“The land on which Los Gázquez (Joya: AiR) sits captures the place for me. Its ashen-grey clay is impervious to rain so, when the thunderstorms come, water sluices off it, leaving imprints there like aqueous fossils. Between the rivulet echoes were my footprints. Many of them.

During my residency, I covered 223km of tracks and trails; first to escape, and then to explore. I drew satisfaction from creating those shoe-shaped marks and accepting that they would be smoothed invisible again.

When the sun comes it transforms the earth. Baking under its intensity, new marks emerge: fissures which imitate the pathways traversing the mountains.

Hours of running through this landscape have clarified my thoughts and crystallised my ideas. This land has become the foundation bolstering my existing work, and the fertile soil of fresh inspiration”.

Bronwen Jones

Bronwen Jones is writing her first novel, Murmurations, which is set in rural England and Spain in the present day. It follows the journey of two adult siblings in the year following their father’s suicide. The protagonists have a distant, fractious relationship, but are forced to co-operate when they encounter their father’s plan to draw them together and to uncover murky truths of the past. Since her residency at Joya: AiR, Bronwen has been developing a new piece of writing, Querencia, which is told in 14 episodes, each focusing on one of 14 characters over the period of a fortnight. It considers what happens when a place of supposed security and strength becomes defined instead by a lack or loss of its essential components. 

“The time to reflect and reconsider your practice is often overlooked or neglected in favour of production. While at Joya, the opportunity to slow down and pay attention to some of the natural anchors in your work cannot be underestimated. It has been a privilege to walk in the beautiful Sierra María-Los Vélez national park and to bond with a group of artists varying in creative disciplines. The type of thinking achieved here is unique and has made powerful ripples in my life.

As you allow yourself to commit to Joya’s temperament, you become aware of the detail and care that has been taken to create this experience. The subtlety of both Donna and Simon to be available and yet hidden from view allows you to safely commit to deep thinking and the ability to separate yourself from the daily routine that we are all seeking to forget.

The landscape and the people get under your skin in a way that is hard to do justice in words. It is something shared by those who have been in residence at Joya and I imagine every group who passes through has a different shade or hue that colours the landscape.

I look forward to bringing what I have discovered back into my continuing practice in London and hope to uncover elements of my practice I was not aware were going through a transformation.

Thank you”.

Roman Sheppard Dawson

cargocollective.com/romanshepparddawson

Roman Sheppard Dawson is a moving image artist based in London and a Central Saint Martins graduate in fine art 4D. His work has evolved from moving image based sculptures into a practice exploring movement/gesture in the moving image and space.

“The doors of the 2000 Land Rover slammed.

All my senses needed to be readjusted as I stood in the sun - looking at that vast territory of silence.

Joya: AiR was built on an ancient farm, lost in the Sierra Maria-Los Vélez. Yet, whatever the reasons were to settle in such a hostile territory, generations had inhabited and cultivated this land. In these isolated places, inhabitants have a unique relationship with time and history, often protected from the destructive, as well as regenerative, flow of modernity.

Territories, territories, territories; I became obsessed with the idea. I was exploring the land, experiencing it in all its physicality; and allowing the flow of the mental afterimages develop within me.

I wanted the project that I was going to work on to be linked intimately to the environment in which it would be created. Almería is the only region in Western Europe considered as desert. In late August the whole landscape has been dried out under an unforgiving sun, and the presence of water is only revealed through the scars it has left in the land during the storms. The sun. Over a few days I laid papers, partially covering them with cardboard and stones. As an almost esoteric ritual, I removed shapes and stones carefully as the paper was being bleached.

I was interested in using one dimension to reveal a new one: the use of time in order to create space. Newly-opened territories emerged from the ghostly architectures that appeared on the surface. The paper returns to its primary organic nature, adopting the pigmentation of the landscape, inviting us to thread through a new space of rêverie.

As Emerson reminds us in his essay “Nature”, «In the tranquil landscape [...] man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.»

Joya: AiR is that space and time”.

Thibault Duchesne

http://thibaultduchesne.com/

“I came to Joya: AiR through University of the Arts London’s Art for the Environment Residency program. I am an MA student at UAL currently writing my thesis, which looks at design activism, considering how fashion can protest against overconsumption in the digital age.

