Pro Helvetia
South America
Established in 2021, the South America liaison office of Pro Helvetia is committed to cultural exchange and artistic collaboration between Switzerland and South America. Working in a decentralised manner, our employees are based in Bogotá, Buenos Aires, La Paz, São Paulo, and Santiago (where the Head Office is based).
Our team of local experts facilitates and supports professional encounters between artistic scenes in the disciplines supported by Pro Helvetia. We forge ties with event organisers and nurture long-term partnerships with relevant platforms to support the promotion and dissemination of Swiss arts in the region. Our grants enable residencies and research trips in both directions to foster cultural exchange.
About us
Whom do we address?
- Artists and creators in Switzerland and the region
- Curators and cultural event organisers and programmers in Switzerland and the region
- Organisations, platforms and institutions supporting exchange and presentation of work to audiences in the region
Where we operate
We work throughout South America, supporting projects in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Our funding activities
- We support the presentation of Swiss contemporary work in the region through participation in festivals, tours, exhibitions and events.
- We support professional exchange and networking among artists, cultural practitioners and partners from Switzerland and the region, in both geographical contexts.
- We run a residency programme and support research trips for individual artists and cultural practitioners from Switzerland and the region.
- We select projects on the basis of their outstanding qualities and their relevance in the regional context.
What’s on
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‘Inspiration, connection, and empowerment for women in gaming’: Apply for She Got Game
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A ‘broke writer’ reflecting on art, queerness and livelihood
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South America: Selected artists-in-residence 2025
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Notes on the Art, Science & Technology scene in South America
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‘Then I started to get hooked’: a scientist on her collaboration with the art world
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The future is behind, the past is ahead
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Expanding the notions of mystery
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‘The Gap’, a poetic path to formulate historical traumas
Our residency partners
Below is a selection of our project and residency partners in the region. This network is varied and in flux, responding to the dynamic contexts of the region. Located in urban centres and rural settings, our partners work across a variety of disciplines and formats in fixed spaces or as open platforms. Artists applying for a residency may specify which partner best fits their proposal. Please note that in case of selection, the partner institution may change depending on availability.
Residency guide: in English | Spanish | Portuguese
List of residency partners as a table
| Residency | Location | Description | Discipline(s) | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Ira de Dios | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Founded in 2010 as a gallery space for emerging artists and a seminar programme, La Ira de Dios acquired a more experimental profile over time and since 2015 has had a residency programme. It now focuses on facilitating artistic exchange and developing contemporary art practice through residencies, collaborations with other institutions and public activities. Since 2022, it has had its headquarters in the centre of Buenos Aires, an office floor that, like so many other spaces in the micro-centre of Buenos Aires, has been converted to house art projects. The space now has studios and exhibition rooms. The residencies are open all year round and, although there are thematic focuses, the programmes and agenda of activities are designed according to the needs, research and projects of each resident. Public presentations and open studio events are organised during the stay. | Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinary, Visual arts | lairadedios.com.ar |
| MONTE | Chaco, Argentina | MONTE is a platform for activism through art, environmental preservation and reflexive research, given the growth of real estate speculation, the exploitation of natural resources and forest clearing harming the environment. The space was formed in 2015, when MONTE bought 2.3 hectares of native woodland in Colonia Benítez, the botanical capital of the Chaco (a region in the north of Argentina), with the aim of protecting and conserving them through cultural actions that derive from artistic residencies and articulations with the territory and the community. There, arts professionals develop their project in the native forest, settling the path in dialogue with the installed works of previous residents. In this way, they integrate a stratified set of actions, in dialogue with the territory and its constant transformations. MONTE carries out international open calls for creation, curatorship and research, workshops and studies open to the community and linking sessions at the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. | Environmentalism, Land Art, Multidisciplinarity, Multimedia art, Music, Performance, Sound Art, Visual Arts, Visual audio | monteresidencia.site |
