Carhué — City Guide for Artists – Reviewed by Artists

Why artists go to Carhué

Carhué sits in the southwest of Buenos Aires Province, right next to Lake Epecuén and the ruins of Villa Epecuén, a former spa town that was flooded in the 1980s and later re-emerged as a surreal, salt-crusted landscape.

That mix of water, salt, ruins, and quiet pampas is what pulls artists there. You’re not going for a gallery district; you’re going for context.

Carhué makes sense if your work touches on:

Ruin, memory, and disappearance – long-term cycles of loss and re-emergence are literally embedded in the site.
Landscape, ecology, and climate – the lake, the salinity, and the pampas are strong subjects visually and conceptually.
Research-based practice – documentary, archival, and fieldwork methods translate well here.
Site-specific or ephemeral work – performances, temporary interventions, sound walks, and installations sit naturally in this environment.

The local “scene” is small. You’re not stepping into a big city art ecosystem, but into a setting where your main collaborators are the land, the ruins, the local community, and the cohort you’re living with.

Residencia Epecuén: the core program in Carhué

Residencia Epecuén is the anchor residency in Carhué. It’s produced by Ambos Mundos Arte Actual, an independent platform based in Buenos Aires that works on contemporary art, curating, and cultural management.

What the residency actually feels like

The residency usually runs as a 14-day, group-living program in a shared house near Lake Epecuén. Think of it less as a solitary retreat and more as an intensive collective lab with a clear conceptual spine.

You can expect:

Field research around Carhué, the lake, and the ruins of Villa Epecuén.
Guided workshops and “training proposals” led by the organizing team or invited guests.
Historical and contextual visits – learning the story of the flood, the re-emergence, and the town’s thermal-tourism past.
Curatorial support for your project, from initial questions to final presentation.
Portfolio reviews and discussion sessions (often under the label “State of the Question”), where each artist shows work and receives critical feedback.
Open studio or public moments to share your work-in-progress or outcomes with the community.

Accommodation is in a shared house, with access to studio space and a ceramics workshop. The program usually hosts a small group, which keeps conversations tight and ongoing.

Who this residency actually suits

Residencia Epecuén is open to artists, curators, researchers, and sometimes activists or environmentalists. The program clearly favors work that responds to context.

It fits if you are working in:

Performance and experimental theater – actions in the ruins, durational pieces, processions, and interventions.
Sound art – field recordings of wind, water, birds, or human traces; sound walks; listening sessions.
Photography and video – documentary, essayistic, or poetic approaches to the ruins and landscape.
Sculpture and ceramics – using local materials, salt, clay, or found objects from the site.
Research-based writing – essays, scores, scripts, or experimental writing anchored in memory, territory, and identity.

If your practice revolves around site-specific, ephemeral, or process-based work, this residency is especially aligned.

Less ideal fits would be artists who need large-scale fabrication facilities, heavy industry, or a big-city tech ecosystem. The strength here is conceptual depth and site responsiveness, not production infrastructure at any cost.

How the program frames your work

The residency emphasizes:

Memory, territory, identity, ruin, landscape, and environment as core themes.
Dialogue with the Carhué community – you’re encouraged to meet local residents, listen to their stories, and consider them as part of your research.
Critical thinking and collective reflection through group discussions and “State of the Question” sessions.

When you apply, it helps to:

Make a clear and explicit link between your project and Epecuén/Carhué.
Show that you’re open to adapting your proposal based on research on-site rather than arriving with a fully fixed plan.
Signal interest in community-related or context-aware work, even if the outcome is ultimately studio-based.

Access, fees, and support

The program is fee-based. The open call information mentions:

A standard international fee, which has historically included bus transport between Buenos Aires city and Carhué.
A subsidized fee for national artists living in Argentina who do not have public or private institutional support.
Additional support possibilities like half-grants or a dedicated grant for an Argentine artist, promoted by Ambos Mundos Arte Actual or partner programs.

Exact amounts change over time, so you should always check:

The residency’s site: residenciaepecuen.com.ar
The host platform’s site: ambosmundosarte.com
Any current open calls on networks like Res Artis or TransArtists

When budgeting, assume the main costs will be:

The program fee itself.
Travel to Buenos Aires (if you’re coming from abroad) and then to Carhué if transport is not included.
Materials that you cannot source locally.

Living costs once you’re there are usually modest, since it’s a small town and much of your daily structure is set by the residency.

Working in Carhué: practical realities

Scale and layout of the town

Carhué is small, which is a big part of its appeal. You’ll mostly move between:

Central Carhué – where you’ll find grocery shops, basic services, and local businesses.
The lakeshore and thermal zone – good for landscape work, water studies, performance, and photography.
The ruins of Villa Epecuén – a short distance away and usually visited with organized transport or specific permission.
Rural edges – open pampas, dirt roads, and low-density surroundings if your work leans toward environmental or walking-based practices.