As a fashion designer and academic, I do not typically see myself as an artist or allow myself the uninterrupted space to create. Prior to departing for Spain, I at some point Googled, ‘what do you do at an art residency?’. But my unpreparedness and unconventional practice did not matter once I arrived. I spent my time reading, walking, and creating in a gentle balance. I did not give myself deadlines, or where I did, I did not meet them. But this didn’t matter; because I will continue to build on the pages I filled in my sketchbook long after the residency. 

 My work is often focused on the social and environmental impacts of the fashion system. It is a daunting, often contradictory, and continually exciting realm in which to work. Yet, being at Joya gave me a clearer picture of what it means to practice environmentalism in an all-encompassing way. From the power of the wind and sun to the precious nature of every drop of water that comes through the tap. Life seems to move a little slower, yet somehow the 2 weeks I spent there seem to have gone by in an instant”. 

Bronwyn Seier

https://www.bronwynseier.com/

“I had applied for the Joya Air residency with the intention of retreating from the busyness of life to immerse myself in nature and allow time and space to begin personal writing projects. I had never been on an artist residency before, but Joya: AiR really called to me. It’s beautiful remote and natural location, the sustainably maintained centre and welcoming, minimalist rooms – I knew I had to spend time here clear my vessel, to recharge and to create.

Arriving at Joya: AiR, I was taken aback by the immensity of the surrounding landscape. Mountains and trees rolled for miles and for as far as the eye could see. The centre was beautifully decorated in artwork. Other artists were welcoming, and Donna and Simon had been so inviting that it felt like they had given me my own home in theirs.  

My creative intention whilst spending time at the residency was to write. I had allowed myself a few days with no pressure of making or doing anything, but to simply be in the space. I connected with the other artists, listened to the diversity of their backgrounds and disciplines and spent time walking the mountains around the centre.

I realised that my artistic background was quite unconventional compared to the other creatives I had met there. I had studied BA Social Care and Education Studies before graduating from MA Media, Communications and Critical Practice. The jump in discipline was inspired by a passion for social justice, feminism and equality. After gaining a deep sociological perspective of power differentials and oppression experienced by intersectional groups during my first degree, I was charged by a drive to take meaningful action. In a year between studying the degrees, I established www.ProjectFEM.com, a blog and collective of women that used fashion as a platform for addressing feminist issues and empowering women. I went on to study to gain insight into how I could use contemporary media as a channel for positive social change.

Until this year, my life purpose and career motivation had mapped out in a linear fashion. Yet, since being caught up in the chaos of working life, I had felt stuck without knowing which direction to take next. I know that I have to create in a way that is underlined by my passion to affect positive change. I had intended on spending my time at Joya: AiR by using the medium of writing to do this - to allow myself time to write creatively and with intention. Specifically, writing to launch a new blog project that comments on contemporary media, popular culture and feminism. However, my time at the residency served an unexpected journey for me, and a bigger and deeper purpose. Joya: AiR held a space for me to retreat and to reflect on where I had been, where I am now and where I want to go - basic reflections that my busy life had distracted me from. Conversations with like minded creatives fuelled and inspired a whole new realm of paths and possibilities that I could take to achieve my goals.

Beyond providing a studio space for me to write about my passions, Joya: AiR served an invaluable purpose, through free time and a relaxing but creative environment, that allowed me to reach clarity on my work. I have returned home from my time at the centre feeling motivated, peaceful and excited for my next endeavour (which I am keeping close to my chest until I’m ready to share with the world!)”.

Holly Campbell

"I went to Joya: AiR with an open mind, not fully knowing what to expect. I left, after two weeks, with a heightened sense of the importance of our climate and our resources. For a short time, it was another way of living.

What I found also gave me at least one, possibly two new series of images. The breath-taking landscape, the way of life and the people I met were hugely stimulating. I walked and photographed four to five hours every day. “La Muela” (literally, “the molar” - a mountain which dominates the surrounding landscape and the local town of Vélez-Blanco) and, separately, the constant battle with and for water, were two themes I felt I couldn’t ignore.

Thanks to Donna and Simon at JOYA for making it all possible".