| Zona Imaginaria | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Founded in 2008, the space is located a few metres from Calle Uruguay, which divides the residential area of La Horqueta (in San Isidro), one of the wealthiest regions of the Buenos Aires conurbation, and San Fernando, a humbler, working-class neighbourhood. The disparities and problems that have been present in the area for years gained visibility in 2009, when the mayor of San Isidro built a wall that drew the disapproval of the community and the Argentinean government and was quickly torn down. In this context of conflicts and borders, Zona Imaginaria seeks to open doors and create multiple cultural spaces and centres for reflection, aimed at the experiential encounter between different sectors of the population, while inviting artists and participants from different countries to live together and build networks and links. The residency project, entitled Who can live in this house? looks to set up a dialogue between local artists and visitors through the intervention of the house. It also proposes the creation of an alternative space and critical reflection on contemporary art, the spaces in which it is created and its integration with the community. | Design, Multidisciplinary, Visual arts | zonaimaginaria.com.ar |
| KIOSKO Galería | Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia | KIOSKO Galería is a contemporary, alternative and independent art space created in 2006 as a result of collaborative project and managed by artists from Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Its residency programme began in 2007, with the purpose of building a space for encounters in Bolivia and offering exchange opportunities for national and foreign artists. Currently, the programme launches open calls focused on specific topics defined according to the local and international context of the moment. The main activities of the selected artists include giving a public opening talk about their work (face-to-face or online), a theoretical and/or practical workshop aimed at young artists from the art course of the State University of Santa Cruz and carrying out an open day in which they show their processes in residency or their completed work. | Multidisciplinary, Performance, Research, Visual arts | kioskogaleria.com |
| mARTadero | Villa Coronilla, Cochabamba, Bolivia | mARTadero is an extensive and multidimensional project, which has been focused, since 2005, on responsible impact through artistic and cultural mechanisms. It has the potential to be original, a radiating focus of creativity and of improving the community. In 2010, PRANA, Programa de Residencias Artísticas del Nodo Asociativo [Artistic Residencies Programme], was created, open to artists of any discipline and nationality. The programme hosts conscious projects that are integrated into the context and are challenged by it. Thus, artists-in-residence connect with the human team of mARTadero project, with the place and its resources and with its core symbolic and political principles. There are different modalities for carrying out residencies in the space: inter-institutional agreements, independent accommodation for artists, self-managed residency, open calls for residencies, residencies by reciprocity. | Architecture, Cultural management, Design, Digital art and fabrication, Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinary, Music, Performing arts, Visual arts | martadero.org |
| ALTO Residency | Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil | Located in a primary forest next to the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, an ecological sanctuary in the Brazilian Cerrado, ALTO functions as a platform for self-directed artists who wish to work in dialogue with nature and sustainability projects. In addition to the biodiverse environment, the space is connected to the multiple contexts of Alto Paraíso de Goiás, a municipality pervaded by esotericism and spirituality and surrounded by agribusiness. The residency is open all year round and aims to offer a space for critical, conceptual and technical observation of artistic production. It is based in the Mariri Jungle Lodge, a creative house and permaculture project space. There you can work in gardens, agroforestry and recycling projects and bioconstruction of the site. | Visual arts, Design, Literature, Interactive media, Multidisciplinary, Music | altoartresidency.com |
| CHÃO SLZ | São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil | The space was created in 2015 with the aim of expanding environments for dialogue and the exchange of knowledge between artists, the audience and the surrounding area. It is located in an 18th century building in the historic centre of São Luís, a city in the north of Brazil characterised as a river and seaport. There, CHÃO looks to create a ground for critical acting based on collective coexistence and research in the artistic and cultural field. The programme offers a variety of formats, alternating activities such as conferences, debates, courses, exhibitions, film displays and performances, music and dance performances, food encounters, parties, residencies, expeditions and political and social actions. The residency programme varies according to the projects developed and the needs of each work. CHÃO works directly to organise and bring residents closer to the community and the local context, both in São Luís and in neighbouring towns such as Alcântara, a multiple municipality with a space base and a large number of quilombola communities. | Design, Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinary, Music, Performing arts, Visual arts | instagram.com/chaoslz |
