On Amazonian Forests: Art and Science Residency

Three artists representing Switzerland, Peru, and Brazil will embark on a 12-week residency spanning the Peruvian Amazon and Rome, Italy. Jointly organized by the Wyss Academy for Nature, Istituto Svizzero, and Swissnex in Brazil, the program that brings together artistic practice, scientific research, and traditional knowledge to explore new ways of understanding the Amazon.

In 2026, the Wyss Academy for Nature, Istituto Svizzero, and Swissnex in Brazil present “On Amazonian Forests,” an ambitious art and science residency dedicated to one of the most vital ecosystems on the planet: Amazonia.

This three-month residency starting on September 2026 brings together three selected artists representing Brazil, Peru, and Switzerland. The program begins with six weeks in Tambopata, Madre de Dios, Peru, where the artists will engage with Amazonian socio-ecological realities. This will be followed by six weeks at Istituto Svizzero’s Villa Maraini in Rome, Italy, where they will continue their research and artistic exchange, exploring how artistic practices can contribute to ongoing environmental and social transformations.

The residency will conclude in Switzerland in December 2026, bringing the artists and partners together to reflect on the journey and exchange experiences, observations, and insights gathered throughout the program.

Field Research

The first phase is an immersive field experience, bringing the residents into dialogue with Indigenous and local communities, scientists, and practitioners. The second phase continues this journey in Rome, creating a space for new encounters, exchanges, and perspectives to enter into dialogue with the questions and research emerging from the residency. Across both contexts, the artists’ research evolves through an ongoing process of encounter, reflection, and exchange.
Research & Exchange

Throughout the program, each resident develops an individual research trajectory alongside a shared program of encounters and exchanges. Residents engage with different perspectives across art, science, and society through field experiences, public events, cultural programming, and dialogue with local and international communities. In Rome, they join Istituto Svizzero’s community of fellows and researchers, with access to its library, international networks, and transdisciplinary program.
Public Engagement

The residency includes public events, support for small artistic initiatives, and opportunities for residents to share their research and evolving practices with broader audiences. Through public programming and encounters with local and international communities, the residency creates spaces for dialogue, exchange, and the presentation of artistic experimentation as it takes shape throughout the journey.

Two Contexts, One Residency

The residency unfolds across two distinct but complementary contexts. Madre de Dios provides a setting for sustained engagement with local communities, knowledge systems, and the social and ecological realities of the Tambopata region. Rome then offers a different context for continued research and exchange, connecting these experiences with an international community of artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners. Together, the two locations create a continuous process of encounter, reflection, and dialogue between situated knowledge and broader interdisciplinary perspectives.

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Madre de Dios, Peru
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Rome, Italy

Peru

Madre de Dios

Madre de Dios, in the southern Peruvian Amazon, is one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, encompassing vast areas of protected forest, including the Tambopata National Reserve. The region is also shaped by Indigenous communities, forest-based livelihoods, and rapidly changing social and economic dynamics. Tambopata is the primary focus of the Wyss Academy for Nature’s work in South America, with long-term partnerships involving local communities, researchers, institutions, and other territorial actors. This presence provides an important context for the residency, connecting the artists with ongoing research, local knowledge, and initiatives exploring the relationship between forest conservation, livelihoods, and social well-being.

Italy

Rome

Rome offers a distinctive cultural and intellectual context, shaped by nearly three millennia of artistic, historical, and cultural heritage, as well as a vibrant network of contemporary art, academic, and research institutions. At the heart of this environment, Istituto Svizzero’s Villa Maraini hosts a year-round community of artists and researchers from Switzerland, Italy, and beyond, working across the fields of art and science. The residency thus provides an ongoing space for collective exchange, where residents share their practices, questions, and perspectives, fostering dialogue across disciplines and supporting artistic and scientific research. Here, the residency continues through new encounters, conversations, and exchanges, bringing different contexts and perspectives into dialogue with the artists’ ongoing research.

Selected Artists

Clarissa Levy (Switzerland)

Artist, writer, and filmmaker working between Switzerland and Brazil. Her practice combines moving image and literary writing to explore environmental imaginaries, oral narratives, and the relationships between ecology, economy, and lived experience. During the residency, she will explore how mythical narratives and oral storytelling can be translated into moving-image works.
Sabrina Da Silva Medeiros (Brazil)

Artist based between Paris and São Paulo, working across painting, installation, and performance. Her practice explores memory, colonial erasure, and Afro-Brazilian forms of knowledge through the concept of encruzilhadas, or crossroads. During the residency, she will look into Amazonian forests as cosmological spaces, bringing together rites, urban syncretisms, and vernacular knowledge.
Robertho Paredes Coral (Peru)

Artist-researcher based in Madre de Dios, working across photography and moving image. His practice engages with Amazonian cosmologies, Indigenous sovereignty, memory, and ecological transformations, rooted in long-term relationships with local communities. During the residency, he will focus on fire as a relational force within Amazonian ecologies through hybrid visual practices.

News & Insights

Partners

Gabriela Devaud

Program Lead, Arts and Creative Industries

As Program Lead, Arts and Creative Industries, Gabriela works to integrate architecture, design, and art with innovation, technology, and science, creating possibilities for transdisciplinary projects.