Denis Mortell

Denis Mortell is a fine-art and commercial photographer based in Dublin, Ireland. He is currently in the final year of an MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London, having previously completed an MA at National College Of Art and Design, Dublin and History of Art at University College Dublin. He has exhibited at Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin (solo) NCAD, Dublin (group) Kamera8, Wexford (group) and Tenderpixel Gallery, London (group)

http://www.denismortellphotography.ie/

“During my residency at Joya: AiR, I have had the opportunity to concentrate on my writing project for long hours next to meeting and engaging with people from all kinds of backgrounds. I have worked on creating the outline for a story that explores the potential impacts of mass tourism in an island at the Aegean sea in 32 years from now. Joya: AiR, being a totally off-grid, ecological art project, provided some "food for thought" for reflecting on the topic I was working on. It was productive and rather stimulating to be in the nature of Los Gázquez and in the company of lovely hosts Simon and Donna".

Onur Can Tepe is a Rotterdam based architect who has worked on the design of numerous, award winning buildings, interiors and urban plans. He is interested in buildings as cultural projects that engage with the ecology and community around it. Since 2016 he has been writing Letters from 2050: a compilation of fictional, short stories about future. Through his writing practice, he investigates contemporary themes such as climate change, social polarisation, and technological disruptions through the lens of one generation later.

Onur Can Tepe

Architect  DUS Architects 

Writer, Director  Letters from 2050

Erika Rodin is a Swedish Fine Art photographer. To see more of her work forllow this link... https://www.erikarodin.com/

"I came to Joya: AiR to find a calm place, surrounded by a rural and natural environment, to go on working on a very intimate and personal project. Staying here, it was what I had expected – and yet so much more than that. Not only did the wonderful off-grid house in the rural landscape of Andalusia help me to focus on my work, but the lovely atmosphere that Simon and Donna created here made me feel very welcome and able to push a reset button. The mix of a lot of private space and communal areas, which made a constant exchange with them and the other artists from various countries and disciplines possible, built the perfect setting to develop a new photographic series as well as a to create lot of interesting and inspiring encounters underneath the starry sky of Southern Spain".

Michaela Putz .  http://www.michaelaputz.com/

Born 1984, lives and works in Vienna. Michaela Putz studied Art & Science at the University of Applied Art and Communication and Political Science in Vienna. In her works, she is interested in the self-image of humans in times of ongoing virtualization. She examines the reflections on the surfaces of contemporary communication technology, searching for the contrast between the warm and alive human bodies leaving stains of fat and dirt on the sleek and cool surfaces of the screens. In her photographic works, she captures and transforms the smudged traces we leave on those screen through our bodily interaction with these machines. Through the reflections, layers are being added to create images of mystical black mirrors. Her works have been exhibited in various shows, exhibitions include: Künstlerhaus Wien, WUK, Angewandte Innovation Lab (AIL), VBKÖ, Blütengasse 9, BETON7 in Athens (Athens Photo Festival 2018) and Showroom Ruby Marie in Vienna. She received grants from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Michaela Putz is member of the collective 280A Artspace

Selected works are available at ARCC.art

"Los Gazquez has real magic, deep rhythms that reach back and forward in time. The turbine hums, a breeze moves wasps around a shrub, the sun goes into the canyon. 

Or, the goat freaks out as a purple cloud, having covered the fire tower’s far-off light, arrives and starts dumping rain. Yordi pops a beer. The sun reappears and it changes.

 And so on. Though I kept a steady routine during my stay, the days were radically different, moment to moment, one from the next. The book I wrote at Joya, I think, is a record of that.

 In any case I am forever grateful to Donna and Simon for hosting me. What a wonderful privilege to have been."

James Capozzi is the author of Country Album (Parlor Press), which won the New Measure Poetry Prize, and Devious Sentiments (Finishing Line Press, 2019). His poems have appeared in Poetry, The New Republic, and  The Iowa Review, and he's been an artist in residence at Benaco Arte, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. He lives in New Jersey, where he edits the Journal of New Jersey Poets.

http://www.parlorpress.com/freeverse/capozzi

"Sitting at the bottom of a dried up creek for a few days makes the time slower, then you start to listen and hear.. the cracking of the earth, the crumbling of the dust.. water content transpiring from the pores of the rock..

