NB! Would you like to apply for this residency? Go back to Residency (international) for the terms and conditions, assessment and checklist for your application.
The A4 Residency Art Center offers an immersive environment for artistic research, experimentation, and cross-cultural exchange in one of China’s most dynamic urban regions. Located in Chengdu’s Luxelakes Eco-City, the residency provides artists and cultural practitioners with the opportunity to engage with contemporary Chinese society through a combination of independent research, community engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Chengdu is one of China’s most important cultural centres and is known for its rapid urban development, strong regional identity and growing international contemporary art scene. A4 Residency Art Center understands residency as a process of long-term observation, local engagement and gradual development, rather than simply a period of artistic production. Residents are encouraged to develop new perspectives through encounters with local communities, cultural practitioners, researchers, and fellow international participants. The program supports projects that explore social, environmental, cultural, and urban issues within both local and global contexts.
The residency is situated within Luxelakes Eco-City, a large-scale urban development that combines ecological planning, public space, cultural programming, and community life. Luxelakes is one of China’s most ambitious privately developed urban communities, where culture, ecology, education and everyday life are intentionally integrated. This context offers residents a unique framework for investigating the relationships between people, place, and contemporary society.
Over A4 Residency Art Center
The residency encourages participants to engage with the social, cultural and ecological realities of contemporary China through direct interaction with local communities, institutions and practitioners. Residents are invited to develop projects that respond to place, context and community while exploring broader questions concerning urban development, sustainability, identity, technology and social change.
A4 places particular emphasis on interdisciplinary exchange. Alongside artists, the programme welcomes researchers, designers, architects, writers, musicians and other practitioners whose work crosses disciplinary boundaries. The residency team facilitates introductions to cultural institutions, community organisations, businesses, researchers and creative professionals relevant to each resident’s interests.
Each resident receives access to a dedicated workspace. Shared facilities and communal areas encourage exchange between participants from different disciplines. Technical advice and production support may be available depending on the nature of the project and available resources. Accommodation is located within or near the residency complex and allows participants to live alongside other international residents. Residents are introduced not only to artists and cultural organisations, but also to neighbourhood communities, schools, researchers, local businesses and public initiatives that shape everyday life in Chengdu. Depending on each artist’s interests, A4 may facilitate connections through its Super Agent programme, introducing residents to local people, everyday life and knowledge beyond conventional institutional networks.
For whom
Visual artists may apply for a residency at A4 Residency Art Center. For applications for duos or collaborative partnerships, each person must apply separately.
A duo is defined as: 2 artists, 2 curators / observers or a combination of these who structurally create work together. Collaborations can (on occasion) be considered as duos if they submit a joint plan for the working period that leads to one result. In addition, a duo must live and work together in one space during the residency. Please note, you both need to submit separate applications.
Work period
There are 1 working periods of 3 months each available:
- 15 March – 15 June 2027
Applicants are asked to state their preference for a work period on the application form. Every effort will be made to honour this preference. Per period there is room for 1 artist or duo.
How much?
The Mondriaan Fund makes a subsidy of € 8,478 – available for an artist to help cover travel expenses, material costs and living costs.
This sum is intended for 1 person. In addition, the selected resident is expected to pay a 10% personal contribution. The Mondriaan Fund automatically takes this into account in their ultimate subsidy, you do not need to do anything.
The costs of renting the studio and living space and the support that residents receive from A4 Residency Art Center are paid directly to A4 Residency Art Center by the Mondriaan Fund. The apartment is very suitable for duos or collaborative partnerships. The residency is family-friendly.
If a duo or collaborative partnership is selected for the residency, the total amount increases proportionally to cover the additional travel and living costs for the second applicant.
The contribution to artists based in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom can be increased to meet any higher travel costs. This is looked at per situation.
Application
The deadline for submitting an application for a work period in 2027 is Thursday 27 Augustus 2026 before 16.00 (Dutch time zone) / 11.00 (Caribbean time zone).
Before submitting an application, please see the Residency page for the terms and conditions, application procedure and assessment procedure.
Please also read the terms and conditions applicable to Mondriaan Fund contributions.
Selection
The selection is made by an advisory committee. Based on the submitted documents, the advisory committee proposes candidates to A4 Residency Art Center. They make the final decision on the participants for the residency. An interview may be part of their selection process.*
When you apply for two different residencies within the same call then the quality and development of your oeuvre/(professional) practice and the quality of your cultural entrepreneurship as the artist, curator or viewer is only assessed once. This assessment is therefore valid for both applications.
*Please note! Be aware that the processing time for this selection procedure may exceed three months
Other grants for residencies in the Netherlands and other countries
Because only 1 or 2 residents can be selected for any given residency during each application round, it is inevitable that many will be disappointed. For this reason, we point out that it is also possible to apply for an Artist Project at a different residency location. The specific Artist Project residency applied for may not be one of those already being offered in the Mondriaan Fund application rounds.