| JA.CA – Centro de Arte e Tecnologia | Nova Lima, metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil | The JA.CA – Art and Technology Centre was founded in 2010 as an international artistic residency programme and has since been developing activities in the Jardim Canadá neighbourhood of Nova Lima, in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte (MG) and in partner spaces. The organisation carries out research, projects and experiments in the field of arts, in dialogue with education, architecture, urbanism and design. Built gradually, partly using materials scrapped by industries in the region, the headquarters has living and working spaces immersed in the context of the neighbourhood. The centre’s projects focus on the local reality, as well as issues such as mobility, sustainability, networking and the management of autonomous spaces. Artists are selected for the residency programme through open calls and through bridges built by partner agents and programmes. Since 2018, JA.CA has also an administrative address in central Belo Horizonte, where it organises talks and reading groups, as well as developing the desbiblioteca project, which offers the population access to a bibliographic collection. A few blocks away, the organisation runs the Arrudas – Pesquisa em Arte (research on art program), a large atelier where workshops and residencies take place. | Design, Interactive media, Multidisciplinary, Visual arts | www.jaca.center |
| JUNTA Festival – Dance and Contemporaneity | Teresina, Piauí, Brazil | Created in 2015 by dance artists Datan Izaká, Jacob Alves and Janaína Lobo, the JUNTA festival has hosted residencies since its first edition. Recently, the programme unfolded to EXPANDED JUNTA, a part of the actions of the performing arts show, focusing on artistic residencies and local coproductions. The characteristics of each project vary according to the context, whether it is done in partnership with another institution or whether it is the festival’s own initiative. In general, artists are selected via open call to work collaboratively with other professionals, in small groups. The chosen themes are in dialogue with the curatorial focus of each edition of the festival and involve important values for the event, such as relationship with the city, gender, minorities, periphery, artistic innovation and new narratives. | Body arts, Dance, Performance | instagram.com/juntafestivalteresina |
| LabVerde | Forest Reserves in the State of Amazonas, Brazil | Created in 2013, LabVerde is a transdisciplinary platform with no permanent headquarters based in the Brazilian Amazon. Focused on the development of artistic languages regarding the environment, it works in the production and democratisation of knowledge, by organising residencies, lectures, exhibitions, festivals, workshops and publications. The platform was founded by Amazonian curator Lilian Fraiji, who glimpsed in the local context the potential for experimentation and creation of artistic languages in the forest, in dialogue with local communities. The project sets a gathering between artists, indigenous people, scientists and other knowledge players to recognise and narrate nature on-site in the Amazon. Each year, residency programmes are developed with different partners and themes. | Design, Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinary, Music, Performing arts, Visual arts | labverde.com |
| Pivô | São Paulo, Brazil | Pivô Pesquisa [Research] is the artistic residency programme of Pivô, an association that works as a platform for exchange and artistic experimentation from its space at Copan Building, in São Paulo’s city centre. Originally aimed at Brazilian and foreign visual artists, the programme exists since 2013 and over the years it has carried out critical monitoring of projects, creating debates and fostering research and work. To continue its experimental character and enrich exchanges, it recently began to focus on a more transdisciplinary and porous format of residency. For this, it is open to the participation of artists, curators, researchers, educators, critics, writers, managers, editors and other art agents; it expands the modalities in each of the cycles; and proposes a set of public and educational activities permeating the whole programme: inaugural class with guests, talks and individual orientations with guest interlocutors, debates, workshops and monthly meetings, in addition to permanent curatorial monitoring. | Art history, Cultural mediation, Curatorship, Multidisciplinarity, Performance, Research, Visual arts | pivo.org.br/residencias |
| Residência São João | São José do Vale do Rio Preto, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Founded by artist Antonio Sobral, Residência São João was born in 2012 on an old coffee estate in the municipality of São José do Vale do Rio Preto, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro. The multidisciplinary project favours partnerships, exchanges of knowledge and community experiences. In each edition, other artists and curators are invited to collaborate in the organisation of the residencies, which focus on contact with the local territory, whether with the estate’s agro-ecological coffee and banana production, or with the surrounding area and its inhabitants. The project encourages the development of creative processes and artistic works, collaborations between participants and interactions with the surrounding, as well as the valorisation of local knowledge and production. Two annual immersions take place at the estate’s headquarters: the multidisciplinary Verãozão and Somsocosmos, centred on sound research. Both last two weeks and are open to applications. The Casa Figueira space welcomes up to four residents per shift, all year round, for immersions lasting between one and three months. | Agroecology, Landscaping, Literature, Multidisciplinarity, Music, Sound art, Visual arts | residenciasaojoao.com |