At first all nature seems to screech from thirst but once a few dusks have crawled through my hyletic sensing and the inner content starts to thin out, calmness sets in, it feels like if you had a chewing gum you could rub it in into the scorched air and keep rolling it into a ball of birth that would turn wet like birth is;

so it starts not to matter if its dry or humid, water or dust (exteroception merges with interoception in intersensory unity) its calm and self-initiating, pre-intentional.

Only occasional flies stand out from the homogenous protentional horizon...

Where are the other living sensory amplifiers of the ecosystem? No creatures around.. have they been choked by the chemical vapours and rendered themselves to dust, sprinkling the creek bed under the Shadow of the Kingdom of Almond?

Do almonds cross pollinate (i wonder)? We probably did - living together in concreted cells, drinking the nectars of the wine under the stars, chewing on the tomato tart".

Anna Kushnerova

Anna Kushnerova of Siberian roots, Belgian artist, currently living and working in NSW, Australia.  Her work extends to mediums of sculpture, video and performance. She began her practice as an artist at the Fine Arts Academy in Antwerp, Belgium in 2007. In 2009, Anna founded a non-for-profit platform RA in Antwerp (Belgium) and Paris (France) to support emerging talent in multiple disciplines: art, performance, design. Since 2013, she has concentrated on her own body of work, drawing inspiration from natural and indigenous environments, science and mysticism. Anna produced, directed and curated numerous art exhibitions and performances, including a performance at Art Basel.

www.annakushnerova.com

"Primero que todo agradezco a Donna y Simon por permitirme ser parte de esta gran familia/comunidad llamada Joya.

Joya: AiR es mucho más que una residencia artística. Joya: AiR es un estilo de vida, un concepto, una metodología que se inserta en el territorio como una aguja de acupuntura que permite sanar tanto a nuestro entorno como nuestra alma.

La estratégica planificación territorial con la que cuenta esta residencia ecológica se relaciona esplendidamente con el paisaje, respetando y conservando el patrimonio tangible e intangible del Parque Natural Sierra Nevada y sus alrededores. Lo que aporta consciente o inconscientemente al fortalecimiento de la identidad española y su basta historia.

La residencia, los estudios y la arquitectura en general dialogan perfectamente con el genio del lugar (GENIUS LOCI) Siendo este un refugio pacifico de experiencias, reflexión, creación, e introspección que recomiendo sin duda alguna.

Muchísimas gracias Donna y Simón por hacernos sentir cómodos y plenos, por alimentarnos exquisitamente y por sobre todo ser un ejemplo de vida en este mundo. Cuenten con mi apoyo y mucha suerte en todo lo venidero".

"First of all, I thank Donna and Simon for allowing me to be part of this great family / community called Joya.

Joya: AiR is much more than an artistic residence. Joya: AiR is a lifestyle, a concept, a methodology that is inserted into the territory like an acupuncture needle that allows us to heal both our environment and our soul.

The strategic territorial planning of this ecological residence is splendidly related to the landscape, respecting and preserving the tangible and intangible heritage of the Sierra Nevada Natural Park and its surroundings. What contributes consciously or unconsciously to the strengthening of the Spanish identity and its vast history.

The residence, studios and architecture in general dialogue perfectly with the genius of the place (GENIUS LOCI) Being this, a peaceful refuge of experiences, reflection, creation, and introspection that I recommend without any doubt. 

Thank you very much Donna and Simon for making us feel comfortable and full, for feeding us exquisitely and above all being an example of life in this world. Count on my support and good luck in everything to come".

Yordi Vieyte

www.cargocollective.com/vieyte

Internationally acclaimed artist, UAL (University of the Arts London) Chair of Art and the Environment Lucy Orta has launched an Art for the Environment Residency Programme, in partnership with residency programmes across Europe. Applicants get to choose between two and four week residencies at one of the hosting institutions, to explore concerns that define the twenty first century - biodiversity, environmental sustainability, social economy, human rights - and through their artistic practice, envision a world of tomorrow.

This is the third time that Joya: AiR has been invited to host the recipient of the award and we are very pleased to announce this years selected artist as Bronwyn Seier.

