Residency Open Call - Acasă la Hundorf

The “Acasă la Hundorf” (At Home in Hundorf) Association organizes the annual residency ȘAH (Școala de-Acasă Hundorf) for emerging artists from around the world, across all disciplines – including film, theatre, literature, architecture, and more. Located in a small village in Transylvania, the program offers participants time and space to disconnect, reflect, and experiment. Guided by a specific theme for each edition, ȘAH transforms its rural setting into a laboratory for dialogue, critical inquiry, and meaningful artistic practice.

About the residency

ȘAH started ten years ago with the idea of offering young artists, most of them urban, an idyllic refuge in the countryside. A quiet, welcoming place where life moves slowly, allowing you to disconnect from the pressure and noise of the city. A place to retreat in order to seek inspiration, reconnect and rediscover yourself.

Nine editions later, this idea continues to animate the residency. Artists still have the autonomy to build their own schedule, to experiment without constraints, to dream, reflect and create. Over time, however, the idyllic space has become more real.

The village has revealed itself beyond the pastoral ideal. The artists’ projects have shown facets that contradict its charm: migration, economic precarity, the lack of educational infrastructure, social and cultural tensions, etc. At a local scale, these contemporary issues do not disappear; on the contrary, they become more visible and more sharply defined. The rural setting shines a light on aspects that are often lost in the daily buzz.

Today, the residency operates within a fertile paradox: it creates the setting for retreat, but it does not suspend reality. It offers distance, but at the same time it pulls the essential closer. This zone of interference between calm and friction, between artists and context, defines its spirit. And the artistic community it brings together becomes the perfect environment for dialogue and experimentation.

Starting with the previous edition, in order to enhance this dialogue and to provide a shared framework for reflection, we also introduced an annual thematic focus. We invite you to discover the ȘAH 2026 theme:

CONFLICT.

Conflict has become a constant in our lives. We are going through tense times, hard to endure, sometimes almost apocalyptic. We are surrounded by crises and fears that disturb our minds and make us vulnerable. From village to city, from country to continent, and from the individual to society, conflict touches all fault lines. Whether we want to or not, we are all part of it, one way or another. We can hardly escape it.

In this year’s residency, we are interested in how artists perceive conflict in all its dimensions. It may be a class, gender, ethnic, cultural, or generational conflict. It may be systemic or personal, visible or subterranean. It may appear as a silent, frozen impasse; an illusory peace; a constant tension; or, on the contrary, an explosion, a volcano. We are also interested in the catalysts of conflict: what triggers it, what sustains it, who wins and who loses. The gains and losses it produces, the debates it ignites, the uncomfortable questions.

In this edition, we are also inviting projects that engage with more distant geographies and broader cultural spaces. Although Viișoara is not unfamiliar with conflict, and although such tensions can be unveiled and better understood when observed at a small scale, we no longer want the local rural universe to be the sole focus for artists. The village may also remain as an indirect source of inspiration, a background that subtly infiltrates your work. However, we are curious about possible connections and parallels between local conflicts and those from other areas.

We conclude on a positive note. Conflict is not only about destruction. At its core lies the possibility of transformation. It can open new spaces for coexistence and consensus. This is why we want this year’s residency to become a laboratory in which conflict canbe mapped in all its complexity. A place where we attempt to understand not only what breaks in its wake, but also what can be reconfigured, rebuilt, and reimagined.

Now, take a closer look at the details of the residency and check out the application form here.