Since its inception, the MUA has maintained a strong commitment to contemporary art, launching the Artistic Creation and Research Residencies in 2015. This public call aims to promote creation, stimulate research in visual arts, and contribute to the dynamism of the contemporary art sector. Each edition, five artistic projects are selected to be developed over two weeks within the museum's facilities, supported by production and travel grants.
During this period, resident artists live and work at the MUA, gaining insight into its operations and receiving technical advice to shape their projects. This initiative, now in its 12th edition in 2026, solidifies the museum's role as a hub for production, research, and encounter in contemporary art.
The five projects selected for this edition are: Entrar en contacto by Ruth Cuadrado; Territorios blandos by Equipo GAR (formed by Raúl Terol and Alba San Jaime); En negativo (53) by the collective formed by Marc Mateos Monteagudo and Candela Carrillo Santos; Obertura de si by Jaume Mello; and Tectónicas de cuerpos by Pablo Quesada. These seven artists have shared experiences and work processes, focusing their efforts on developing the projects now exhibited in the Sala Sempere of the MUA.
We hope you enjoy this exhibition and let yourselves be carried away by the diverse creative horizons that contemporary art offers today.
Entrar en contacto by Ruth Cuadrado explores the relationship between the body and space through touch, conceiving space as a form of relation and affectation. The installation is designed as an intermediate space, an active void where touch, body, and matter blur their boundaries.
Equipo GAR (Raúl Terol / Alba San Jaime) presents Territorios blandos, an interdisciplinary universe inhabited by characters who are aware they are works of art. Based on the residency experiences, they construct a collective representation of the contemporary artistic context, using plasticine as the primary material.
Marc Mateos Monteagudo and Candela Carrillo Santos present En negativo (53), a project that views the image as an active space of contact, transformation, and conflict. Through painting and sculpture, they investigate the processes of accumulation and wear in contemporary imagery.
Jaume Mello offers Obertura de si, an artistic creation and research project based on attentive observation of the surroundings and the collection of elements that, while part of it, might go unnoticed. Assemblage serves as a tool to reconfigure the environment and establish new relationships.
Finally, Pablo Quesada presents Tectónicas de cuerpos, a proposal that inverts the material hierarchies of everyday objects. Elements like paper or fabric take on a structural function, supporting and articulating metallic bodies, and incorporating natural light as an articulating element.
