Situated Creative Practices for the Plurivers (SIT-PLU) is a medium-scale Creative Europe cooperation project (CREA-CULT-2004-COOP-2) initiated by LUCA School of Arts (Belgium) that addresses various eco-social challenges through art and design, advocating concepts such as good living, interdependence and harmonious relations between humans and non-humans.
The project seeks to reimagine arts, design and culture as transformative tools for ecological regeneration and social justice, through a network of partners in different territories in Europe. It also seeks to enrich pluriversal discourses by exchanging knowledge with practices from the Global South, working to develop creative methodologies adapted to rural, peri-urban and urban environments.
In order to develop these methodologies, the project thinks of the practices in a situated way, i.e. artistic and design actions that are based on and for the territory in which they operate. For this reason, a series of artistic residencies, experimentation laboratories and platforms for knowledge exchange will be developed.
Artistic residencies (SIT-RES)
In April 2025, the project has opened several calls to develop artistic works in the different territories where the collaborating structures work. In these residencies, artists and local communities will enter into dialogue to explore creative practices linked to sustainability and ecology.
* ZEMOS98 (Spain): Environmental activism in the Cantabrian-Leonese mountain range.
* Idensitat (Barcelona): Socio-urban dynamics in the Besòs river area.
* Lungomare (Bolzano): Ecological connections in river landscapes.
* Baltan (Netherlands): Rural future in Landpark Assisië, Noord-Brabant.
Experimental laboratories (PLU-LAB)
This is applied research at various territorial scales. These will have an academic framework and continuity, looking at various eco-social challenges in their territories:
* Eina Lab (Barcelona): Urban-peri-urban transition in the Collserola mountain.
* UPV Lab (Valencia): Community-based ecological initiatives and resistance to developmentalism in Benimaclet.
* LUCA Lab (Ghent): Multispecies narratives and community collaboration in Castle Ter Beken.
Exchange and Evaluation Programme (EX-EV)
Led by Floating University (Germany), EX-EV focuses on creating a culture of collaboration, self-evaluation and knowledge exchange between project partners. This is done through a series of online assemblies and agoras, where participants reflect on their creative interventions to ensure that methodologies remain dynamic and contextual. These collective evaluations will contribute to an Interactive Atlas, offering tools for cultural practitioners to embed their work in socio-ecological contexts.
SIT-PLU runs from November 2024 to April 2028, with a chronology structured as follows:
- Project Kick-off (Floating University, Berlin): from 4 to 7 June 2025 (Public Event: 6 June)
- PLU-LABS (Eina - Barcelona, LUCA - Ghent, UPV - Valencia): September 2025 (1st Kick-off Year)
- Agost 2026, and September 2026 (2nd kick-off year) to August 2027.
- Open call for artist residencies: from April to June 2025
- 1st Year of Residencies and Public Programme: January to November 2026
- 2nd Year Residency and Public Programme: November 2026 to October 2027
- Mid-Showcase: January 2027 (Herramienta-Barcelona)
- Final Exhibition: February 2028 (LUCA - Brussels)