Because the town is compact, you rarely need complex public transport. Most daily needs can be reached by walking, and residencies often organize group transport for field trips and specific work sessions at the ruins.

Cost of living and materials

Day-to-day costs are generally lower than in Buenos Aires city. You can expect:

Groceries and basic food to be relatively affordable.
Simple meals out to cost less than in a major urban center, though options are fewer.
Local transport to be limited but inexpensive when used.

Where you need to plan more carefully is materials and equipment:

Specialized art supplies, electronics, or large-format printing may not be easily available locally.
Consider buying what you can in Buenos Aires city before traveling, or designing your project around found, local, or low-tech materials.
If you rely on stable, high-speed internet for large uploads, check with the residency how reliable the connection is at the house and in town.

Season, climate, and working conditions

Weather shapes how you work here, especially outdoors.

Spring and autumn are usually the most comfortable for extended fieldwork, filming, and long walks.
Summer can bring strong sun, wind, and heat across the pampas, which can be intense for performers or anyone lugging gear.
Winter tends to be colder and can be atmospheric for certain projects, but you’ll spend less time lingering outdoors.

If your project depends on outdoor installation, weather-sensitive materials, or very specific light, build the season into your planning and timeline from the start.

Community, visibility, and what to expect from the “scene”

Who you meet in Carhué

The Carhué art “community” often forms around residencies while they run. During a stay at Residencia Epecuén, you’re likely to interact with:

Other residents – artists, curators, researchers, and sometimes activists or environmental workers.
The residency team – the coordination, curators, and facilitators from Ambos Mundos.
Local cultural agents – people linked to municipal culture, heritage, or tourism.
Residents of Carhué and Epecuén – many with direct memories or family stories about the flood and the town’s changes.

The energy tends to be intimate and conversation-driven, rather than sprawling. You get repeated, deep encounters instead of endless new openings and events.

Presenting work and building connections

Residencias in Carhué usually include some kind of public or semi-public presentation at the end: an open studio, a talk, a performance, a screening, or a site-specific action.

That moment is less about career visibility in a commercial sense and more about:

Testing ideas with people who know the territory.
Documenting work in a way that will travel once you leave.
Building relationships with a network of artists and curators connected to Ambos Mundos, which has projects in Buenos Aires city and other regions.

If you want broader exposure in Argentina, Carhué can be a powerful first chapter. You can pair it with:

Time in Buenos Aires city to visit galleries, independent spaces, and institutions.
A stop in La Plata, where residencies like Residencia Corazón connect you to the local art circuit and exhibition possibilities.

How Carhué compares to other Argentine residency contexts

To place Carhué in a bigger picture:

Carhué / Residencia Epecuén – short, conceptually tight, and strongly tied to ruins, memory, and landscape. Great for field research and site-specific work.
La Plata / Residencia Corazón – longer stays possible, with a house-studio-gallery model. Personalized support, a chance to exhibit in the city, and access to a more urban environment.
Patagonia residencies like We-Che or Tribu de Trueno – usually more retreat-like, nature-focused, and often more isolated, ideal for long-term reflection and environmental work.

If your project needs both a place-specific residency and an urban context, you can design a sequence: work in Carhué to produce research and material, then spend time in La Plata or Buenos Aires city to edit, exhibit, or network.

Getting to Carhué and dealing with visas

Reaching Carhué

You typically get to Carhué by:

Long-distance bus from Buenos Aires or another provincial city.
Private car or van, sometimes organized by the residency as a group transfer.

Residencia Epecuén has historically offered packages that include round-trip bus transport between Buenos Aires and Carhué, which simplifies logistics if you’re flying into the capital.

Practical tip: bring what you need in one or two manageable pieces of luggage; you’ll be on buses, walking, and moving between house, studio, and field sites.

Visa basics

For a short residency in Argentina, most visitors enter on a tourist basis, depending on nationality. Rules change, so you should:

Check entry requirements with your country’s Argentine consulate or embassy.
Verify how long you can stay as a tourist and whether you can extend that stay if needed.
Clarify if your residency involvement counts as artistic research only (which it usually does) or formal employment (unlikely in this type of program).

Residencies like Epecuén can often provide a letter of invitation or official documentation confirming your selection, which is useful both for visas and for grant applications in your home country.

How to decide if Carhué is right for your practice

Carhué tends to work well if you:

Are drawn to ruins, memory, landscape, and environmental questions.
Enjoy research-based, site-responsive processes more than studio isolation in a big city.
Feel comfortable in a small-town environment with modest infrastructure.
Want a structured, time-limited program with collective reflection built in.

It might not be the right fit if you need:

A dense network of galleries and institutions within walking distance.
Nightlife, large artist-run scenes, and constant events.
Heavy fabrication, high-tech labs, or large commercial suppliers next door.

If you do choose Carhué, the key is to treat the residency not just as a place to produce, but as a partner in your research. The territory, the local stories, the ruins, and the water will work on your project as much as you work on them.

Carhué, Argentina