| Sacatar | Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil | First established in 2001 by Americans Mitch Loch and Taylor Van Horne, the Sacatar Institut sits on a 9,000m² property on the island of Itaparica, near Salvador, Bahia. A narrow strip of native mangrove vegetation separates the property from a white sandy beach. The main house was built in 1950 as a spiritual retreat for the Instituto Feminino (Female Institute), a vocational school for girls. The space then became Sacatar – named after a remote location high in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains – and has been adapted for various artists to live and work on research and the creation of new material alongside other residents and the local community. The first week of the residency program is dedicated to an introduction to Bahia’s culture, with tours of Itaparica and Salvador, besides a public presentation for participants to integrate with the region’s art scene. Afterwards, the institute’s staff help residents connect their work to the area. In the end, artists can take part in an afternoon of open studio. | All creative disciplines | sacatar.org |
| SILO | Serra da Mantiqueira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | SILO – Arte e Latitude Rural [Art and Rural Latitude] is a civil society organisation focused on the exchange and democratisation of knowledge based on art, science, technology and agroecology. The programme Resiliência [Resilience]: Artistic Residency, created in 2017, is an immersive experience in both nature and countryside, with expeditions through the Atlantic Forest biomes, in Serra da Mantiqueira, in the Environmental Protection Area of Serrinha do Alambari and in the Itatiaia National Park Plateau, at an altitude of 2,791 m. In addition, it promotes the encounter of artists with communities and different professionals in areas such as science and agriculture. The residencies take place annually (participants are selected via open call) and they offer artists and curators space and inputs for creation and experiment, scholarships for the development of artistic works, a final exhibition and publication of a book. | Design, Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinarity, Music, Performing arts, Visual arts | resilience.silo.org.br |
| Solar dos Abacaxis | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Solar dos Abacaxis is an autonomous non-profit organisation that has been running in Rio de Janeiro since 2015. It is currently based in an old factory in the city centre, with 300m² spread over three floors and carries out a series of actions anchored in experimentation in art and education, bringing together individuals, artists and collectives who wish to contribute to social transformation. In 2023, it organised the first edition of its visual arts residency project, Oficina Solar. Looking to nurture spaces for research and free experimentation, the programme has a public call for studio occupation, fostering the production, training and cultural dissemination of independent artists at the beginning of their careers. To this end, it has two axes: Training, creation and experimentation; and Fruition, diffusion and access. During the residency, each artist presents a public programme and, at the end, a group exhibition is held. The participating artists receive curatorial support from the Solar team and three talks with external curators. | Visual arts | solardosabacaxis.art.br |
| CAB (Casa-Museo Alberto Baeriswyl) | Puerto Yartou, Tierra del Fuego, Chile | CAB is a habitable museum located in the main buildingof the old wood factory Puerto Yartou, in Chilean Patagonia. It is a 320 m² single-storey wooden construction dating from the early 20th century, located 80 m from Strait of Magellan’s Whiteside Channel and with its back facing the subantarctic sclerophylly forests. Its residency programme began in 2018, with the support of Pro Helvetia and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Chile. The programme aims to interpret the territory from a critical perspective through contemporary art and inter and transdisciplinary dialogue with a focus on art and science – between 2018 and 2021, CAB has carried out art, science and humanities projects, with Chilean and Swiss artists, invited to be part of a multidisciplinary work team. The residency programme includes participant presentations, walks, excursions and visits to museums and partner institutions. | Visual arts, New media | cab-patagonia.cl |
| Galería Metropolitana | Laguna San Pedro, Concepción, Chile | The programme is linked to Galería Metropolitana (Metropolitan Gallery), a private space for the exhibition and dissemination of contemporary art, situated in a peripheral commune of Santiago de Chile, with the purpose of involving, around new art manifestations, a social sector that has normally been marginalised from them. The residency, created in 2012, takes place in Laguna San Pedro and engages with the art scene of the Bío Bío region. The space is conceived as a tiny house for developing projects linked to the local context. Aimed at artists, curators and theorists, the residencies run without an annual programme and multiple procedures are used to invite artists-in-residence. In addition, there are openings and closures of residency processes. | Multidisciplinary, Visual arts | galeriametropolitana.org |
| LABVA | Valdivia, Chile | Located in the Los Ríos Region in Chile, the Laboratorio de Biomateriales de Valdivia (LABVA) was founded in 2017 as an independent and self-managed laboratory to question the materialities that surround us and the culture associated with them. Through a transdisciplinary structure, it promotes research, experimentation and prototyping of new materialities as tools for environmental dissemination and citizen empowerment with a territorial focus. The residencies take place throughout the year as long as the projects of the space allow it. The programme focuses on experimentation and the idea is to produce a synergy between the explorations that the artists carry out and the knowledge that can be brought from working with biomaterials (designed from biological raw materials, such as plants, fungi and bacteria). Each resident must end their stay with an open laboratory where they share their experiences with the local Valdivian community. | Design, Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinary, Music, Visual arts | labva.org |
