ARTIVISM RESEARCH GROUP ARDA

ARDA is an informal group of eight artists coming from diverse backgrounds and disciplines and cultural origins, carrying out a long term research on artivism. It investigates how performing arts can innovate its methodologies and ways of working, in order to create positive social impact, mutuating tools and perspectives from decoloniality, feminism and activist practices. Together and horizontally, the artists deconstruct themselves, their sector and art to meet the challenges of our time and give concrete hope for a more just, caring, sensitive, playful, desiring, imaginative world.

The eight artists initially gathered at POLIMORFA Festival, a community-based project organized by BILOURA in Valchiusella, on the Italian Alps. They have been involved in collective creations with the local inhabitants in the 3° and 4° editions of the festival creating the perfromances REVOLUTION (2023) and MY HOUSE IS AT WAR (2024). This experience has shown a communal set of values, working principles and interests among the group, resulting in a shared intention of working together further.

Throughout the last years ARDA was able to develop methodologies for artivist practices during several artistic residencies in: Malta (2023), Turin (Italy 2024), Galicia (Spain 2025) and Malta (2025) thanks to the support given by different organisations and programmes (EFFEA, Interplay Festival, Culture Moves Europe, A Casa Vella, Arts Council Malta). Its methodological aim is to produce art slowly, deeply and sustainably (socially, environmentally, economically and culturally). Creating its own artistic language and codes, addressing different yet interconnected segments of work such as civic participation, community engagement, social inclusion and ecology crisis.

In November and December 2025 the eight artists have gathered for the 5-weeks production residency Decoloniality: The Story of Us All in Malta and created the performance SUGAR STONE SEA around the topic of decoloniality and how the colonial histories persist in contemporary Europe. The production residency included several comunity events, a performative monument tour in Valletta and the perforrmance SUGAR STONE SEA at Spazju Kreattiv and was supported byArts Council Malta with additional support from Acción Cultural Española, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di La Valletta and the patronage of the Embassy of Belgium.

ARDA is composed by Chiara Bosco (Italy), Elena Brea (Spain), Deborah Falzon (Malta), Claudia Sanchez (Spain),

Kjersti Nilsen (Belgium), Silvia Ribero (Italy), Angie Rottensteiner (Austria) and Julienne Schembri (Malta)