The selection committee composed of Tania Pardo, director of CA2M Museum; Claude Bussac, director of artistic studies at Casa de Velázquez; Anna Manubens, director of Hangar; and Veronica Valentini, responsible for international research programs and residencies at Hangar; along with Emma Brasó, from the hablarenarte team, decided to award the Encura VII curatorial research residency grant to Sergi Álvarez Riosalido with the project Swiftly Arose and Spread Around Me.

Swiftly Arose and Spread Around Me is a curatorial research project that delves into the realms of viscosity, stickiness, and slime in their dynamic states, aiming to uncover their political, ecological, and affective significance as mediating elements. Inspired by a verse by Walt Whitman in which saliva connects the infinite universe with moss and worm, and referencing authors like Danez Smith, who activates the poetics of organic and lubricating flows between bodies, as well as Karin Anna Pittman, Karen Barad, or Laura Tripaldi from science, this project aims to generate sticky thinking and apply it to how we position ourselves in the world.

Encura is a research residency programme that aims to promote, expand and complexify curatorial research processes by intertwining the artistic contexts of Barcelona and Madrid, encouraging and enabling curatorial research that does not result in conventional exhibition projects. In its first four editions, Encura was led by Hangar in collaboration with hablarenarte and Curators Network; in its fifth edition, La Casa Encendida co-led the project; in its sixth edition, Casa de Velázquez co-leads the project with Hangar and hablarenarte; and in its seventh edition the project welcomes Museo CA2M as co-leader with Hangar, Casa de Velázquez and hablarenarte.