Uronto Artist Community

Developed by artist Sadya Mizan, Uronto Artist Community was formed in 2012. They created a unique artist residency programme, Uronto Residential Art Exchange Programme, which has created an alternative platform for site specific interventions, engaging with old, abandoned, or soon to be demolished spaces. Operating as a site-specific residential art exchange programme, each of Uronto’s residency brings together 10-15 interdisciplinary practitioners—including artists, writers and musicians—who are selected on the merit of their proposal through the open call and their ability to visualise what is no longer there.

Selected participants stay at the site for the entirety of the residency and are challenged to work with unfamiliar mediums sourced at the site, producing work which directly interacts with the site and the work of other participants. It is important for Uronto that each of its residency recreates and documents the selected site’s identity before it is forgotten. Uronto also includes the local community in the process, reconnecting them with the site through workshops run by the selected artists.

Uronto has explored old heritage buildings in Kushtia, Kishoregonj, Shatkhira, Barishal and Chittagong and Sunamgonj in Sylhet and has collaborated with more than 80 artist from more than 9 countries.