our new-normal in times of Corona
update 19 March 2021

Portugal had two covid waves: a small one in April 2020 and a short but severe one in January 2021. Currently, mid March, the second wave has completely faded away and is now one of the cleaner countries of Europe. The state of emergency and a large part of the lock down have been lifted, but a selection of other restrictions will remain for longer.

Portugal has strict regulations on social distancing, masks and lock downs and the Portuguese people respect these regulations with great care. Portugal is ahead with vaccinating compared to most other European countries.

We have carefully considered what are the risks and opportunities to continue with the residency program in 2021. We do not close our eyes for risks and new developments, but concluded for now that we can start our residency season in April in a new-normal.

It may well be that Portugal, or your country or flight company will demand a negative test (check your Embassy´s site for the latest info). If not, we may request you to do a test voluntary shortly before you come.

Once you have arrived the risks are low: you live in an isolated place in the middle of nature, you have your own apartment with kitchen and bathroom.      

The new-normal at OBRAS will be that our shared dinners are outside. If weather does not allow an outside-dinner we will postpone it. Also the artist talks will be outside (if projection is needed, the presentation will be after sunset). Open studios will be limited. For shopping we can work with gathering shopping lists in order to reduce the number of people going to town. 
In our selection of residencies we will focus on long-term residencies.

We have our fingers crossed that this all will soon be over. Until then: stay safe.

We also re-opened OBRAS Holland with some adaptations. Holland recovered well from the first wave of Corona infections and does a lot to minimize the second wave. The region of OBRAS-Holland (Renkum and surroundings) has relatively few infections. In the guidelines for OBRAS-Holland you find details on our measures to minimize risks.