OPEN CALL :Lintas Benua Crossing Continents Research Fellow

The Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (Helsinki, Finland/Boston, US & international); Jambatan Collective (Copenhagen, Denmark); Kapallorek Artspace, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia; the National Art Gallery of Malaysia, Langkawi; and ISOGLOSS (New York, New York, US & international) announce a joint international program to be held October 18–December 14, 2025, with an in-person residency in Malaysia, November 15–30, 2025, which will culminate in a public exhibition and related events. Hosting a maximum of 15 artists, designers, and scholars, with five from the Nordic region; five from Southeast Asia; and five from other geographical locations, the intensive research residency will allow for individual and collective learning and creation, with a focus on the geographical and cultural specificities of Langkawi and Perak, Malaysia.

An open call for applicants is currently open until September 10, 2025. Apply here.

Lintas Benua (Crossing Continents) creates an arts and cultural research community of globally diverse experiences. The program includes weekly online meetings, October 18–November 8, 2025; an in-person residency in Langkawi and Perak, Malaysia, November 15–30, 2025; and a closing online symposium, December 13–14, 2025. A post-program reflection meeting will also be held in January 2026. Participants’ written and/or visual reports will be published by ISOGLOSS in early 2026.

Founded on the creative power of difference and diverse ways of knowing and doing, Lintas Benua connects arts and cultural practitioners to exchange knowledge and resources. Challenging the many forms of exploitation, extraction, and violence of the globalized world, Lintas Benua maps an alternative arts and research community that is practicing, and supporting, inclusive and sustainable cultures. Furthering the work of each collaborating organization, Lintas Benua is a co-created platform for crossing continents: Transnational co-learning, knowledge sharing, and collaborative cultural work. It is an experiment in de-centered trans-locality that creates a new geography and enduring network of mutual support. The in-person residency will be structured by visits to local artists and cultural sites; sharing practices; and a collaborative exhibition laboratory.

Joining facilitators and mentors from each organization, guest Faculty Fellows will include researchers Camilla Boemio and Renan Laru-An. Camilla Boemio is an internationally published author, curator, and member of the AICA (International Arts Critics Association) based in Rome. Boemio was the co-associate curator, alongside curator Amir Zainorin, Jambatan, of “Pera + Flora + Fauna: The Story of Indigenousness and The Ownership of History,” an official collateral event at the 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, 2022, sponsored by the Malaysian organization PORT PERAK (People of Remarkable Talents). Renan Laru-An is a Sultan Kudarat-born, Berlin-based curator and theorist; curator, “Soil-beings (Lamánlupa)” the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025; and former Artistic Director, SAVVY Contemporary.

The intensive research program is designed for emerging and established professionals who have arts and design- based research practices and are carrying out projects focused on intercultural issues and experiences. Research projects that engage questions of the arts and design in relation to climate and sustainability; indigenous and ancestral arts, design, and technology; and comparative transnational approaches to issues specific to Malaysia and at least one other locality are particularly invited. Small working groups will be formed based on research affinities.

Successful applicants based in the Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and their associated territories: the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland) and Malaysia will be fully funded. The Selection Committee is made up of representatives from each collaborating organization: Dr. Dalida María Benfield, CAD+SR; Amir Zainorin, Jambatan; Ou Ning, ISOGLOSS; Zaslan Zeeha Bin Zaini, National Art Gallery of Malaysia, Langkawi; and Fadly Sabran, Kapallorek Artspace.

CAD+SR is an international non-profit arts-based research center. Our work opens onto multiple horizons and communities of transdisciplinary inquiry.

Lintas Benua (Crossing Continents) is supported in part by a grant from the Nordisk Kulturfond Globus Opstart+ program.