| NAVE | Santiago, Chile | Created in September 2015, in a context devoid of public infrastructure for residency and artistic research projects, the Centro de Creación y Residencia NAVE was a pioneer in offering a space that is not only limited to the dissemination of works but also of artistic creation and research processes. The centre is in the Yungay neighborhood, in Santiago de Chile, in a heritage house renovated by the architect Smiljan Radic. Since the beginning, it offers professional spaces for the creation and production of Chilean and international live art, through technical and creative residencies, providing infrastructure and acting within the research and production of works. Today it is one of the main spaces for co-production in contemporary dance. Over time, however, its operation has expanded, generating content and knowledge, as well as becoming a management platform for territorial and community projects and training area. | Audiovisual, Intersection between art, science and new technologies, Living arts, Performing arts, Philosophy, Sound art | nave.io |
| SACO | Antofogasta, Chile | SACO Cultural Corporation was founded in 2012, in the city of Antofagasta, as a Week of Contemporary Art, turning five years later into an International Festival and, from 2021, into a Biennial of Contemporary Art. Since 2016 it has had its Artistic Residencies Centre ISLA. Its location in the Atacama Desert has allowed it to develop projects integrating art with science or other fields of knowledge. Its priority is to establish horizontal meeting points to generate circulation between art and the community, increasing creative processes as tools for informal education, promoting the transfer of knowledge, interculturality and the exchange of ideas. ISLA is a place designed for its guests, aiming at bringing them closer to the Antofagasta region’s economic context, environment and operation. Every year the space provides workshops, conferences, conversations open to the community, among others. SACO has annual open calls for residencies, but artists can contact the team directly to learn about other possibilities. | Multidisciplinarity, Visual arts | bienalsaco.com |
| Tsonami Arte Sonoro | Valparaiso, Chile | An organisation that promotes and develops sound art in Chile, Tsonami carries out the B.A.S.E TSONAMI residency programme. It is a group of research and artistic creation focused on the search for connections between art, sound, territory and community, aiming at generating flexible works-processes that are fed back with the city’s rationale. This residency space is understood as a fertile moment of creation, which must be willing to changes and failures based on open methodologies. Moreover, the platform seeks site-specific projects that are fully developed in Valparaiso, where artists get involved with the context based on various forms of interaction from observation to action. The programme has annual open calls and the selected projects include process exhibitions, radio programs and web material. | Interactive media, Multidisciplinarity, Sound art | tsonami.cl |
| Casa Taller El Boga | Mompox, Colombia | Located in a renovated colonial house in Santa Cruz de Mompox, the foundation was created in 2019, with the aim of contributing to the preservation and dissemination of the cultural heritage of the northern Colombian town, on the banks of the Magdalena River. The space aims to investigate local knowledge (music, cuisine, flora, fauna) and at the same time offer a space for artistic creation and exchange between the community and visitors. The call for residencies is open continuously and twice a year one to two scholarships are offered for Colombian artists. El Boga usually receives, at a time, between 2 and 4 residents, who are assisted in carrying out their agenda in the region. During their stay, the participants also commit themselves to developing free activities aimed at the Momposina community, in the form of workshops, conferences, recitals, exhibitions, performances or talks (which can be complemented with online actions). | Anthropology , Archaeology, Cultural management, Design, Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinary, Music, Performing arts, Research, Visual arts | elbogamompox.com |
| NARA | Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia | NARA appeared in 2017 to open a space of connection with nature through creative processes. It is an environment to get to know the rural life of Villa de Leyva and connect with the habits and traditions of its community. The residency is part of the Nido de Águilas project, located in the Iguaque flora and fauna sanctuary buffer zone, birthplace of the Muisca culture and ancestral peasants. Both projects work together and feed each other, to promote the exchange of knowledge between art and nature. The tie with the context is the main axis of the programme, which focuses on the artistic process, besides field and body work. In addition to easing the development of the projects of its artists-in-residence (on issues related to the artistic process, production, management, fieldwork and experience), NARA offers complementary activities, interaction with the space, the local artists and the rural community. The open calls happen twice a year (in the first and second semesters) and the residency is linked with other projects and institutions to expand the network and boost the projects. | Gastronomy, Literature, Multidisciplinarity, Visual arts | residenciasnara.com |
