Encura VIII: Curatorial Research Residency between Barcelona and Madrid

Hangar, Museo CA2M, Casa de Velazquez and hablarenarte, with the support of AC/E, are calling for applications for a grant for Spanish or foreign curators and researchers based in Spain. The grant will support a three-month curatorial research residency between Barcelona and Madrid from November 2025 to February 2026.

About Encura
Encura is a programme of research residencies that aims to promote, expand and complexify curatorial research processes by intertwining the artistic contexts of Barcelona and Madrid. The programme encourages and enables curatorial research that does not result in conventional exhibition projects. In its first four editions, Encura was led by Hangar in collaboration with hablarenarte and Curators Network. In its fifth edition, La Casa Encendida joined as co-leader of the project. In its sixth edition, Casa de Velázquez joined as co-leader alongside Hangar and hablarenarte. In its seventh and eighth editions, the CA2M Museum joined as co-leader alongside Hangar, Casa de Velázquez and hablarenarte. Hangar, the CA2M Museum, the Casa de Velázquez and hablarenarte, with the support of AC/E, are now inviting applications for a grant for Spanish or foreign curators and researchers based in Spain. The grant will support a three-month curatorial research residency between Barcelona and Madrid, taking place between November 2025 and February 2026.

Objectives of Encura
Since its first edition, Encura has been conceived as a proposal that does not necessarily produce tangible results. It places value on research and exchange processes that do not focus exclusively on the exhibition format as the means of realising curatorial research. Its objectives include supporting curatorial research and promoting territorial cooperation in generating and transferring knowledge and methods through art.

Encura interprets curatorial research as a political-affective space that establishes its own values, questions, languages and possibilities. Its porosity and capacity to intertwine with other agents and practices, and to imagine polyphonic narratives and actions — both theoretical and sensitive — always in collaboration with others, implies an ethical-political methodology in itself. This methodology makes it possible to question existing practices and modes of production. As a specific, situated curatorial research device, Encura is based on coexistence, collaboration, dialogue and interdependence between the Madrid and Barcelona contexts. It proposes working with research methodologies that challenge the hierarchies and logics of producing privative, individualised knowledge. Encura promotes the overflow of disciplines and slower, non-productivist periods of exchange and research. This creates the appropriate conditions for a research process to achieve the necessary solidity and degree of experimentation to develop curatorial projects that are relevant to their contexts and respond to the current issues and concerns.

Call for Encura VIII
Encura VIII will offer the selected person an honorarium of €3,000 and living expenses of €1,500.

Applicants’ research projects should focus on artistic practices in each of the cities and contemplate collaboration and dialogue with artists or agents based at Hangar and Casa de Velázquez.

Encura VIII will allocate up to €2,800 for a public activity in each city, involving at least one artist-in-residence from each centre. This grant does not cover the cost of an exhibition. It is an invitation to experiment with alternative types of activation, socialisation, opening and project format, with a budget of up to €1,000 for research-related expenses.

Features of Encura VIII 
In Barcelona:
― Accommodation for the selected person and a workspace at Hangar.
― Accompaniment, contact and visits with resident artists, as well as immersion in the local art scene, facilitated by Veronica Valentini, who is responsible for the residency and international research programmes at Hangar.
― A project presentation space in Hangar’s Sala Ricson.

In Madrid:
― Accommodation and workspace for the selected person, as well as contact and visits with resident artists, provided by Casa de Velázquez.
― Accompaniment and contact with the local art scene, facilitated by the hablarenarte team, who will act as mediators between the candidate and the context of the city.
― Space for presenting the project at the CA2M Museum.

Endowment of the grant
Encura provides the beneficiary with:
― Fees for the curator €3,000 gross.
― Living expenses of up to €1,500 gross.
― A research grant for artists, collaborators, and agents participating in the research, up to €1,000 gross.
― A production grant of up to €2,800 gross, linked to the proposal for activation or socialisation of the curatorial research developed.
― Travel costs between the curator’s usual place of residence in Barcelona and Madrid up to a maximum of €500 gross.
― Accommodation and workspace at Hangar in Barcelona.
― Accommodation and workspace at Casa de Velázquez, Madrid.
― Research, curatorial and mediation support in both contexts.
― Technical support for the development and production of the project at the CA2M Museum and Hangar.

