OPEN CALL: Spring-Summer 2026 UNIDEE residency modules “Languages, Please”

UNIDEE Residency Programs and Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte are pleased to announce an open call for applications for the modules of the spring and summer seasons of the programme Languages, Please, curated by UNIDEE Visiting Curators Nina Fiocco and Gaia Martino.

Languages, Please is an invitation to a collective series of rehearsals that explores languages as geopolitical spaces of dispute, narratives, and encounters. It is a call to engage with the porosity of our bodies in action and the narratives that can infuse and strengthen our practice of remaining polyphonic, amid the crumbling circumstances of the present.

To meet in a language embraces the paradox of feeling foreign but inside the language, consciously rejecting to be bound by borders and rules that the language itself may impose. The fragility and fleeting temporality of this process embody the very essence of the community as a political space: a plurality of possibilities forged by the acceptance of implicit differences and affective responses that sharing a language fosters in each of us. What is incomprehensible yet invisible—uncoded, unseen and unheard—is just as vital as what is comprehensible and visible.  Moving beyond the individual existence as an isolated experience, our human and more-than-human bodies are constantly engaged in negotiating ecological relationships to defend our right to remain plural, precarious and complex. This is a call to delve into what it could mean to engage with sustainable acts of storytelling, reception, and the reclamation of spaces of coexistence—an ongoing, heterogeneous multiplicity of stories so far, in which collective imaginaries emerge from the reorganisation of the senses, rewriting and acting for justice, rather than from resonance or empathy. It is about breaking the habit of synthesis, shifting our attention from the stories that worlds tell us to the intricate micro-processes that compose these stories—memories, muscles, and multiple interwoven connections occurring at once.

The UNIDEE Modules programme is a short-term residency format for selected residents. Participants will have the opportunity to cohabit at Cittadellarte and engage in an immersive, week-long residency, delving into their ongoing practice alongside peers, invited mentors, and guests. Discursive and material frameworks will intertwine, fostering a dynamic space where collective practice unfolds. Each module is interwoven within the 2025–26 Modules program, threading together the fabric of Languages, Please.

To learn more about the project’s context and objectives, please refer to the complete curatorial framework here.

About the Residency Modules of the spring-summer seasons 2026
Module V – Beyond Acoustic Supremacy—Gestural Voice and Transcorporeal Listening will take place from March 23–27, 2026, and it is led by mentor Piersandra Di Matteo. This module led by dramaturg, scholar and curator Piersandra Di Matteo, interrogates regimes of aurality shaped by oralism and audism by exceeding cochlear and hearing-centered models of perception. Collective experiments will work as a vibratory, tactile, and affective force across bodies, gestures, spaces, and material environments.

Module VI—Interlaced warps from the Andes will take place from April 13–17, 2026, and it is led by mentor Elvira Espejo Ayca. Elvira Espejo Ayca, artist, poet, and the director of the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore in La Paz, leads a residency from the perspective of Andean epistemologies. Through hands-on work with wool and collective verbal exchange, participants engage in verbal practices—oral narration, collective reading, speaking, and listening—function alongside textile work as modes of transmission, reflection, and collective meaning-making, in dialogue with Biella’s historical relationship to wool and textile production. The workshop is grounded in her text, Uywai—Uywaña. La crianza mutua de las artes.

Module VII—Spell of Color will take place from June 15 to 19, 2026, and it is led by mentor Cromoactivismo and Marina De Caro. For Cromoactivismo, a collective of artists and activists, color is a tool that challenges the sensitive capacity of our bodies and becomes collective by identifying and sharing forms of knowledge that put dominant narratives under tension. During their workshop, Spell of Color, participants in residency will share collectively, building a common working protocol where colors are a metaphor for a perceptible and plural form of knowledge—of sensitive and restless gestures—with the capacity to deconstruct social and hegemonic norms.

