Huesped Nativo

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Huesped Nativo is a public residency program from the Cultural Department of Cuenca’s City Council, the third most populated city in the country, known for its rich colonial history.

Started in 2018, the initiative aims to bring art and culture to three peripheral districts and five urban zones of Cuenca where empty buildings are considered as red zones, either because of illicit activities or simply because of the lack of cultural, educational, or artistic entities. Up to twenty-five artists are invited through a public open call to realize community and relational arts and take back the public space for citizens. The artworks and processes realized during the residency must be given back to the local communities and bring new benefits to their surroundings in the following themes: educational processes, sustainable tourism, circular economies, and resiliency. It is also a way to decentralize art and culture and give to the local communities an overview of what is possible to achieve through the prism of arts.

In the last edition, photographers, musicians, illustrators, performers, theatre troops, muralists, street artists, architects, sensorial artists, visual artists, cineasts, and many more took over the city and its surroundings to deeply transform it with the help of the inhabitants. The program is open to national emerging artists that will be hosted in different spaces or homes of the concerned districts of action. They will receive mentoring and have access to tools, circus materials, a VR studio, and exhibition spaces. The residency ends with a festival where all the city is invited to discover the new look of their districts.