Expanded Horizon: The Azores Islands is a doctoral thesis project by Alicia Pardilla that examines artistic practice and ecology in the Macaronesian archipelagos from the 21st century onwards.

Her research methodologies include research stays and artist residencies in the various archipelagos; she has already undertaken stays in the Selvagens Islands (2021), the Cape Verde archipelago (2023) and the Azores archipelago (2024–2025), in addition to testing the hypothesis —and testing— of a concrete, site-specific participatory artistic practice.

During each residency (and in each archipelago), different proposals are carried out to implement an artistic practice based on dematerialisation and reduction as fundamental axes of a praxis that responds to the needs and realities of the current climate and ecological crisis, of a specific community and its people. This involves devising artistic and mediation forms and strategies that relate to the situationalist, the experiential and participatory, based on ecofeminist thought and a philosophy of proximity, where social, political and cultural realities and problems stemming from the current neoliberal system are highlighted, and conciliatory, restorative and reparative actions are promoted between human beings and the various beings of the ecosystem and biodiversity.

EXPANDED HORIZON _ Artistic practices and ecology in the Macaronesian archipelagos from the 21st century onwards is a doctoral thesis project forming part of the Contemporary Art Research programme at the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU).

This research project, which has already visited the Selvagens Islands (2021) and the Cape Verde Islands (2023), now turns its attention to the Azores archipelago, travelling between the islands of Faial, Flores, Terceira and São Miguel.