Language:
English, Spanish, German, Dutch
Founded:
2018
Duration:
4 weeks, 15 march - 14 april 2024
Paid by artist:

Costs: The fee for this 4 week program is 2995 euros per participant, to be paid upon confirmation of your participation and non-refundable. Chilean and Latin American artists receive a 50% discount and there is one grant to a BIPOC artist. Applicants are encouraged to consider funding options and eligibility before applying. Valley of the Possible will provide support to accepted participants seeking external funding. This support includes help with finding international funding bodies, reviewing applications and providing letters of support. However, Valley of the Possible cannot guarantee any type of funding.

This research program includes: Accommodation, local transfers to and from the airport, various workshops, lectures and research trips and unlimited coffee, tea and water. There will be one group dinner and breakfast provided per week (on average, depending on the program), usually coinciding with group activities. The participants are responsible for all other meals for the rest of the research period. The organisers will facilitate regular trips and/or access to a shared car to buy groceries and connect to good internet in the town of Pucón (25 minutes by car).

This research program does not include: Majority of your meals, International travel costs and expenses, visa cost, production budget, individual trips, additional snacks or alcoholic beverages. There is very limited phone signal and NO WIFI in GaiaSur.

Application guidelines:

Please send a professional biography (500 words max) and a presentation of recent works or projects from the past five years (10 works/projects max). In a letter of interest, describe the ideas behind your proposed research (its themes, concerns and intentions ) in a way that helps them understand what you would like to bring to this program (500 words max). For video or sound work, please post a URL to the work or send a clip no larger than 10MB. All materials must be submitted in English or Spanish.
Compile all documentation (biography, presentation and letter of interest) into a single PDF file of less than 10 MB and include any relevant web-links. Submit by December 22nd 2023 by email.
From the received applications, Valley of the Possible will select up to 8 participants. If willing, there is an opportunity for a collective, group or duo application, in which case one large room can be shared with 2 people. An international transdisciplinary jury will review all applications and select participants. Participants will be notified by email before January 8th, 2024.

Deadline:

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Valley of the Possible

Valley of the Possible

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Beschrijving

Valley of the Possible invites all artists, designers, scholars and practitioners, scientists, activists, and other thinkers and makers with an interest in ecology, Indigenous wisdom and more-than human world, for an interdisciplinary research program around the concept of the pluriverse.
After three residency programs in the valley of Cañón del Blanco, we now direct our fourth research program within the locality of a beautiful new homebase: GaiaSur. Still in Wallmapu, southern Chile, this magical place is situated in an ecosystem and cultural context that is similar and different at the same time. We will continue to build our program upon our existing network and relations created during our previous BLACK EARTH programs.

CONTEXT
Within our current planetary polycrisis, we need to learn how to navigate the multiple challenges that come with systems collapse. And whilst it is hard to exist and to act on multiple timescales and realities at the same time, this is the key challenge of the polycrisis. Given that this crisis is also a crisis of the one-dimensional view, it seems we are in need of new stories. Stories that might enable us to reassemble the multiplicity of - and within- the human and the non-human, the Earth and the universe, the spiritual and the material.
Could this moment of the Anthropocene offer the opportunity for a condition to emerge that, instead of destruction, thrives on the encounter of heterogeneous worldings, taking place alongside each other? Could it bring to the fore the possibility of the pluriverse? Could this be an invitation to consider multiple perspectives, to appreciate the complexity and heterogeneity of the natural world and, through this, be surprised by the infinite realities that exist simultaneously?
We draw inspiration from Marisol de la Cadena and Mario Fraser's proposal for ‘a world of many worlds’ and the concept of the pluriverse; the idea that instead of a single world with different paradigms, we have a matrix of multiple yet connected worlds. Shedding light on the pluriverse might inspire hope and expand horizons for regenerative possibilities and futures. Like a big pile of compost, Valley of the Possible’s multi year research program BLACK EARTH continues to build upon existing layers and therefore reconsiders a phenomenon called Terra Preta. This black and fertile earth in parts of the Amazon Rainforest, was created by the patient persistence and techniques of Indigenous cultures to maintain the fertility of one of the most vulnerable and important ecosystems on earth. A perfect example of entanglements and co- existing in mutually enhancing manners, with practices that are uniquely attuned to the needs of the Earth.

PROGRAM
In this year's program we want to focus on the acknowledgement that, while we reside in the same present, our worlds can be very different. Where do we meet each other and where do we go our own way, whilst actually creating a relationship that is beneficial for everyone involved? And if we see the pluriverse as a tool, how can the arts not only make alternatives to a heterogeneous world sound more plausible but also provide resonance to those other worlds that disrupt the one dimensional story? What are the ways of symbolically mapping these different perspectives? And how can we decolonize the practice of research and re-embed ourselves within the Earth's intelligence?

We will investigate and reconsider all sorts of spiritual and material relating, human and non-human entanglements and interactions with Earth beings, many of which are related to the ancient history and culture of the Mapuche and Pehuenche people that originate from this region called Wallmapu (also known as La Araucanía). We will explore strategies of resistance and (re)existence in times of polycrisis, as well as counter-hegemonic knowledge production through a pluralism of concepts and cosmovisions.
For the duration of the full four-week period, Valley of the Possible will organise a tailor-made program. This program consists of various trips into national parks, (Indigenous) communities, guest lectures and workshops guided by (Indigenous) wisdom keepers, biologists, curators, artists and philosophers. We will screen relevant documentaries as well as supply a small library of relevant books about Mapuche, Pehuenche and Chilean culture, arts, ecology and philosophy. In addition to the program, we offer access and introductions to a broad network of art and science institutions and universities in Chile, Latin America and The Netherlands.

Outcome

Valley of the Possible does not seek specific outcomes. However, following Indigenous cosmology and the guiding principle of reciprocity, the organizers ask the participants to focus their research by examining what this place needs, or what they can add, instead of what they can take from it. They ask (though do not demand) the participants to consider dedicating a few hours per week to the earth and community they will become part of.

Studio Information

Valley of the Possible is a research-based residency program, they do not provide any studio or workspace. Each room has a desk and there is a simple rustic barn with basic tools. Participants do have access to a communal livingroom and a café.

Accommodation Information

The residency period takes place in GaiaSur, a small eco-community near Pucón, in Wallmapu, La Araucanía Andina, southern Chile.
Participants are hosted in a mountain lodge located on several hectares of privately owned land. The lodge provides eight basic rooms (private or shared), with comfortable beds, linens and towels, small working desks and heating in each room. Bathrooms are shared. The lodge also offers a communal kitchen with a pizza oven, a living room in an attached solarium, a yoga shala and a collection of books. A greenhouse, a shed with tools, a natural pool and a big garden are part of the property.

Technical Information

From the grounds of the accommodation, participants have direct access to native forest, hot springs, geysers, and the Rio Blanco, with mineral water that springs from the adjacent Sierra Nevada volcanic mountain range. Private paths lead over the Sierra Nevada into Conguillío National Park, accessible with a guide. There is a very limited phone signal and NO WIFI at the accommodation.

Locatie

The physical location is in the valley Cañon del Blanco, a remote and secluded valley in La Araucanía Andina in Southern Chile, surrounded by spectacular volcanic landscapes with a high level of biodiversity. From the grounds of the accommodation, participants have direct access to hundreds of hectares of native forest, several hot springs, geysers, and the Rio Blanco, with mineral water that springs from the adjacent Sierra Nevada volcanic mountain range.

Contact information
Addresses

Cañon del Blanco
Camino Cañon del Blanco km 12
Curacautín
Chili

E-mail
info [at] valleyofthepossible.com
Telefoonnummer