Recipients
― The call is aimed at curators and researchers of Spanish nationality or foreigners based in Spain, at any stage of their professional development.
Proposals may be submitted either individually or collectively. If submitting collectively, a representative of the authors of the curatorial research project must be appointed.
― The author(s) of the curatorial research project may not participate as an artist. Those who have previously won an Encura prize are not eligible to apply, and no more than one project may be submitted per researcher, either individually or collectively.
― There is no age limit. Projects will be assessed in relation to the candidate’s stage in their professional career.
― Applicants must be available during the residency period.
― Projects submitted can be part of an ongoing research project or created for this specific purpose.

Timing and duration
The three-month residency will take place in Barcelona and Madrid between November 2025 and February 2026. Specifically, it will take place in Barcelona from 3 November to 19 December, and in Madrid from 12 January to 28 February 2026.

Application procedure
Applications must be sent in a single document in PDF format, not exceeding 10 pages, to veronica@hangar.org with the subject line “Convocatoria Encura VIII”.
This document must include

1. Personal details:
― First name(s);
― Surname(s);
― Full address (please include city and country);
― Telephone number;
― E-mail address;
― Date of birth;
― Nationality.

2. A brief biography of the applicant’s professional career in the form of a resume written according to the applicant’s own criteria, including links, documentation or materials from previous projects (up to 1,000 characters including spaces).

3. A letter of motivation, in particular the reasons that have led the applicant to be interested in this particular residency and the objectives that they hopes to achieve in their professional and creative development through the residency.

4. Project proposal to be developed during the residency (up to 1,000 characters including spaces).

5. Description of the project, including
― A summary of the project (up to 2,000 characters including spaces);
― The proposed methodology (up to 2,000 characters including spaces);
― The possible partners and artists involved and their rationale for the project (up to 1,500 characters including spaces);
― A summary of any activation or socialisation framework for the project (up to 1,500 characters including spaces);
― The timetable and work plan;
― a maximum of 5 images of the project (1 compulsory, 4 optional).

* IMPORTANT
Applications that do not contain the required information and/or exceed the length limit will not be accepted.

Deadlines
The deadline for applications is Monday, 30 June 2025 at 13:00 (GMT+1).
Resolution: end of July
The residency will start on 3 November 2025.

Selection process
The selection committee will comprise:
― Veronica Valentini: Head of Hangar’s Research and International Residency Programmes.
― Ana Ballesteros, Deputy Director of the CA2M Museum.
― Claude Bussac, the artistic director of the Casa de Velázquez.
― Flavia Introzzi and Emma Brasó from the hablarenarte team.

Assessment criteria
Encura VIII will value research projects that are committed to:
― An enquiry into the conditions of knowledge production that stimulates critical thought capable of addressing aesthetic and political issues.
― Creating a dialogue between the contexts of Barcelona and Madrid and demonstrating the relevance of both locations for developing situated curatorial research.
― Transformation and experimentation that converge different formats and languages of curatorial theory and practice, expanding the traditional logics of exhibition production.
― Facilitating research processes and transferring knowledge to non-specialised audiences.
― Generating new forms of subjectivity and understanding the world from critical, non-hegemonic, transfeminist, anti-racist and non-oppressive positions.
― Collaborative decision-making processes and new forms of experimentation in relations with artists and collaborating agents.
― Taking responsibility for, and demonstrating commitment to, the research processes and the knowledge accumulated during them.
The proposal involves innovative open-source formats for socialising, increasing visibility of, and documenting the curatorial research process.
― Links with the objectives of the 2030 Agenda will be valued, particularly with regard to gender equality, reducing inequalities, sustainability and climate action.
― Affinity with the programmes and lines of work of the convening institutions.
― The call is open to people with Spanish nationality or foreigners based in Spain, and we encourage applications from professionals not based in either capital city.

Commitments of the selected project
― Give a public presentation of the project at Hangar during the third week of December 2025.
― Make a public presentation of the project at the CA2M Museum in Móstoles during the fourth week of February 2026.
― Produce a report detailing the activities carried out during the residency, assessing the work developed during the stay, and evaluating the residency programme, institutions, and professional benefits obtained.
― The selected person must commit to being present at the residency location for at least 80% of the time.
― Acknowledge the Encura programme and include its logo, as well as those of Hangar, CA2M Museum, Casa de Velázquez and hablarenarte, in all public communications relating to the project.

For further information
Veronica Valentini
veronica@hangar.org
T. 93 308 40 41

In collaboration with:

                 

Supported by: