Villa Swagatam - Indo-French cultural residency program

Residency brief

Public Arts Trust of India (PATI) is dedicated to promoting and supporting cultural practitioners who research the heritage and history of Jaipur and Jodhpur. Its initiatives foster a more holistic growth of arts and culture through artists residencies, commissioning, curating, education and professional programmes and community exchange.

This specific residency programme for Villa Swagatam - located in Jodhpur, one of the most emblematic cities of Rajasthan - will allow the artist to engage with the local community and develop new collaborative work. The project developed throughout the residency will later be exhibited at Jodhpur Arts Week Edition 2.0 in October 2026 and could involve a variety of mediums, from sculpture, performance, video, sound or visual installations.

The resident will engage and explore the cultural heritage of Jodhpur, through its oral and material traditions. To this end, the resident will have access to PATI’s extensive research on the work of artisans, the city’s architecture, folklore artists and performers from the region. The resident will also benefit from PATI’s network of experts who will be available to support and build the residency programme on the ground, giving access to very specific communities.

Our Space

Jodhpur is the second-largest city in the state of Rajasthan. Although it is now considered an Indian Metropol, its most aesthetic value is the historic city centre, including its central and iconic Mehrangarh Fort. The town was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur, the capital of the Kingdom of Marwar.

Jodhpur is famous for its many palaces, forts, and temples, set in the stark landscape of the Thar desert. It is popularly known as the "Blue City," as many houses around the iconic fort are painted blue. Next to its tangible sites, the region is known for its intangible richness, including performing arts and crafts, but also education; hence it is the academic centre of the state of Rajasthan, with its many institutes and universities. During his/her stay, the resident will have the opportunity to work at multiple venues in the city, getting exposure and inspiration to all facets of the town and its environment.

Alice Amoroso

Visual Artist

During my PATI residency with Villa Swagatam, I intend to explore two distinct facets of Rajasthani culture : the Kavad, a handcrafted portable narrative shrine from Bassi village, and the Bishnoi worldview, grounded in ecological ethics and a profound, symbiotic bond with vulnerable life forms. I aim to engage the Kavad as both a collaborative, orally performed storytelling medium and a spatial framework for nonlinear, embodied narrative, one that challenges dominant representational structures, opening space for alternative modes of expression.

Alice Amoroso (b. 2001, Paris) is a visual artist. She explores the contrast between the relevance of contemporary subjects and the perceived anachronism of historical forms. She is particularly drawn to ancient visual traditions and iconographies, which, once reinterpreted and repurposed though craft techniques as engraving, screen printing, weaving or stained glass, invite us to critically examine the political and ethnic narratives that shape our understanding of the contemporary world. A 2024 graduate of the École des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, she was recently awarded residencies at both the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid and Villa Belleville in Paris.

Public Arts Trust of India

Production residency

Residency brief

Our Space

Alice Amoroso

Past Laureates