Encuentro de Arte y Comunidad al zur-ich

Youtube Al Zur-ich

Encuentro de Arte y Comunidad "al zur-ich" is a visual arts platform initiated in 2003 by Carla Villavicencio, Pablo Xavier Almeida Egas, and Martin Samuel Tituaña Lema in the Ecuadorian capital.

The project is committed to a large community of cultural agents, local initiatives, institutions, public spaces, and artists, and works on the development of an inter-relational methodology that promotes the production of collaborative artistic processes. The main goal of the project is to propose the insertion of artistic projects in the urban sphere and generate new visual alternatives through investigation and experimentation. It aims to create a new socio-political approach in the peripheral southern districts of Quito that would generate a contemporary identity around its culture, imaginary, traditions, and history. 

The annual residency program is open to national and international artists and takes place in different locations of the city every year. Unfortunately, the program doesn’t count with hosting capacities but stipends from $700 to $1000 are available for the ten artists selected every year. The selection is made through a public open call for which the artists’ proposals are revised by a jury of interdisciplinary actors of the local socio-cultural fields before being presented and selected by the participant districts. The artists will be immersed in the daily life of the neighbourhoods for two months and receive assistance and mentoring from the local and artistic communities of the city. Selected artists will be giving workshops, organizing exhibitions and open studios, and the residency will end with a festival connecting the works realized during the artists’ stay.