2025
RESIDENCY FOR EMERGING YOUNG ARTISTS FROM THE AZORES - 2nd Edition:
For the second consecutive year, AVISTAVULCÃO is offering an Artistic Residency for Emerging Young Artists from the Azores!
This project supports, accompanies, and promotes the work of young Azorean creators at the beginning of their careers. It is a one-month artistic residency dedicated exclusively to the production of an original project by an emerging artist or collective, born or resident in the archipelago. The selected artist is welcomed into residence at Casa da Missão, where they receive artistic and professional support throughout the creative process, culminating in a public presentation of the work developed.
The aim of this residency dedicated to young local artists is to have a positive impact both on the artistic growth and professional training of the participants — offering a boost at the start of their careers and promoting the visibility of the work of up-and-coming artists — and on the local community, which has the opportunity to discover and interact with new artistic languages and emerging talents from the region. Support for artists at the beginning of their careers is essential to stimulate regional creativity, strengthen professional trajectories linked to the arts, and generate new opportunities in the cultural sector.
SELECTED ARTIST: MARIA MELO
Born and raised on the island of Faial, she studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, completed an Erasmus programme at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and is currently studying Environmental Science.
She is interested in the complexity of organisms and the delicate interconnection of nature, exploring ephemerality and deconstructing the idea of the individual as something static. In addition to the visual arts, Maria Melo enjoys exploring various forms of expression, including music and theatre. She recently became a nomadic artist, participating in volunteer work and ecological and sustainable projects, with the aim of bringing her art together with environmentalist, community and mutual aid ideas.
At the beginning of her residency, the artist is dedicated to exploring and creating materials, investing in the production of pigments from local organic resources and the manufacture of organic recycled paper. For Maria, the ecological nature of her work is not only a sustainable practice, but a true meeting point between art and nature. Each creative gesture becomes a form of dialogue with the surrounding environment, reflecting the history, culture and biodiversity of the island that saw her grow up.
It is in AvistaVulcão's new space — the Temple of Inspiration — that, throughout this month, the artist will make the venue her studio, a creative space totally immersed in nature. In this place, artistic creation is not limited to the final object, but extends to the process of discovery and interaction with the materials and the landscape itself. The island, with its ecological and emotional uniqueness, thus becomes a silent co-author of her work, inspiring creative solutions that respect and celebrate natural life.
The connection between art and ecology in Maria's work reveals a poetic and ethical dimension of creation: each pigment, each sheet of recycled paper, carries with it the memory of the island, becoming a tangible link between artistic work and the natural world. The artist's practice demonstrates how art can become a vehicle for environmental awareness, encouraging a deeper and more harmonious relationship with nature, while rescuing and reinventing traditional techniques and materials in dialogue with the present.
Maria Melo undertook a month-long artistic residency, during which she created a creative laboratory where she carried out an intensive process of investigation and research. The work focused on experimenting with and producing organic paints and papers, creating a significant collection of paintings inspired by the surrounding landscape of Capelo, as well as photographing and recording observations about elements of nature that inspired her artistic journey.
On Sunday, 11 January, between 3 pm and 6 pm, the artist opened the doors of the Temple of Inspiration to the public for an Open Studio session, providing an opportunity for direct contact with the creative processes and results developed during the residency.
The result of the residency took shape and was on display to the public during February 2026 at the Camarupa MicroGallery in the city of Horta, under the title MATÉRIAS.
