Art & Health: Social Portraits
The associations ACODA and La Casa Azul have been building a relationship of trust, which was consolidated with a Framework Collaboration Agreement in 2022. This agreement goes far beyond art: it provides Health support through Art and aims to shed light and raise social awareness on Ataxia-affected people through artistic languages, in the province of Córdoba, Spain.
In the same year, Sofia Candeo, in Art Syamhope, began her artistic, professional and social collaboration with the Association La Casa Azul as a young artist and creative assistant. They first contacted when she proposed to them her unreleased artistic project "Autoprojection in colours"; this same project has matured into a more participative and Art&Health centred formula. We present it today as "Social Portraits" - where art becomes a tool to offer solidarity and support a very delicate health situation.
In 2023 the project Horizonte Solidario was launched in collaboration with the flamenco guitarist Rafael Trenas: an awareness-raising movement that uses artistic languages to express and share the Ataxia people's emotions, dispersed geographically throughout our province. It represents a call for empathy and collaboration and includes a variety of artistic actions (from photography to audiovisual production and podcasts), culminating in a major charity concert. These initiatives not only seek to increase ataxia visibility but also to raise essential funds to support those facing this condition.
Horizonte Solidario led to the spontaneous painting of landscapes by participants living with ataxia, paving the way for this new project of Social Portraits: a structural collaboration aligned with this conscious and artistic movement, conceived through dialogue among the three parties and integrating the real needs of Ataxia people.
Sofia Candeo: Inspired Art
There’s heart in art, and art in the heart
Sofia Candeo, in Art Syamhope, is an international visual artist whose work is inspired by human investigation and travel. Over the years, she has maintained her multidisciplinary approach by exploring the creative process, with a particular focus on painting and illustration as tools for emotional, cultural and human exploration. Her applied educational methodology, grounded in active participation, draws inspiration from the Montessori approach and integrates her background and interest in both the human sciences and mediation, through traditional techniques and the materials revalorization.
Following her studies at the Comics Academy of Visual Art and New Media in Padua, her city of origin, she began her professional artistic career in Córdoba, Spain. There, she continued with artistic experimentation at the Escuela Antonio Povedano and the Contemporary Art Centre C3A. She also took part in artist residencies with YAP (El Saucejo and Navarredonda) and Arte Viva (Los Blázquez), as well as in local and international art fairs such as FADAC (Seville) and THAF (London), among others. In recent years, she has received several awards in open-air rapid painting competitions, including the 17th Pedro Lobato Hoyos Prize, 2023 edition, in Ubrique (Cádiz), and an Honourable Mention in Cañete de las Torres (Córdoba). She was also invited to participate as a guest artist in La Noche en Blanco in Málaga (2024 and 2025 editions), presenting a live painting performance. Alongside, her ongoing professional engagement continues: she contributes to the design, production and direction of socially oriented artistic and cultural projects as Assistant Artistic Director at the Contemporary Creation and Cultural Production Centre La Casa Azul, and works as a painting educator for Córdoba City Council in municipal Civic Centres, as well as in early childhood education at the Zinnia Art Academy for painting and ceramics.
This trajectory naturally positions her at the intersection of art, emotion, experience and community, providing a solid foundation for work within care and mental health contexts through art.
Some Successful Real Cases
Social-Artistic Project for and with people:
2022-2026 |Horizonte Solidario, an artistic movement for health in collaboration with ACODA and La Casa Azul
2025-2026|AR & Urban Art, Urban Art and Augmented Reality in schools, XUL Foundation & SAG, EU
2025–2026 | Art Education for Children, Zinnia Children’s Art Academy, Córdoba
2025 |Libro Libre, Urban Art with participatory intervention involving painting students from Taller Lola
2025|Niñez Adulta, art exhibition and emotional painting workshops in Azuel, Córdoba
2023–2025 | Social Painting, supporting visual arts education as an emotional tool at Córdoba City Council
2024-2025|India, Kerala Edition, participatory and socially engaged travel journal created in Thiruvananthapuram
2024|Women, portraying and listening to the stories of the women of Los Blázquez, Artist Residency, Córdoba
2023–2024 | Becoming, travel journal, exhibition and social photography project in Morocco
2023 | Volunteer Course and Diploma , Córdoba Volunteer Platform
2021- 2022|Autoprojection in colours, an original multicultural artistic project promoting integration and social inclusion through colour perception and self-perception
2019 | YAP (Youth Action for Peace): Paint it in Colours, an international group of young participants created mural works for the local communities of El Saucejo and Navarredonda
2014-2017|OMG (Mato Grosso Organization)volunteer work supporting poor communities in Latin America, Italy
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