| Organizmo | Tenjo, Cundinamarca, Colombia | Located in the vicinity of Bogotá, Organizmo Foundation is a training centre that conducts processes of knowledge exchange and experimentation for social, cultural and ecosystem conversion. It works in the teaching of low-impact construction techniques, alternative technologies, ecological recovery, knowledge transfer scenarios and the promotion of intercultural exchange. Through the platform of artistic residencies Cuerpo, Tejido y Territorio [Body, Fabric and Territory], it stimulates and assists processes of co-creation and learning, seeking a community approach based on respect for origin, the baseline of relationships between human and non-human environments. The programme proposes an immersion in knowledge management narratives from the exploration of new presences, artistic experiments, new rituals and production of open knowledge to explore and problematise nature-culture relationships. | Multidisciplinarity | organizmo.org |
| Mater | Moray, Maras, Peru | Mater began in 2013 focused on the understanding of Peruvian food, its origin, its social and natural context. It initially emerged to provide with knowledge the restaurant Central, by Chef Virgilio Martínez, in Lima. Two years later, the project was restructured and consolidated to become a centre for the articulation of knowledge, understanding that gastronomy builds bridges between territories and people and providing a space for learning, experimentation and intercultural communication. In 2018, the Mater Art and Culture area was created as a new channel for research and creative practice, especially in the MIL Centre, located 3,600 m high facing the archaeological site of Moray, in the surroundings of Cusco. This space hosts artists-in-residence, with different expertise, to conceptualise and execute collaborative and exchange projects with members of the three neighbouring communities. Open all year round, the residencies are a free space, where exchanges between people and ecosystem are encouraged. Mater seeks to have no more than two residents simultaneously, so that its team can follow the projects closely. | Design, Interactive media, Literature, Multidisciplinarity, Music, Visual arts | materiniciativa.com |
| PAR – Programa Artistas en Residencia | Montevideo, Uruguay | PAR – Programa Artistas en Residencia [Artists-in-Residence Programme] is a residency programme conceived by a group of dance and visual arts artists and it has been developed in Montevideo since 2010. Its goal is to support and promote research and creation in contemporary performing arts. The programme does not have a fixed venue and conceives the residency as an open place, investing on the creation of a network linking artists and national and foreign institutions to boost the local environment and strengthen the development of culture in Uruguay. Aiming at a collaborative line of work, the platform promotes and generates partnerships with cultural organisations and projects with common aims to promote mutual development and sustainability. The programme has different open calls throughout the year and residency selection processes are organised. | Live art, Multidisciplinarity | par.org.uy |
Frequently asked questions
I am an artist from South America. What funding opportunities does Pro Helvetia offer?
Please find the relevant formats under Find support. Make sure to select the parameters that suit you.
How can I apply for a residency/research trip to Switzerland or South America?
The call for our residency programme opens once a year, from January to 1 March. Applications for research trips, however, may be submitted on an ongoing basis. Cultural practitioners from Switzerland (meaning either a Swiss citizen or a permanent resident in Switzerland) may apply for residencies in South America. Likewise, cultural practitioners from South America may apply for projects in Switzerland.
Can I apply for a residency with a partner not yet listed among your residency partners?
Yes. We work with a network of organisations that can host residencies, and we look to customise each project according to the needs of the individual arts professional as far as possible. Applicants are invited to consider, but are not limited to, the organisations listed as our partners.
I am an artist from South America and I want to present my work in Switzerland. Can Pro Helvetia fund me?
No. We do not normally support the presentation of work through, for example, exhibitions and tours in Switzerland. Please refer to artlink for funding opportunities relating to presenting work in Switzerland.
I am an artist from South America and I want to apply for funding for a project in another country within the region. Can Pro Helvetia fund me?
No. We only support projects that have a clear Swiss dimension or connection, involving Swiss arts professionals.
Can I apply for a project in a country not yet covered in your region?
No. Our office’s mandate is limited to South America.
I would like to translate a book from Switzerland into a language from South America. Can Pro Helvetia fund me?
Yes. Pro Helvetia supports the translation of Swiss authors’ works in other countries. Find all relevant support measure under Find Support.
I am a Swiss citizen based in South America and would like support for an exhibition/ event in the region. Can Pro Helvetia support me?
No. In order to apply for support for exhibitions or events in the liaison office regions, Swiss cultural practitioners must present a convincing artistic track record in Switzerland: artistic activity with a national/cross-regional reach.
Do you have a question and would like to speak with a team member?
The team at a glance