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UNIDEE Research Residencies 2026: The Research Projects of Six International Artists in Residence at Cittadellarte
From 7 September to 7 November, the UNIDEE Research Residencies bring together six international artists and researchers for a research programme in Biella. From listening to the Cervo stream to photographic images that disappear, from local wool to food as a tool for cultural mediation, the projects unfold through encounters, exchanges and relationships with the local area. On 4 November, the research projects will be shared with the public during the UNIDEE Open Studio.
What can a river tell us through the sounds and exchanges that flow through it? What remains of an image when photography is no longer a means of preservation? And how can food, textile materials and the memory of local communities generate new forms of shared knowledge?
These are some of the questions at the heart of the research undertaken by the six international artists and researchers participating in the UNIDEE Research Residencies 2026, currently taking place at Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellartefrom 7 September to 7 November. Diana Lola Posani, Yash Desai, Inneke Taal, Lucie Miguet, Juan Diego Márquez Moreno and Daniel Calpa Tello are developing their practices through a programme that brings together artistic experimentation, peer exchange and an exploration of the Biella area.
Their research addresses different themes and uses a variety of languages, yet it shares a common approach: starting with a question, exploring contexts and disciplines, and building relationships to open up new perspectives. This process lies at the heart of the Research Residencies, a programme developed in collaboration with partner institutions and integrated into Cittadellarte's ongoing research into the role of art in socially responsible processes of transformation.
Rather than focusing on the production of an artwork, the residencies emphasise the time devoted to research and the conditions that make it possible. Meetings with curators, artists, researchers and civil society professionals, studio visits, lectures and visits to exhibitions, archives and institutions enable residents to engage with different areas of expertise and a range of contexts. Throughout this process, Cittadellarte's network and its connections with the local area become an integral part of their work.
Six research projects exploring perception, memory and territory
The six residents' practices span a variety of fields, from sound performance and photography to textiles and cultural mediation, as well as the relationships between communities and the environment. Each develops their own research trajectory in dialogue with the local context and the other people involved in the programme.
Diana Lola Posani is an artist and Deep Listening facilitator. She has performed at MADRE, Hangar Bicocca and Cafe OTO, and has delivered lectures at venues and institutions including the Venice Biennale, MACRO and IUAV. She is the founder of the AKRIDA festival and has translated works by Pauline Oliveros for Timeo.
During the residency, she is bringing performance, sound art and listening practices together to explore perception and space. Her research interweaves voice, memory and smell through immersive scores and includes working with blind people to rethink accessibility and challenge established sensory hierarchies, opening up new possibilities for knowledge. The residency is made possible through the collaboration with Fondazione Paolina Brugnatelli, as part of the Pratiche della Percezione open call.
Yash Desai, an Indian visual artist based in Baroda and a PhD researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, explores what appears and disappears in landscapes over time through painting and traditional photographic printing processes. His practice engages with decay, displacement, transformation and ephemerality through light, time, space and atmosphere.
At Cittadellarte, he is developing the research project What Remains After the Image Disappears?, questioning the association between photography, preservation and permanence. Using unfixed silver gelatin prints, he allows images to remain vulnerable to light and time, enabling them to fade, darken or disappear. The photographic material becomes a metaphor for memory, through which he explores the tensions between presence and absence, preservation and loss, image and residue. His participation is supported by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation.
Inneke Taal is a visual artist whose work engages with architectural, environmental and social sites, understood as interconnected critical geographies. Through improvisational approaches, she works with language, the body, sound, performance, video and text, developing these geographical dialogues through collaborations, workshops and exhibition practices.
During the residency, she is focusing her research on the Cervo stream as a source of sonic and physical exchange between bodies, conceived as a relational currency [current>sea]. By listening to the exchanges taking place along the river, from extractive practices to devotional ones, she considers the skin as a responsive surface and a vehicle for translation, through which to make the agency, force and collaborative vitality of the Cervo resonate. The residency is supported by the Embassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Italy.
Lucie Miguet, a French textile artist based in Brussels, explores the intersections between textiles, images and territory. In her practice, knitting becomes a visual language for constructing images stitch by stitch through repetition, structure and variation.
During her residency in Biella, Miguet is exploring underused local wool from regional sheep breeds, as well as popular pastoral iconography. Through knitting, she investigates how materials, patterns and narratives rooted in a specific territory can be reinterpreted and incorporated into contemporary textile practice. The residency takes place within the framework of the Nouveau Grand Tour, a programme conceived and developed by the Institut français d’Italie and the Embassy of France in Italy.
Juan Diego Márquez Moreno is a Colombian curator and researcher working at the intersection of socially engaged art, cultural mediation and community museology. He is a member of the Museo Intangible in Pereira.
His research investigates how food can function as a tool for cultural mediation, fostering encounters, memory, hospitality and collective knowledge. The project takes Un Comedor Ambulante as its starting point and develops through dialogue with practices in the Italian context. The residency is part of the Proyecto para el Fortalecimiento del Ecosistema Cultural, promoted by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia and CoCrea.
Daniel Calpa Tello (Caltello) is a Colombian artist and artistic researcher whose practice spans territory, ecology and emerging media. Through field research, audiovisual archives, sound and immersive practices, he explores environmental transformation and collective memory as tools for imagining alternative possible futures.
During the residency, he is investigating how different communities perceive and relate to territories undergoing ecological and social transformation. Through a comparative study of Andean contexts and post-industrial Alpine territories, he explores how memory, technology and environmental change shape the capacity to imagine possible futures. Like Juan Diego Márquez Moreno, he participates in the programme through the Proyecto para el Fortalecimiento del Ecosistema Cultural, promoted by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia and CoCrea.
Encounters and exchanges with the Biella area
During the first part of the residency, the six participants focused on exploring the local context and building relationships with Cittadellarte's ecosystem and the wider Biella area. Through a programme of meetings, visits and opportunities for exchange, organised in response to the interests and research directions of each resident, they had the opportunity to connect with artists, curators, researchers, professionals, institutions and local organisations.
Cittadellarte's network has helped connect the residents with a range of expertise, practices and contexts, providing opportunities to explore specific themes and engage with the social, cultural, productive and environmental dimensions of the local area. Alongside meetings related to individual projects, the participants' shared presence fosters an ongoing exchange of practices, experiences and perspectives. Peer-to-peer dialogue is a central component of the residency experience.
From 6 to 9 October, some of the group also took part in a research trip to Venice, including visits to the Biennale, museums, exhibitions and other places of cultural interest. The experience expanded the residency's scope beyond the Biella area, offering further opportunities for research, dialogue and exchange.
UNIDEE Open Studio on 4 November
The programme will conclude on 4 November 2026 at Cittadellarte's UNIDEE space with an UNIDEE Open Studio, a public event dedicated to sharing the research developed during the residency and engaging in dialogue with the public.
The event will give residents the opportunity to present their work, share the questions that have emerged and discuss the paths they have pursued through meetings, visits and exchanges. In keeping with the approach of the Research Residencies, the concluding event will focus not necessarily on presenting finished artworks, but on sharing research processes and the perspectives developed during their time at Cittadellarte.
