The EU-funded project CONVIVIUM invites visual artists residing in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, to apply for a one-month residency at Quinta das Relvas in Portugal in November 2026.
Contemporary food systems face interconnected crises – from climate change and supply-chain disruptions to malnutrition and conflict. Mainstream sustainability approaches often treat ecosystems as resources to be managed for human consumption and benefit, reinforcing a false separation between humans and nature. Commonly promoted within sustainable development discourses, such perspectives obscure nature’s limits, the rights and agency of more-than-human elements, and the relational dynamics that shape our economic, social, and ecological systems.
To address this crisis, we must reconfigure how edible biodiversity is conceptualised, valued, and governed. CONVIVIUM proposes Conviviality as an alternative pathway.
During this one-month residency, CONVIVIUM invites artists to explore how these reconnections can be achieved and how convivial foodscapes can be cultivated.
Proposals can address one or more of the following tracks:
- Multispecies Life & Processes: Microscopic perspectives, fermentation, soil health, and non-human agency.
- Rituals & Representations: Reimagining how entanglements across food systems are mapped, shared, or celebrated.
- Speculative Futures: Exploring what convivial foodscapes look like in a 21st-century European context – and what they could become.
The artist is expected to produce one work or project in any visual medium addressing the residency concept.
All costs are covered, including flights and accommodation (meals are not included). Financial support includes a fee of 1,000 EUR, plus an additional 150 EUR budget for materials and small tools, provided on a reimbursement basis.
