letters from the south

a platform for radical care, emotional politics, and artistic research

Introduction

letters from the south is a platform for radical care, emotional politics, and artistic research. It reclaims love not only as an emotion, but as a political force—a means of connection, resistance, and transformation. Anchored in Ljubljana’s ex-Yugoslav context, the platform provides a reflective and generative space for exploring how love shapes communities, histories, and futures. Through its focus on emotional politics and non-aligned imaginaries, letters from the south positions artistic practice as a tool for engagement, solidarity, and societal reflection.

Drawing on the legacies of non-aligned histories and South–South solidarities, letters from the south approaches the South not as a fixed geography, but as a relational position—shaped by shared experiences of marginality, resistance, and relational belonging.

Focus Areas

letters from the south explores love as a radical, political force. The platform invites artists to investigate care, solidarity, and connection through their practice, engaging with kinship, chosen families, and community bonds as sites of creative and political experimentation.

Artists are encouraged to explore: love beyond romance, examining bonds of kinship and community; love as resistance, highlighting solidarity, care, and survival in times of crisis; healing historical wounds, producing work that reconciles, repairs, and reimagines collective memory.

The platform is attentive to practices shaped by queer, feminist, and other non-normative experiences of care, kinship, and belonging, without positioning these perspectives as exclusive or prescriptive.

The program offers a focused and generative space in which one participant per year can develop work that resonates conceptually and socially, contributing to the platform’s ongoing archive, NAM Notes, and to long-term exhibitions. Artistic practice is understood as both research and action, responsive to social, political, and historical contexts.

Structure and Approach

letters from the south operates as a one-month residency and research program, hosting a single artist or researcher each year. Ljubljana serves as the starting point of the platform, offering access to rich historical and cultural resources, archival material, and a context-rich environment for research, dialogue, and experimentation. This positioning reflects the city’s ex-Yugoslav history and cultural networks, without claiming centrality or authority, and foregrounds situated, reflective practice.

Solo Exhibition and Production Support

Each participant will be offered a solo exhibition in Ljubljana as part of the RAVNIKAR Project’s official program, scheduled for 2027. The exhibition will be produced in collaboration with RAVNIKAR, with a dedicated production budget covering the artist fee, essential production, installation, transportation of works, and technical support. The budget will be allocated according to the needs of each project, ensuring a professional and high-quality presentation. Participants are encouraged to plan their projects within these parameters and may seek additional funding to expand the scope of the exhibition.

Over several years, the accumulated works of multiple participants will culminate in a long-term group exhibition, potentially presented regionally or internationally, connecting the Ljubljana base with broader conversations and audiences.

Institutional and Research Support

letters from the south enables each selected project to engage with municipal and state cultural institutions, as well as regional and international centers for contemporary art and research. The platform draws on existing networks to facilitate access to archival materials, curatorial dialogue, and opportunities for exchange. If required, a studio space will also be provided to support research and production.

For Potential Participants

letters from the south engages artists from countries historically associated with the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)*, drawing on its legacy of solidarity, shared histories, and transnational cultural exchange.* Applications are open to emerging, mid-career, and established artists who demonstrate substantial experience through significant projects, sustained engagement with their field, or strong conceptual practice.

Over one month in Ljubljana, participants will have the time, space, and support to research, experiment, and reflect within a context that combines historical inquiry with contemporary artistic practice. This is a focused, intensive, and inspiring opportunity to contribute to a long-term, collective project, documented through NAM Notes, presented in a solo exhibition in Ljubljana, and eventually incorporated into a cumulative group exhibition.

Practical Information

Accommodation: provided free of charge for the residency period; Travel: artists are responsible for their own travel expenses and are encouraged to seek supplementary funding; Curatorial Support: provided throughout the residency; Studio Space: available if required; Exhibition Fee: covered as part of the production budget; Timeline: residency begins in 2026, solo exhibition in 2027, long-term group exhibition in subsequent years

Program Components

Participants’ time in Ljubljana combines research, reflection, and production. Engagement with archives, historical materials, and non-aligned histories and imaginaries grounds artistic practice in critical and contextual inquiry. NAM Notes, the platform’s annual publication, documents insights, processes, and outcomes, creating a lasting record of the work generated. The solo exhibition in Ljubljana provides professional visibility for the participant’s work, while the long-term group exhibition highlights the evolving dialogue and creative contributions of the platform across years.

Philosophy

letters from the south is not a conventional residency. It is a space for anti-hierarchical, care-driven research and transformative practice, where one participant each year explores how love functions politically, socially, and historically. The platform fosters an environment that supports rigorous, experimental, and conceptually ambitious work, encouraging practices that reimagine cultural and social relations through care, solidarity, and emotional engagement.

Vision and Constellations

The long-term aim of letters from the south is to cultivate Ljubljana as a site for reflective, care-centered artistic practice. Through NAM Notes and cumulative exhibitions, the platform contributes to an evolving archive of artistic research and dialogue, remaining open to changing forms of collaboration and exchange.

letters from the south is shaped through ongoing conversations with artists, researchers, curators, writers, cultural workers, initiatives, and institutions. Rather than fixed partnerships or formal affiliations, the platform develops through flexible, care-driven exchanges that respond to specific contexts, moments, and shared questions.

Forms of involvement may include dialogue, research support, public conversations, writing, hosting, or other modes of engagement as they naturally emerge. This open structure allows the platform to remain responsive, ethical, and attentive—grounded in relationship rather than representation.