
The Silent Awakening
International Artist Residency in Chantilly
About the Chantilly Residency
The Chantilly Residency is a long-term international research residency designed as a protected space for artists working with silence, memory, dignity, and collective awakening.
Hosted in Chantilly, France, the program offers selected artists the rare conditions necessary for sustained inquiry: time, safety, material support, and ethical freedom. Over the course of one year, artists engage in a deep process of research and creation, culminating in a major installation-based exhibition presented in Paris.
This residency is not oriented toward productivity or spectacle.
It exists to restore presence — where expression has been constrained, and where inner life has been compressed by excess, speed, or silence imposed.
This is not a programme of production.
It is a space of truth.

Call for Chinese-Speaking Artists
The Silent Awakening — Program

1. Introduction
Silver Linings Arts presents The Silent Awakening, a long-term artist residency and exhibition program rooted in research, care, and cross-cultural dialogue.
Conceived for Chinese-speaking artists and interdisciplinary practitioners, the residency addresses universal conditions of contemporary life: suffocation beneath material abundance, spiritual poverty hidden behind progress, and the quiet erosion of dignity through systems that reward conformity over consciousness.
Rather than illustrating politics, the residency invites artists to work from lived experience — personal, embodied, and collective. Chantilly offers a geographical and symbolic distance where artists can observe, listen, and give form to what has remained unresolved, muted, or fragmented.
Here, silence is not censorship.
It is a material.
2. Curatorial & Artistic Direction
Silence, Dignity, and Collective Awakening
The curatorial direction of The Silent Awakening emerges from a shared human condition rather than a singular geography.
Silence is approached not as absence, but as accumulation:
of unspoken grief, restrained gestures, interrupted transmission, and lives shaped by adaptation rather than choice.
Artists are invited to explore themes such as:
- Silent suffering and interior collapse
- Aging, immobility, and watched bodies
- Spiritual exhaustion beneath material prosperity
- Repetition, obedience, and anonymization
- The tension between awareness and voicelessness
The residency does not ask artists to accuse or to explain.
It asks them to witness.
The resulting works are expected to be immersive, embodied, and materially present — installations, spatial environments, and large-scale gestures capable of holding complexity without simplification.
This exhibition is not an act of provocation.
It is an act of dignity.

3. Music & Sound — A Living Dimension
Music within The Silent Awakening is not accompaniment.
It is a structural presence.
Throughout the production phase, music enters the residency as a recurring, living practice — one week per month during the research and creation period, intensifying during the exhibition phase.
Sound is approached as:
- breath rather than performance
- vibration rather than illustration
- duration rather than event


Musicians and composers engage with the same ethical terrain as visual artists: repression, suffocation, inner tension, memory, and restraint. Musical work develops slowly, in dialogue with the visual practices, spaces, and human rhythms of the residency.
During the exhibition period, music becomes more present — not as spectacle, but as resonance — activating the installations through live performance, shared listening, and collective silence.
In this residency, sound restores what language cannot.
4. Residency Framework
Duration
September 1st, 2026 – septembre 22, 2027
(13 months)
Location
- Primary residency site: Chantilly region, France
- Artist accommodation: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris
Number of Artists
4 international Chinese-speaking artists
5. Residency Phases & Timeline
Application deadline:
June 30, 2026 – midnight (CET)
Selection & contractualisation
End of July 2026
Schengen visa & pre-residency orientation phase
July 2026 – August 30, 2026
Concept development & residency research:
September – November 2026
Validation of sketches & digital artistic files:
before Christmas break 2026
Project development & final production:
January 2027 – August 2027
Post Residency Exhibition :
22 September – 20 December 2027

Application deadline
6. Financial Conditions & Support
Each selected artist will receive:
Remuneration
- €1,786 gross per month for 13 months – CDD contract
- Total remuneration: €23,218 per artist
Accommodation
- Individual furnished apartment in Saint-Germain-des-Prés for non EU/International artists
Living Support
- 50% Participation to Public transport:
- Navigo + work train pass Paris ↔ Chantilly
- Approx. €1000 in total
Health & Administration
- Full professional health insurance for non EU/International artists
- Administrative assistance:
- URSSAF declarations
- Social contributions
- Artist status compliance
International Artists
- Full assistance for:
- Work visa / residence permit (titre de séjour) applications
- Administrative coordination in France
Post-Residency Visibility
- 3 years of gallery contract for exhibition & visibility within the Silver Linings Arts ecosystem:
- Online platforms
- Selected physical exhibitions
7. Eligibility
This call is open to:
- Professional artists
- Chinese-speaking (Mandarin and/or other Chinese languages)
- Based in or outside the EU
- Working in visual arts, installation, sculpture, painting, video, performance, or interdisciplinary practices
Artists must apply in their own name.
8. Application Dossier
Applications must include one complete digital dossier, submitted in English or French, composed of the following:
- Curriculum Vitae (max. 2 pages)
- Education, exhibitions, residencies, publications, grants, awards
- Artistic Portfolio / Book
- Selected works relevant to the residency theme
- Images, texts, or links (PDF link preferred)
- For video or multimedia: include access links
- Statement of Intent (approx. 1 page)
- Understanding of the Breaking the walls project
- Artistic approach and conceptual positioning
- Capacity to work within a long-term, research-based residency
- Motivation to engage with collective, political, and ethical dimensions
Language & Translation Policy
- Applications submitted directly in English or French are accepted without additional conditions.
- Applications originally written in Chinese are also accepted under the following options:
Option A — SLA In-House Curatorial Translation
Applicants may choose Silver Linings Arts’ in-house curatorial translation service for a fixed fee of 450 €.
This service includes professional translation of the application dossier into English or French, ensuring conceptual accuracy and curatorial coherence.
(This option will be accessible via a dedicated selection box and direct payment link.)
Option B — External Translation (Self-Funded)
Applicants may alternatively submit a self-financed external translation of their dossier into English or French, using a professional translation service of their choice.
Please note: the application itself is free of charge.
Translation fees apply only if the applicant chooses one of the above translation options.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.

9. Selection Committee
The jury is composed of:
10. Selection Criteria
Applications will be assessed according to:
- Artistic quality and coherence of the candidate’s work
- Depth of understanding of the project’s ethical, social, and political stakes
- Ability to develop large-scale, immersive or installation-based work
- Capacity for long-term engagement, collaboration, and research
- Clarity and sincerity of artistic intention
Final Note
The Silent Awakening is not an act of provocation.
It is an act of care.
To speak before a generation disappears.
To honor ancestors with truth.
To restore dignity where silence was imposed.
In Paris.
In Berlin.
In New York.
Where silence can finally speak.




