Villa Erzzi Research Residency is a two-week interdisciplinary retreat for artists, curators, researchers, PhD candidates, designers, media practitioners, and experimental thinkers working across art, science, technology, and curatorial practice.
RESIDENCY DATES:
- March 1–14, 2027
- March 15–29, 2027
Located in the Lovran/Opatija region of Croatia, the residency provides time and space for focused research, writing, collaboration, prototyping, and artistic production. Participants may engage with topics such as the heritage of media art in former Yugoslavia, postcolonial perspectives on the Adriatic region, digital culture, art and science, curatorial research, media archaeology, and experimental technologies, while self-directed projects are equally welcome.
The program includes archive and research support, introductions to the Croatian contemporary art scene, visits and meetings with museums, galleries, and cultural institutions in Rijeka, invited lectures, discussion sessions, and crash courses in Unity and Blender/Rhino.
Selected projects and research outcomes may be presented through online exhibitions and international collaborations, including partner initiatives in Japan.
The residency culminates in an on-site exhibition and curated walking tour through Villa Erzzi, activating the house and its collection of screens, televisions, and shared spaces, alongside a hybrid online exhibition developed with our Japanese partner platform O-ME https://www.o-me.io/, presenting the research findings, prototypes, and artistic outcomes generated during the residency.
Rebecca Merlic *17/01/1989 in Oberwesel am Rhein, Germany (HR/AT/DE) is a European digital artist and architect, experimental filmmaker, and former senior scientist at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Rebecca Merlic creates virtual, interactively experienceable spaces and situations not merely as portals from the real to the digital world, but as gateways inclusive representation that can only be discovered in the fluid negotiability of virtual worlds. Rebecca’s artistic practice is not just digital but deeply rooted in her lived experience, including migration. She explores identity, political struggle, and the collective, while remaining dedicated to learning decolonizing and feminist practices. Rebecca’s work extends beyond art, driven by her deep understanding of intersectionality the ways in which different layers of identity create different possibilities for alliances and collaboration. Rebecca also has a strong interest in creative writing and artistic research, blending her interdisciplinary approach to connect media art, architecture, urbanism, the anthropology of the new human image and game design. She is an exceptional artist, a true pioneer who encapsulates the plurality of our world, crafting new narratives for our time with all available tools. Through her work, she challenges boundaries and opens collaborative, intersectional spaces of thought and interaction, where political and personal identities intersect seamlessly.
She is the holder of the Marianne von Willemer Prize 2020 for digital media, DKB VR Art Prize winner 2023 as well as Content Vienna winner and the holder of Theodor-Körner prize for art and science 2023. Recently her work was shown at SLAMDANCE (Utah, US), New Cinema Days (Manchester, UK), Belvedere + Belvedere21 (Vienna, AT), ADAF (Athens, GR), ARS ELECTRONICA (Linz, AT), Austrian Cultural Forum (Tokyo, JP), V2 (Rotterdam, NL), Ethnographic Museum (Zagreb, HR), MSU Museum for contemporary art Zagreb, National Museum Oslo and the Expo in Osaka.
Villa Erzzi Artist Retreat Research Residency 2027 