IAR Art Residency

Open Call for transformative Art Residency

Dates: September 05 2026 to September 12 2026

Location: Eco estate Brana (Kragujevac – Rekovac, Serbia)

Eligible for: Art students and artists up to 30 years of age

Application Deadline: 31.7.2026.

Application Language: Serbian or English

Results Announcement: 05.08.2026.

IAR Art Residency – a seven-day art residency brings together twelve young artists dedicated to contemporary creative practice. Conceived as a space for concentrated work, exchange and professional development, the program offers participants the opportunity to dedicate a week to their own practice with mentorship support and dialogue with colleagues from various artistic disciplines.

A special value of the residency is the international visibility it provides to participants. The IAR Art Residency program is supported by the Rome University of Fine Arts (RUFA). Selected works created during the program will be presented in Rome during Rome Art Week in October 2026, offering artists the opportunity to exhibit their work before an international audience and position it within the broader contemporary art context. Selected works will also be presented at an exhibition in Belgrade.

The mentorship team consists of Marta Jovanović, Davide Dormino and Vladimir Miladinović, whose approaches complement one another across performance, sculpture, painting, drawing, research-based practice and public space interventions.

Marta Jovanović is a performance artist, researcher, and educator with international experience. Her works have been presented at numerous biennials and exhibitions and are part of private and museum collections. She has been a research fellow at the Getty Research Institute and has participated in exchanges with Yale University. Her practice is documented in the book Marta Jovanović: Performing the Self and the film Born Just Now: Art and Life of Marta Jovanović. She is the Head of Visual Arts at RUFA.

Davide Dormino is a sculptor and visual artist whose work encompasses sculpture, installation and public space interventions. His practice explores the relationship between the individual, space and socio-political context. Among his notable works is the sculpture Breath at the United Nations headquarters in New York. In 2015, he launched Anything to say? – a traveling sculpture dedicated to freedom of expression. The sculpture was first presented in Berlin and has since been exhibited in numerous European cities and Australia. Since 2002, he has been actively teaching at RUFA, where he lectures in drawing, sculpture and installation.

Vladimir Miladinović is a visual artist from Belgrade. His work focuses on re-examining the politics of memory, media manipulation and the creation and interpretation of historical narratives. He is one of the founders of the “Initiative for Contemporary Art and Theory“. He is a recipient of the 53rd October Salon award. His works have been exhibited in museums and collections across Europe.

All necessary conditions for artists to fully dedicate themselves to their creative work are provided, including continuous work with mentors, spacious studio space, comfortable accommodation, meals and art materials.

The residency offers a unique model of direct interaction between the artistic process and the business sector. Artworks created during the residency will be gifted to the program’s partners, allowing young artists immediate visibility before potential collectors and art supporters. This represents an important step toward professional affirmation and market validation of their work. Editions of the artworks produced during the residency will be offered to secondary schools as donations.

A jury will select twelve promising young artists to participate in the residency program by August 5, 2026.

Residency Theme: Independent Art Republic – born from the belief that art has no nationality: it belongs to humanity, imagination and creation. The program creates a temporary republic of artists – a space where different origins, languages and histories meet beyond borders and political divisions. Here, identity is not erased, but rather shared, transformed and expanded through artistic practice. Independent Art Republic affirms art as a common territory – free, human and deeply alive.

Application Requirements: