DECORATOR artistic residencies 2025

The DECORATOR partnership is pleased to announce a call for Artistic Residencies to take place between October 2025 and January 2026 in different locations of the Danube Region, with a focus on Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Germany.

The Artist Challenge is open to both emerging and established artists and practitioners interested in adaptive reuse, environmental design, and participatory art, contributing to a broader European dialogue on how creative practice can transform and revitalize the built environment. In this respect, the “aesthetic and sustainable” (in the NEB - New European Bauhaus perspective) upgrade of the building and its surroundings will be considered a focus. UNG expects to receive ideas for modular solutions to especially enhance the facades of the building, looking at sustainable techniques, technologies and materials, as well as their replicability in a medium-large scale, to become a possible reference for the built environment transformation of the Danube and beyond.

The selected candidates for the Artistic Residencies will be required to be physically present in the area at least twice: first, at the beginning of the residency to introduce their conceptual idea and collaborate with local stakeholders, launching the residence in a so-called “Pitching Event”, and later, at the end, to present their final work.

The amount of the residencies will range from 5.000 to 9.000 according to the proposals and locations. These amounts will be defined upon the selection of artists by the different contracting authorities and the four countries that will be hosting the residencies.

The challenge invites artists, architects, and interdisciplinary creators to develop site-specific, research-based interventions that:

in Slovenia:

·        Re-imagine the University of Nova Gorica’s first campus building as a living model of aesthetic, sustainable, and inclusive transformation, where architecture merges with artistic vision and ecological awareness.

·        Explore and reinterpret the building’s material, social, and symbolic layers, connecting its modernist heritage with contemporary needs through creative, interdisciplinary, and community-driven approaches.

·        Propose modular and replicable façade and spatial solutions that embody New European Bauhaus values — beauty, sustainability, and participation — while engaging local communities, students, and researchers in co-creating new meanings and functions for the space.

sustainable re-use of the Ebensee former Railway Station in Austria:

·        Question the idea of the town center in a community whose traditional heart has vanished.

·        Reflect on the social fabric of Ebensee, from industrial heritage to grassroots cultural initiatives, including its active role in the European Capital of Culture Salzkammergut 2024.

·        Propose new forms of arrival, gathering, and collective identity in a decentralized urban setting.

·        Highlight the building not as obsolete, but as a living resource for collective imagination

·        Show how sustainability and aesthetics can be understood through language and performance,

·        Positioning the sawmill as a site where the principles of the New European Bauhaus are made tangible.

in Croatia, re-imagine and “hack” a prefabricated wall system made of timber and compressed straw, with attention to:

●       Aesthetic and experiential qualities – how materiality can remain visible, beautiful, and desirable.

●       Sustainability and circularity – full alignment with Cradle-to-Cradle principles, NEB values, and affordability/DIY potential.

●       Innovative adaptations – inner and outer layers, finishes, joints, or material passports that enhance usability, disassembly, and reusability.

●       Hacking spirit – imaginative transformations that challenge the “white box” of conventional building, highlighting tactility, atmosphere, and life in/with nature.

Applicants can apply via email to andrej.sitar@ung.si specifying “DECORATOR_Artistic_Residencies” in the subject of the email.

The DECORATOR project invites all candidates to an online presentation of the artistic residence, to be held through the ZOOM, clarifying all the details of the call. The presentation is scheduled on 21 October 2025 at 4 p.m. CET. Registration to the zoom is required. The link to be used is

https://ungsi.zoom.us/meeting/register/LNbUi7dSSWWJ3mVEQA8AmA