is an interdisciplinary art residency and creative think tank.
The residency provides a space for artists and culture shapers to slow down and reconnect to themselves, one another and nature.
SOPRA SOTTO brings together artists, creators, thinkers, and visionaries from diverse backgrounds, using art and creativity as powerful tools for research, communication and education.
The residency creates a container to question certain paradigms that no longer serve us, within ourselves and in society as a whole. To positively transmute these outdated concepts into alternative futures, for the community as well as the collective.
Each residency presents a different overarching theme, focusing on current and pressing topics that are taking place in our world. The starting point of the residency is to reconnect with oneself, others and nature. SOPRA SOTTO takes an optimistic and holistic approach to reimagining new systems in order to live in harmony with nature, in our digital age and beyond.
The residency program aims to foster collaboration and cross-pollination between disciplines and industries, communities and different generations. Creative exchange takes place between the residents themselves - through collaborative workshops, critical dialogue and peer-to-peer review moments between residents -, as well as between the residents and the local creative scene, which happens through excursions, artist studio visits and organized events for the community. SOPRA SOTTO was founded by Constance van Berckel in 2022, and is currently based between Amsterdam and the Tuscan hills near Florence. The residency is developing towards a nomadic program, and will host residencies in different communities throughout Europe. The program is open to residents from a wide variety of backgrounds (such as artists in different media, writers, researchers, philosophers, educators, scientists, dancers, musicians and other creatives and change makers). The residency welcomes people from all nationalities, ethnicities, ages, religions, sexual orientations and walks of life. * SOPRA SOTTO comes from "come sopra, così sotto", which translates to "as above, so below". This mystical axiom suggests the interconnectedness of the universe, where events are mirrored on different planes - be it macrocosmic/ microcosmic, spiritual/ material or celestial/ terrestrial. Understanding one level offers insight into another, and can reveal links, patterns and the oneness of life.
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Our upcoming residency will be this Spring 2024. More info below.
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