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Carrer Monistrol 21, 08012, Barcelona 
hello@betacontemporary.com   
+34 (0) 651 06 42 95  

Lenta is an Artist Residency, conceived by BETA Contemporary and Casa Pardal to provide artists with the freedom and conditions to engage deeply with their practice. It calls for a deliberate step away from external demands, commercial pressures, and the relentless pace of production. More than time and place, Lenta offers a framework for reflection, experimentation, and renewed artistic clarity. 

The residency offers an environment where process is protected, urgency is suspended, and artistic work can unfold at its natural pace. Born from two complementary visions: one grounded in curatorial dialogue and critical engagement, the other rooted in the quiet rhythms and generative potential of rural Catalonia. Lenta is grounded in a belief that meaningful work requires time, focus, and an unhurried pace.
Housed in a 17th-century building in Sant Pere Sallavinera, just over an hour from Barcelona, the residency is surrounded by fields, forests, and winding paths. The house carries traces of centuries of life and labor, offering an atmosphere both grounded and open to new interpretations. Shared meals and informal conversations with other guests writers, researchers, and thinkers from diverse disciplines form a gentle social fabric. At the same time, there is ample space for solitude and uninterrupted work.

The first edition, shaped by the presence of artist Carlos Herraiz, helped define the residency’s ethos. After an extended period devoted largely to research and reflection, Herraiz approached his time at Casa Pardal as a return to making. It was a shift toward doing, playing, and touching; engaging with materiality as a way to test and expand his practice without the weight of predefined outcomes. His process unfolded in a quiet cadence of walking, sketching, writing, and observing. The house and its surrounding landscape became active participants in this rhythm, while encounters with the local community and other guests introduced subtle exchanges beyond the studio.



This initial experience reinforced the residency’s core philosophy: that artistic processes require time to unfold, that discovery often emerges through detours, and that being present; walking, observing, failing, and experimenting is as critical as producing resolved works.

Each cycle concludes with a presentation at BETA Contemporary, shaped by what emerges during the residency. This might take the form of a cohesive body of work, a constellation of fragments, or traces of paths explored and abandoned. Alongside the gallery presentation, the program includes events and interventions within the local community, fostering dialogue between artists, rural residents, and audiences from the city.

The residency is conceived as a bridge between urban and rural contexts, between moments of solitude and collective exchange, and between artistic research and public engagement.