Șona AIR, the residency program of Ștefan Câlția Foundation, a project co-financed by AFCN, enters a new phase in 2025, welcoming international artists alongside Romanian artists for the first time. The spring edition brings together three creators from different fields and corners of Europe in a space that encourages experimentation, research and artistic reflection.
The residency features as guests Nóra Ugron (Romania), Maria Oblicka (Poland) and Alexander Cabeza Trigg (Spain), three artists who explore the boundaries between literature, documentary film and visual anthropology. What do they have in common? The need to work without time pressure, in a place where nature determines the rhythm.
Şona AIR is not just an artistic residency. It is a laboratory of ideas, a workspace where artists can explore new directions without being pressured by immediate production. Each participant has two months to immerse themselves in their project in a restored house in the middle of a village with remarkable views.
“Expanding the program internationally allows us to develop an authentic intercultural dialogue between artists from different backgrounds and contexts. Şona AIR aims to be more than a creative space – it is a place of reflection, exploration of artistic processes and connection with a unique rural setting,” says Monica Dănilă, coordinator of the Şona AIR residency.
The program continues to grow and attract artists from all over the world while maintaining its essence: a space where ideas can take shape organically, without the rush of the city and without the pressure of immediate delivery.
The residencies take place twice a year, in spring (February–April) and autumn (October–December), and each edition hosts artists from various fields, including visual arts, literature, film, architecture, and artistic research.
Șona AIR (Artists in Residence) is a pilot residency program initiated by Ștefan Câlția Foundation that supports interdisciplinarity and collaboration and which aims to organically integrate new cultural models in the rural area, encouraging interaction between residents and the local context, facilitating communication with the villagers, but also with the surroundings.
