Meet the artists of the OTRart project
Art, when it crosses borders, can become a shared space for dialogue, responsibility, and action.
OTRart is a European collaborative project that brought together artists through six artistic residencies in six different countries, offering a platform where creativity becomes a vehicle for environmental awareness and protection.
The statements of the following artists focus on the significance of this opportunity: participating in a project that recognises art as a powerful tool for environmental consciousness and social reflection. Within OTRart, artistic practice forms part of a broader European effort to foster sustainability, cooperation, and the exchange of values, highlighting the essential role of culture in shaping a more responsible and resilient future.
Clicking the images, readers are invited to discover the participating artists, explore their portfolios, and get to know and hear their artistic voices and concerns.
LAURENT GONGORA (OTRart Spain Artist Residency)
As a public visual artist, it’s always an honor for me to work on a site, its context, and the stories it seeks to tell. My artistic work is to respond in a way that creates a dialogue between art and nature. The setting of thousand-year-old olive trees is both inspiring and challenging, especially in the humble relationship the artist must have with them.
SHELDON SALIBA (OTRart Malta Artist Residency)
My work has been primarily exploring the multifaceted relationship between human-led activities and the environment, with a focus on the longevity of human-made materials within the environment, exploring such objects or materials as contemporary artefacts, and reinterpreting ways of living, through site specific works incorporating found materials. With an artistic practice based in Malta, the residency in Birzebbugia serves as another stepping stone in this long term exploration whilst also providing fresh perspectives from international collaborators.
JOACHIM ROMAIN (OTRart Malta Artist Residency)
An artist committed for over 20 years to the fields of consumption and reuse, I am delighted to participate in the Otrart project. This collaboration, taking place on the island of Malta with Unfinished Art Space and local artist Sheldon Salibat, aims to create a collective installation focused on the reuse of marine and local waste—perfectly aligning with my artistic vision and the projects I strive to develop.
CORNELIA EICHHORN (OTRart France Artist Residency)
My participation gives me the opportunity to make a project related to (paint) paper or fabric waste, as they are materials that I am used to working with in my artistic practice and I am very sensitive to climate change and the ecological crisis in general.
MANEL RAGA (OTRart Spain Artist Residency)
This is a great opportunity to create from what I consider part of my identity and memory, completely connected to the the very old olive tree fields that are surrounding my village.
RAOUL MALLAT – KABRIT (OTRart Greece Artist Residency)
The integration of the artwork within its environment and the dialogue it establishes with the public are, for me, essential elements that contribute to its relevance. A third determining factor is its capacity to provoke reflection or questioning on a subject.
Having worked in the world of urban art since the beginning of my career, I pay particular attention to the interaction of these factors when presenting a mural or a video mapping show in public space. Faced with increasingly threatened environments, it is becoming urgent to highlight the gravity of the situation, especially since some global actors are questioning facts that seem obvious to us. This disturbing denialism influences public opinion and serves as a tool to justify the continued exploitation of biological and mineral resources, to the detriment of the sovereignty of the most vulnerable populations.
In this global context marked by confusion and the reversal of values, art asserts itself as a timeless and universal tool for struggle. Through Art, we have the power to name things clearly and precisely — relying on reliable sources — in order to denounce them and provoke a relevant and effective reaction.
KOSTAS LOUZIS (OTRart Greece Artist Residency)
Raising awareness about sensitive stuff is essential for fostering understanding and empathy. By openly discussing these topics, we can break down barriers, challenge misconceptions, and encourage meaningful action. It creates a space where people feel informed, supported, and empowered to make a difference.
MILICA KRSTULOVIC (OTRart Croatia Artist Residency)
I love giving discarded objects a new chance, breathing a part of my soul into them…and preserving our planet.
| VALENTINA CANSECO (OTRart Italy Artist Residency) I am highly motivated by the idea of contributing to a project with ecological stakes that resonates with my artistic practice, and of engaging in dialogue with other countries, their artists, and institutions on this subject. My residency project will focus on the idea of reconstructing a landscape in the form of sculptures or installations made from recycled raw materials. |
JULIA MARIA LOPEZ MESA (OTRart Croatia Artist Residency)
this is perfect field for the stage of my work as artiste traveling artist working whith communities, memoire at matrimonial field.
FANNY LAVERGNE (OTRart France Artist Residency)
Natural elements are omnipresent in my creations. Plants and roots mingle with inanimate objects, creating an unsettling harmony between humans and their environment. We are only a part of the ecosystem in which we live.
My works evolve, the material changes, natural or human constraints are exerted on the frozen artefact as it continues its evolution, its journey towards its end.
Through my sensitive work, our vulnerability becomes poetry, our vanity becomes beauty. And this delicacy is a hymn to the ephemeral beauty of life.
ELIO SECONDO (OTRart Italy Artist Residency)
I would like to participate in this project because it focuses on themes that concern my research and the fact of being able to share time and work with other artists is one of the most enriching things for me
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.