CASA TOMADA

casatomada.com.br

Rua Braz Cubas, 335 - Liberdade, São Paulo - SP, 04109-040, Brazil • +55 11 2532-7455 • info@casatomada.com.br

Casa Tomada (the name, meaning ‘occupied house’, is taken from the title of a short story by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar) operates as a meeting place and informal studio space for artists in São Paulo. Founded by Tainá Azeredo and Thereza Farkas in 2009, and situated in a four-storey residential house in the leafy district of Jardim Vila Mariana, the organisation initiates two formal group residencies a year and, additionally, operates as an informal hangout for local artists, curators and writers. Those on the residency programme don't receive a fee and mostly sort out their own accommodation, but they are provided with the time and space to take part in a regular series of dinners, seminars and discussion workshops with external guests, both invited and self-invited, together with access to resources such as a constantly expanding magazine and artist-publication library. Farkas says that her main concern with Casa Tomada is to ensure the right mix of people in any given group. There will, for example, always be at least one artist from São Paulo – to provide a link to the host city – together with those from elsewhere in Brazil and internationally.