Amigdala: Transfeminist Urban Residency at OvestLab 2027 (Italy)
Overview
Amigdala, a collective with a sustained inquiry into feminist spatial politics, extends its investigation through 'Who Walks Here,' a residency hosted at OvestLab, its civic centre in Modena’s Artisan Village. This call emerges from 'Transfemina: Intersectional Landscapes,' a Creative Europe project that spent two years examining the neighbourhood and city through a feminist lens. The residency is not an isolated studio retreat but an embedded, dialogic process: artists are asked to engage with local communities and the ongoing transformation of the area, producing work that is first presented at OvestLab in June 2027 and potentially at Periferico Festival 2027 in October. The structure—28 days in May 2027—allows for deep, place-based research and exchange, with the expectation of a public outcome that remains open to the neighbourhood. The opportunity is open to artists and cultural professionals residing in a Creative Europe country other than Italy. Applicants may apply as individuals, who will then collaborate with the other selected artists, or as an existing collective of up to three people. This dual format encourages both individual practitioners and groups to propose projects that interrogate urban space through a transfeminist lens, attending to intersectional dynamics of gender, migration, labour, and belonging. The residency does not prescribe a medium; it prioritises critical and community-engaged practices that can translate research into a public gesture. Amigdala’s curatorial vision is one of critical proximity: the residency is situated in a specific neighbourhood undergoing change, and the artists are invited to walk, listen, and respond. The outcome must be presented publicly, first at OvestLab, ensuring that the work enters into dialogue with those who inhabit the area. There is no fee to apply, and the residency covers travel and mobility, reflecting an institutional commitment to supporting artists’ access and labour. This is a call for those whose practices are already attuned to feminist, queer, and urban questions, and who seek a rigorous, embedded context in which to develop them.