Kaá (‘bush’ in Tupi-Guarani) names the first edition of the international residency program promoted by the Yvy Maraey Institute. The residency has a practical, interactive and immersive character, focusing on the multiple and sensitive relations between contemporary art and nature.

The program understands that the art residency is not only about the artist’s presence in a certain context but, above all, it’s a moment of development and exchange between the subject and the space around it.

During the four-week residency, selected artists will create contemporary art works and installations – permanent and / or temporary interventions – around the 25 acres of the Institute. The program seeks to give visibility to the artistic practices that question the contradictions and ambivalences of the complex relationship between art and nature.

As a way of promoting the rural area of Porto Alegre, Kaá intends to create a circumstantial connection between the rural zone and contemporary art, encouraging community members to actively participate in the cultural dialogues concerning the town.

In the Guarani worldview, Nature is not seen from outside as in the Western thought – in which Nature and the Human Being are distinct things in their essence, importance and aims. The Guarani perspective embraces the interdependence of all that exists and the destiny shared between the place and those who inhabit it. So everything that happens on earth also overmaster the people of the earth. Caring for the land would then mean take care of ourselves. We want to share this ancestral vision of interdependence with the residents and Institute’s visitors.

Project team

The program is funded by “#juntospelacultura_2_” Rio Grande do Sul Cultural Fund and COINCIDENCIA – Swiss & South American Cultural Exchanges.