We invite artists, researchers, cultural practitioners, activists, and curious thinkers to apply for Cosmophilosophy for the Arts: Rethinking production, a program directed by Giovanbattista Tusa, dedicated to examining how artistic processes are shaped by—and can intervene in—the political, material, and conceptual structures that organize contemporary life. The program approaches production not as a technical procedure or a linear path from idea to object, but as a complex field where relations of power, modes of perception, and cosmological assumptions converge. To rethink production is to render these forces visible and to ask how artistic practice might actively participate in their transformation.
Over the course of the theoretical seminar “Theoria: A Very Practical Introduction to Contemplative Thinking” led by Giovanbattista Tusa, participants are invited into a shared framework for critically engaging with the conditions under which artistic and cultural production unfolds. These sessions encourage a shift in perspective: from creativity understood primarily as individual expression toward creativity understood as a situated activity, deeply entangled with social, ecological, and epistemic systems.
Through collective reflection and discussion, participants will be invited to articulate how their practices both reproduce and resist the infrastructures that shape them.
Three workshops, with artists Alexandre Estrela, CLAIRE FONTAINE and with philosopher Michael Marder extend these questions into the realm of method and material experimentation. Situated at the intersection of critical inquiry and artistic practice, these workshops offer practical and conceptual tools for rethinking how works come into being. Production is approached here as a process of negotiation involving not only intention and technique, but also material agencies, environmental conditions, and broader institutional and planetary contexts. The aim is not to reject production, but to reconsider its stakes, constraints, and transformative possibilities.
The program concludes with a public day designed and activated by participants.
This final event offers an opportunity to share the research that has emerged from the program and to articulate how artistic production can propose alternative relations, forms, and modes of engagement.
We welcome applications from individuals who understand artistic practice as a site of inquiry—conceptual, material, and political—and who are prepared to engage deeply with the seminar’s collective, research-driven approach. The program is open to diverse backgrounds and practices, united by a shared commitment to critical reflection and experimental inquiry.
Application Guidelines
Applicants are asked to submit:
– A short statement outlining their practice and their interest in the seminar;
– A brief biography;
– (Optional) Up to two links or examples of recent work.
Up to 10 participants will be selected.
Program dates: May 18–30, 2026
Location: AiR 351 (Avenida Vasco da Gama 11, Cascais, Portugal)
Application deadline: March 15, 2026
Important note: The program offers a fee to support travel expenses, both for local participants and for those traveling from abroad.
Applications submission and inquiries should be sent to:
Workshop dates with Alexandre Estrela, Claire Fontaine, and Michael Marder coming soon.
Participation is free of charge. The program will be held entirely in English
Giovanbattista Tusa is a philosopher affiliated with the Nova Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA) in Lisbon, where he has been the coordinator of the X-CENTRIC FUTURES research seminar on philosophy, art, and climate change. He is the director of the Planetary Conversations, and the founder of ECOPRAXIS at the Galeria Zé dos Bois.
His most recent publications include Terra Cosmica: Traces of Georealism (Tenement Press, Bristol and London 2024), Ecocosmismo: Terrae Incognitae da Filosofia (Cultura e Barbarie, Florianopolis 2024), Ciò che rimane del futuro. Il tempo della decostruzione (Mimesis, Milano 2024) and The End, co-authored with Alain Badiou (Polity Press, Cambridge 2019), translated into French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.
Alexandre Estrela is a multimedia artist (Film and Video) and teacher. He was born in Lisbon, where he lives and works. The artist has a PhD from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Lisbon; a master’s in fine arts (School of Visual Arts, New York, 1999); a degree in Painting (Faculdade de Belas Artes, Lisbon, 1996). He was awarded a grant by the Ministry of Culture (1997-2000), was artist in residence at International Studios and Curatorial Projects (New York, 2002-2003) and at Domaine de Kerguéhennec (Brittany, 2010).
He has exhibited regularly since the early 1990s, individually and in groups, in Portugal and abroad. His works are part of various public collections, including Centro de Arte Moderna of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado; Serralves Foundation; and Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Bretagne (Chateaugiron). Estrela will represent Portugal at the upcoming Venice Biennial 2026.
Claire Fontaine is a collective, conceptual, and feminist artist founded by Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill in Paris in 2004. Since 2017, they live and work in Palermo. Their works have been exhibited worldwide, they are present in numerous museum collections and represent a space of resistance within the artworld to the transformation of artists’ authorship into brands and to the homogenization of formats and contents in times of censorship and crisis. The 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 was titled Stranieri Ovunque Foreigners Everywhere after the series of their seminal neon works Foreigners Everywhere. Their works were presented in the main venues of the Giardini and Arsenale and with the largest to date installation of 60 neons from the series Foreigners Everywhere suspended on the lagoon in the Gaggiandre. Her works were also featured in the acclaimed Vatican Pavilion in the Venice Biennale of 2024 in the exhibition With Your Eyesinstalled inside the functioning women’s prison of Giudecca. Several anthologies of their writings have been published in English, French, italian and Portuguese by Semiotext(e), Diaphanes, Derive Approdi and GLAC. Two monographs on the artist’s work have been published by Koenig’s Books: Foreigners Everywhere, 2011 and Newsfloor, 2020.
Recent solo shows include : Show Less, Mimosa House, London, 2025; Foreigners Everywhere (Metropolitan Indians), Italian Institute, Kiran Nadar Museum of the Arts, Aga Khan Foundation, New Delhi, 2025; Tra cielo e terra, Museo Riso, Palermo, 2024; Beauty is a Ready-Made, Fondation Hermès, Seoul, 2024; Star Reply Forward Copy Info Delete, Memphis, Linz, 2022; Siamo con voi nella notte, Museo del 900, Firenze, 2020; I- WE-YES, Studio Concreto, Lecce, 2020; Your Money and Your Life, Galerias Municipais, Lisbona, 2019; La Borsa e la vita, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, 2019; Les printemps seront silencieux, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, 2019; #displaced, Städtische Galerie Norhdorn, Nordhorn, 2019 ; Fortezzuola, Museo Pietro Canonica, 2016; Art Club, Villa Medici, Roma, 2016; Tears, Jewish Museum, New York 2013; 1493, Espacio 1414, San Juan, Puerto Rico 2013; Sell Your Debt, Queen’s Nails, San Francisco 2013; Redemptions, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, 2013; Carelessness causes fire, Audian Gallery, Vancouver 2012; Breakfast starts at midnight, Index, The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation Stockholm 2012; M-A-C-C-H-I-N-A-Z-IO-N-I, Museion, Bolzano, 2012; P.I.G.S., MUSAC, Castilla y León 2011; Economies, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami 2010.
Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz. His most recent books include The Phoenix Complex (2023), Time Is a Plant (2023), with Edward S. Casey, Plants in Place (2024), Eco-Freud (2025), Metamorphoses Reimagined (2025), with Anais Tondeur, Fiori di fuoco (2025), and Of Joints and Other Articulations (2026). More information at michaelmarder.org.
(residency)