Juan Esteban Sandoval is an artist whose work explores the intersections between material experimentation, collective processes, and social transformation. His practice encompasses object-making, installation, collaborative frameworks, and performative actions, often developed through long-term engagement with specific communities and territories. Sandoval’s approach combines personal experience, artisanal techniques, and the critical observation of social, cultural, and economic dynamics.

He has carried out numerous projects in collaboration with cultural organizations dealing with themes such as migration, labour, local economies, and environmental relations. Between 2019 and 2024, he realised Eleusis Terracotta Army for Eleusis 2023 – European Capital of Culture, creating 2,002 terracotta worker helmets—each crafted as a portrait of a local resident—and distributing them to the workers of the city, forming a “distributed monument” embedded in domestic and workspaces.

Materially, his work often centres on earth in its various forms—clay, pigment, agricultural soil, mud—used to create symbolic objects, as a structural element in performative actions, or as a platform for collective research. Through these processes, Sandoval articulates a dynamic relationship between matter, society, and territory.

He is the co-founder of El Puente_lab, a cultural activation platform based in Medellín (Colombia) dedicated to socially engaged artistic production in collaboration with international artists, researchers, and local communities.

Sandoval has led workshops across Italy and has participated in artist residencies in France, Austria, Italy, and England. In 2018, he received the NCTM for Art award in Milan. Since 1994, his work has been presented in exhibitions and institutions internationally.

This residency is supported by Culture Moves Europe, a project funded by the European Union.