GRAPHĒ: One Napkin Sketch, Then Wall Drawings: How an Artist Realized a Residency in Argentina

Ignacio Fanti layered Art Deco and Paraguayan design styles to revitalize a property outside of Resistencia.

Ignacio Fanti’s home and artist residency sits on roughly one and a half acres on the banks of the Rio Negro, about 20 minutes from Resistencia, the capital of the Chaco province in Argentina. But with its overgrown vegetation and wildlife, it feels remote, something he yearned for after so many years of living in big cities.

Artist Ignacio Fanti turned a property outside Resistencia, Argentina, into his home and residency where he hosts creatives.

He was born and raised in Resistencia but spent a decade between Buenos Aires, Italy, and Berlin, carving out a career as an artist. When Ignacio purchased the property with his father, he initially stayed in the more modern and larger of its two buildings while he planned the next phase. Keen to further pursue artistic endeavors, he began reimagining the structures as his first home and a space to host artists and workshops.

Ignacio has been friends with architect Daiana Katz, a founder of Este Norte studio, since childhood. The two reconnected over Ignacio’s plans and began working with the firm’s other founders, architects Agostina Vacca Arreseygor and Nahuel Zampayo, on a vision for the property. Ignacio was actively involved with the redesign; he says he become obsessed with Paraguayan architecture around 2017, coincidentally when Katz was working for architect Solano Benítez, who’s known for his radical use of brick.