BASE – Before Form. Residency / Artistic Retreat
Practice as a space for research and self-care
Organization: INVE Experimental Arts Platforms
Deadline for applications: 28 June 2026
Fee: €550
2026 editions
- July 14–18
- September 9–13
Located in the mountains near Valencia, on Spain’s east coast.
About the Residency
BASE is a five-day artistic residency and retreat centred on memory, territory, and autoethnography as fields for exploring and researching artistic practice.
It is conceived as a pause a moment to step out of urgency and reconnect with the nature of your own practice. A space where the intimate and the collective meet opening a space where each practice can unfold at its own rhythm.
We place the focus on the creative process itself: expanding it, listening to it, and gently working through blockages through creative agitation, community, rest, and attention.
Context
BASE is an initiative by INVE, Experimental Arts Platform, which for over 11 years has hosted more than 200 artists through residencies across disciplines: live arts, film, video, installation, performance, sound, writing, and more.
This edition takes place in a countryside house surrounded by nature, just outside Valencia.
How We Work
During the residency, we share a set of practices designed to activate and support your process, including:
- Site-specific walks and drifts
- Body-based activations
- Observation practices
- Writing sessions
- Reflective spaces rooted in your own methodology
- One-on-one mentoring
The approach is horizontal and process-oriented, creating a space that is held but not imposed.
The program is designed to help you reconnect with the core of your artistic methodology, within a carefully held environment and a horizontal approach to learning.
In this edition, we will engage with memory, territory, and autoethnography, understood as ways of working from personal experience to connect with wider cultural, social, and political contexts.
What This Space Offers
BASE is:
- A process-based laboratory
- A space to move through questions with openness and safety
- A small community grounded in listening, care, and generosity
- A parenthesis within accelerated, productive rhythms
A place where:
- The body is approached as an archive
- Memory becomes material
- Practice is understood as something alive, in constant transformation
At BASE, you step into your own time. A space to momentarily step outside linear dynamics, to ground your practice and observe it from a renewed perspective.
What You May Experience
Throughout the residency, you will have the opportunity to:
- Look at your practice from a wider perspective
- Identify creative blocks and gently work through them
- Expand your creative language
- Explore new ways of relating to your process
- Situate your work within your context of interest
Location
The residency takes place at Masía La Toba, a restored rural house immersed in nature, in the province of Castellón (approx. 2 hours from Valencia).
The space includes:
- Natural surroundings and walking routes
- Direct access to a clear-water river for swimming
- Shared spaces for work and rest
Eligibility
This space is open to artists and curators from all disciplines, as well as to anyone interested in creative practice as a way of reflecting, connecting, and engaging with the world.
We also welcome curators and researchers who are curious about the intersections between practice, thought, and lived experience.
You’re welcome to apply whether you already have a project or not. If you do, you’re invited to bring materials or documentation to work with during the one-on-one mentoring sessions. If not, you can arrive with a question, a curiosity, or simply a desire to explore.
Applicants must be 18 or older.
Each edition hosts a maximum of 12 participants.
The working languages of the residency are English and Spanish.
Fee
€550
Includes:
- 4 nights / 5 days accommodation (shared rooms)
- Full board (vegetarian, homemade, locally sourced meals)
- All activities and materials
- Individual mentoring and artistic guidance
- Access to all shared spaces
Room allocation will be arranged according to participants’ needs.
Dietary requirements will be taken into account.
Travel is not included, but we will support you in organising your journey.
Contact
For any inquiries or further information about BASE, please contact us at inve.residency@gmail.com. You can find more details about our organization and programs on our website: inve.cl. To apply, please fill out the form available at https://inve.cl/actividad/open-call-residenc-base/
Image credits: INVE Experimental Arts Platform
