The residency takes place at during the harvest season in the Venosta Valley. The central theme of atTERRAre is ground: soil as material, territory, memory and social foundation. Residents are invited to explore how people relate to land — physically, culturally, economically and emotionally.

The programme combines work with locally sourced clay, regional agricultural products, food preservation, fermentation, cooking and whole-food processing. Residents will have access to a ceramic studio, fully equipped kitchen facilities, shared working spaces and accommodation in shared Maisonette Apartments.

The residency is experience-based: residents can expect field visits, walks through the local landscape, conversations with farmers, producers and cooperatives, open studio moments and informal community exchanges. Topics such as monoculture, land use, food heritage, migration, rural futures and local memory may become part of the artistic research.

The outcome is not only about producing objects, but about entering into dialogue with a place and its people — through ceramics, food and shared experience.

The Mentors: 

Residents requirments: 

• Interdisciplinary practice, ideally at the intersection of social engagement, ceramic art, culinary research and interaction design
• Basic experience in ceramics
• Interest in cooking, food processing, preservation or fermentation
• Curiosity for food as culture, memory, material and social connection
• Openness to field research, walking, observing and engaging with the local landscape
• Willingness to meet people, exchange with local communities, farmers, cooperatives and producers
• Socially engaged, outgoing and curious personality
• Interest in collaborative and process-oriented work
• Openness to experimentation with locally sourced clay and regional agricultural products
• Willingness to get hands dirty and work practically with materials, food and place
• Basic sense of one’s own artistic style or artistic direction
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team
• Interest in themes such as land use, belonging, cultivation, food heritage, migration, rural futures and local memory
• Motivation to create not only objects, but also shared experiences, stories, recipes and forms of exchange
• Readiness to contribute to a final public restitution in the form of a communal Tavolata

The residency will culminate in a public restitution in the form of a Tavolata, a communal feast. The ceramic vessels and the prepared dishes become tools for exchange. Residents will share the fruits of their research with the community: objects, food, stories, recipes and reflections gathered during the 50 days. This final moment is imagined not as a classic exhibition, but as a shared table where artistic research becomes accessible, embodied and social.

In terms of profile, we are looking for interdisciplinary practitioners with basic experience in ceramics, an interest in cooking, food processing or fermentation, and a strong curiosity for social interaction design. They should enjoy working with people, be open to field research, and ideally have a “foodie” mindset — someone who understands food not only as nourishment, but as culture, memory, material and social connection.

atTERRAre is therefore not only a residency about producing work in a place, but about listening to a territory, walking through it, entering into exchange with it, and giving something back to the community through artistic practice.