of institutional and curatorial practice that, based on alternative value systems, can contribute to the construction of more fairer, powerful, and pleasurable relationships both within and outside the art system.

The Grant will be used for the new initiative called OFICINA SOLAR, which will provide opportunities for six national artists in vulnerable situations to participate in the first cycle of their residencies. The program will include social and curatorial support, travel and accommodation assistance, a research grant, and studio space.

Art and social engagement

Ruta del Castor is a non-profit organization that emerged from a commitment and interest in art and politics, the role of the artist as a social agent, and the dialogue that art fosters in the public space. Since 2017, they have carried out CASACUNA, an artistic residency program in collaboration with the community of children and women caregivers at the children's shelter Casa Cuna la Paz. Among the residents and collaborators are Pedro Reyes, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Galia Eibenschutz, Manuela de Laborde, and Ana Gallardo, among others.

The Grant will be used for a pilot program, replicating CASACUNA. This new residency project will continue to deepen the work carried out and reinforce the objective and importance of the consistency and long-term duration of social interaction art. It will reinforce the mission of generating spaces for mutual learning between artists and communities in vulnerable situations.

Organizations

Founded in 2013, La Nueva Fábrica is a non-profit contemporary art space based in Antigua, Guatemala, that works to empower diverse communities through art. With a clear commitment to supporting artistic experimentation, critical thinking, and social justice, it seeks to create pedagogical opportunities through art and visual culture. Their initiatives include exhibitions, public programs, educational and sustainable development projects, artistic residencies, and multidisciplinary workshops.

The Grant will be used to support the 2024 residency program and the launch of a social inclusion and gender axis for Centroamerican artists. The residency is open to artists, curators, educators, students, and diverse communities, and focuses on the management and development of selected projects, providing support and guidance to participants in their respective languages.

Organizations

Travesías Terremoto is the new project of Terremoto, a cultural platform dedicated to critical thinking around contemporary art in the Americas. Founded in 2013, Terremoto has evolved into a non-profit organization, diversifying its branches of activity, audiences, and outreach channels. Travesías Terremoto is a research residency program for Latin American artists, with the aim of exploring decentralized territories on the continent and creating spaces for collective reflection. Each annual edition seeks to bring together five artists in a specific territory to develop an interdisciplinary research theme.


The Grant will be used for the first volumeof the residency, titled Interplanetary Simulations, which brings together artistic and scientific practices to explore space conquest, planetary imagination, and the possibilities of the cosmos in the face of a bleak future on Earth. The residency will be accompanied by a public program, a printed publication, and a series of unpublished texts.

Publications

Founded in 2008, [NAME] Publications is dedicated to creating books with an emphasis on often marginalized stories and practices in dominant art and design narratives. The publishing house facilitates the production of books by artists, designers, curators, and scholars whose practices are rooted in the Americas. Co-directed by curators Gean Moreno and Natalia Zuluaga, it disseminates these titles and reaches new audiences through exhibitions, public programs, and the recovery of archival materials.

The Grant will be used to produce a bilingual publication edited togheter with Cuban artist Glexis Novoa (b. 1964, Holguín, Cuba). This illustrated volume compiles studies, artworks, over 400 photographs, and archival material documenting the performance art movement in 1980s Havana. It will present visual and textual information on all of the performances and ephemeral artworks produced on the island.

Publications

Ticio Escobar (b. 1947, Asunción, Paraguay) is a curator, professor, and cultural promoter. He served as the president of the Association Support to Indigenous Communities of Paraguay, director of Culture of Asunción, and Minister of Culture of Paraguay from 2008 to 2013. He has published around twenty books on art theory and culture. He has received various awards, including the Bartolomé de las Casas Prize for his support of indigenous causes in the Americas. He currently serves as the director of the Centro de Artes Visuales/Museo del Barro in Asunción.

The Grant will be used to compile unpublished essays and critical analyses authored by Ticio Escobar, with the aim of publishing and promoting contemporary arts from Paraguay. This project seeks to gather, complete, edit, and publish extensive scattered material related to the work of the most prominent Paraguayan artists, spanning the late 20th century and the corresponding years of this century. Considering the goal of disseminating the recovered material, the publication will take the form of a freely available digital book.