Gabriela Guyez, a 2025 graduate of Villa Arson, is the winner of the first Young Artists’ Residencies in Rural Areas program, organized by the École(s) du Sud network with the support of the Ministry of Culture – DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
This experimental residency program in rural areas aims to support the professional integration of young artists. It aligns with the objectives of the Culture and Rurality Plan, implemented at the regional level since 2024, and with the network’s strategic guidelines for the professional development of recent art school graduates.
The program allows graduates from member schools of the network to benefit from a two-week research-creation residency in a partner organization located in a rural area, within a flexible, interdisciplinary framework that encourages exploration, encounters, and experimentation.
Gabriela Guyez, the program’s first laureate, will be hosted at the Buëch-Durance Hospital Center (CHBD) from September 29 to October 12, 2025.
Objectives of the Program
- Experiment with research-creation residencies outside the usual frameworks of art and design, anchoring them in rural contexts.
- Support professional integration in the territory through concrete initiatives that help shape the actors of tomorrow’s transition.
- Enable young artists to gain their first experience in developing their artistic work by challenging conventional practices, working decisively towards relocalization.
- Foster on-the-ground encounters with a variety of actors from rural society, leading to the development of innovative artistic forms.
gabriela guyez
Born in Fairfax in 1997, Gabriela Guyez is Franco-Salvadoran and lives and works in Nice. After completing a master’s degree in philosophy and a DNSEP at Villa Arson, she has developed a multidisciplinary practice in which sculpture, science, and storytelling converge within evolving installations. Her work interrogates our relationship to ecology and disappearance. The artist explores material in its performative states to create sensitive and poetic experiences, reappropriating spaces and disciplines historically dominated by patriarchal logics.
