Open Call: DOM Art Residence x Personal Structures 2026

DOM Art Residence is launching an international open call for artists across all disciplines — painting, sculpture, video, photography, installation, performance, digital art, and cross-disciplinary practices.
We are selecting 12 artists from around the world to take part in Personal Structures 2026, a biennial art exhibition organised by the European Cultural Centre (ECC). The exhibition takes place in the historic palazzi of Venice, coinciding with the Venice Biennale (9 May – 22 November 2026).

Project Concept: Accepted Without Review

This experiment challenges the mechanisms of traditional institutions built on selection, competition, and rigid frameworks. Instead of filtering or dictating formats, we accept the artist’s practice as it is — without review.

It is an act of trust, an affirmation of artistic freedom, and recognition of the creative process as a value in itself.

Inside the historic Palazzo Bembo, one of the official venues of Personal Structures during the exhibition dates, DOM will install a scenographic replica of a shipping container, the same industrial object used for transporting goods.

The container becomes our metaphor. From one angle, it is a symbol of institutional rigidity: closed, opaque, impenetrable. From another, it is a vessel in constant motion, carrying stories across borders, echoing DOM’s own nomadic, independent spirit.

But inside the container is life. 

A large screen will stream live footage from the studios of DOM’s artists-in-residence. Over six months, each month, two artists will share their processes from tentative sketches and failed attempts to breakthroughs, reflections, and final works.

This is DOM’s first digital residency. Unlike traditional residencies, artists will not travel. Instead, they will remain in their own studios, in their own cities, working within their daily rhythms and personal contexts.

We will stream not only the artwork creation, but also the artist’s live environment: routine, thoughts, anything that feeds their practice.

For visitors in Venice, this means encountering the creative process live, raw, and unfiltered.

At the start of the Biennale, the container will stand empty. Over time, as works are completed, artists will ship them to Venice, and they will be installed inside the container. Gradually, the container becomes an archive of time, trust, and an uncompromising creation.