Module VIII—In crescendo: tools for assembly will take place from June 22–26, 2026, and it is led by mentor Francisca Benítez. With In crescendo: tools for assembly, Francisca Benítez invites participants in residency to embark on a collective practice of humans and more-than-humans in place. The residency is organized on a crescendo, from no voice to full volume, and from the intentions of one artist to the weaving of an artist collective. Improvisation, somatic listening, and body engagement could be used as strategies of participation. The methodologies the mentor brings come from sign language immersion programs, activist choirs, popular assemblies, and irrigation communities.

Participants
We aim to invite a group of up to twelve residents to take part in each module. The programme is open to international participants of all backgrounds, whose engagement sits anywhere across the broad spectrum of cultural practice and research, with no restriction regarding disciplines, media or methodologies of work. Applications from artists, musicians, performers, curators, storytellers, writers, theorists, designers, activists, all are welcome and encouraged. We welcome applications from both individuals and collectives. If applying as a collective, please specify the number of participants and the nature of your collaborative practice.

The selection of participants will be guided by the resonance between the poetics, concerns, and inquiries present in the applicant’s work and those articulated by the curatorial framework of the UNIDEE Residency Modules 2025–26, and the core themes of each module. Additionally, consideration will be given to the applicant’s interest to contribute to a program-based residency rooted in processes of active exchange and participation.

Practicalities
The Residency Modules will take place at Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte, in Biella, Italy.

The UNIDEE and Cittadellarte spaces will host a large part of the programme, while further opportunities for exploring the urban and rural landscape of Biella and its immediate surroundings will be offered.
Participants will be accommodated within the premises of Cittadellarte, in single rooms equipped with bedding and towels, and with the use of shared bathrooms. In case of participation in the workshop as a collective, they will be accommodated in a shared room. The residential spaces offer basic cooking facilities and communal resting areas. Arrival is expected in the afternoon on the day before the module begins, with departure scheduled for the afternoon of the day following the module’s conclusion. Should participants have specific flight requirements, we can assess the possibility of accommodating a longer stay. We are happy to welcome participants with children and/or small pets, ensuring a comfortable and inclusive environment for all.

We are committed to meeting to the best of our ability any accessibility requirements an attendee may have; this will be discussed individually with prospective residents.

N.B:  English will be the common ground for interaction within the residency module, yet the work will not be confined to it. Languages will be approached as open territories, and participants will be invited also to engage with expanded, non-codified forms of communication, hybrid languages, and multiple configurations of interaction shaped by backgrounds, interests, and practices within the group.

Further information regarding practicalities and FAQ available here.

Expenses & bursaries
To ensure sustainability to the UNIDEE Residency Module Programs, the participation fee follows a participatory method: each selected resident contributes with a fee based on their financial context, monthly income, and personal circumstances at the moment of the module. The fee is 280 euros per module, covering accommodation at Cittadellarte and administrative expenses. After the selection process, participants will be invited to share their proposed contribution.

A limited number of partial bursaries to cover travels are made available to those who would not otherwise be able to participate. Please make sure to indicate in your application if you wish to be considered for this opportunity.

Residents will be required to arrange and cover expenses for their travel to/from Biella and for the food/living costs whilst in Cittadellarte.

The team at UNIDEE remains at your disposal to support you in the visa application process and to offer guidance and recommendations with travel arrangements. Additionally, the team will provide you with any documents you may need should you decide to pursue other funding opportunities through your local art councils or via international platforms / funding bodies.

How to apply
Read the entire open call and apply here. Applicants will receive a confirmation email once their submission has been successfully received.

Please note: Applicants must indicate their choice of one of the four modules and tailor their response accordingly. If they wish to apply for more than one module, separate applications, each appropriately written, are required.

Deadline for submissions is February 15, 2026, 11:59pm (CET).

Partners
UNIDEE patrons are Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Regione Piemonte, illycaffè S.p.A., Fondazione Zegna, UniCredit Group, Fondazione Deloitte, CRT Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, Ecotermica ETS. UNIDEE research residency partners: A.M. Qattan Foundation, Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, Institut Français Italy, Ambasciata del Regno dei Paesi Bassi, Bienalsur, Ministerio de las Culturas Colombia, Fondazione Paolina Brugnatelli.