1646 and ReCNTR select their 2026 Artist-in-Residence: Natalia Śliwowska
We are thrilled to announce the artist selected for the 1646 x ReCNTR residency collaboration, which will take place mid September to mid November 2026: Natalia Śliwowska, a Polish visual artist based in Amsterdam, working at the intersection of film and artistic research.
With the project Can Sleep Talkers Talk to Each Other?, Śliwowska explores sleep talking as a ‘sonic residue’ of dreams, a trace that could carry shared archetypes and collective anxieties. She wonders how political instability and the oppression of attention might affect the content of sleep talking and what insights this could provide.
2. Research: Robert Blondel, “Des douze Perilz d’enfer”, Bourges ca. 1480
3. Research: Jehan Mansel, “Livre lequel entre aultres matieres traitte de la nativité Nostre Seigneur Jhesu Crist, de sav ye, de sa passion, de sa resurrection et d’aultres belles et devotes matieres”, 1486-1493
Śliwowska’s project was the finalist over a three-stage selection process. The initial applicant list of 500 was reduced to a short list of 16 candidates, followed by an interview with the final 4 candidates. The selection for this residency was made by a jury of 11 readers, who held artistic, curatorial, academic and/or creative research backgrounds. The jury was intrigued by the playful approach to such pressing issues and by her interest in exploring ‘the associative logic of the dreaming mind’ with Leiden University students, in order to tap into collective anxieties, longings and pleasures.
We are thrilled we will be working with Natalia soon! A big thank-you to all applicants and finalists for engaging with us in this process, as we were impressed by the high quality of the proposals!