We will hear more from Bronwyn when she arrives in September.

“There is a wonderful creative energy at JOYA: AiR.  My visit here has been the perfect combination of solitude and togetherness.  The days were very productive, working on drawings and a new direction for me.  The evenings were filled with fantastic dinners and lively, inspiring conversation with the other residents and Simon and Donna.  I will always remember my time here fondly.  I hope to return someday, as I know that JOYA: AiR has had an important impact on my life and work.”

“I recommend walking the Sendero Sierra Larga loop in the early morning.  The landscape here is breathtaking.”  

Wesley Berg

"Joya: AiR brought me a great sense of appreciation to express artistic message in a pure and centred way. Being in the nature of Los Gázquez made me think of how artists can connect with our own inner wisdoms to bring the best for the next generations. It was a great connecting point with artists from different disciplines to share ideas and inspire each other in order to expand our views through art. Many thanks to Simon and Donna for letting us explore our potentials and providing us such an amazing experience"! 

Aki Hoshihara

Aki Hoshihara is a Japan born, Los Angeles based artist with a background in traditional Japanese calligraphy. Her work is best known for the fusion of black sumi-ink and bright chromatic palette of watercolours and other mixed media. The fluid and sensual brushstrokes – inspired by the beauty and the energy flow of humans and nature - take us to a moment of contemplation and harmony.

What I did

"I replenished. I collected images from the amazing landscape, discovered a lot about my practice and started several new pieces. I found a new sense of peace hiking solo through the stunning stark landscape and was finally able to disconnect from the swirling news and endless streams of data. I also got to know international artists and look forward to visiting my new-found friends. 

Simon and Donna are truly warm top-notch hosts, patient and accommodating". 

Alissa Polen

BIO

Alissa D. Polan is an artist, curator and project manager interested in the increasing tensions between humans and the natural world and the relationship between the history and contemporary uses of photography. Her works on paper and installations have been exhibited nationally, including LMAK gallery, (New York, NY), Arlington Arts Center (Arlington, VA), Heather Marx Art Advisory (San Francisco, CA), Klowden Mann (Culver City, CA), Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (Sonoma, CA), and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (New Orleans, LA). She has curated and coordinated projects and exhibitions for both galleries and art fairs. She received her MFA in Sculpture from SFAI (San Francisco, CA). Alissa currently lives and works in New York.

"An ant tried to eat my breast"... 

"... the Italian explained reasonably, after her sudden jerk had broken the tranquility between the seven artists watching the sun go down. Our installation/sculpture artist from Holland tells us that there is a specific word in Dutch to describe this easy intimacy and cosiness between us, but no direct English translation. 

I value these moments, our conversation slipping and winding between our careers and experiences in our separate countries, the walking or writing or drawing or photographing or gathering or clay mixing we had done that day, and laughter and banter.

I left the weight of my practice at home, the heavy, bleeding oils and stiff linen, and instead brought wet watercolours to the dry landscape without expectation. I walked and scrambled up hills and read and wrote, made my intuitive, abstracted watercolours in my quiet studio listening and responding to all that was around me. Then I brought them back out into the landscape, into the rugged natural gallery that is the barranco. 

These three weeks have allowed me to get to know my art-making self, free from the binds of my practice and process, and the systems and structures within which I make and exhibit work. The results have been unexpected and satisfying. The thrust of my productivity is padded with warm memories of delicious food and wine, the heat of the sun and expanse of the landscape, the easy companionship between the other artists and our wonderful hosts, and many, many laughs". 

Natalie Pullen

http://nataliepullen.com/

Books; 

Your Silence Will Not Protect You - Audre Lorde

Book of Mutter - Kate Zambreno

Bluets - Maggie Nelson

I Love Dick - Chris Kraus 

Natalie Pullen is a Dublin-based visual artist, since graduating from the National College of Art and Design in 2017 with a BA in Paint and Visual Culture she has maintained an active studio practice, working towards exhibitions, open studios and workshops. Her paintings embody echoes of the unseen forces, resonances and vibrations which pass, subconsciously, between encountering bodies. Conceptually, this in-betweenness means between the seen and the unseen, this and other worlds. Materially and technically it means investigating spaces in-between drawing and painting, abstraction and figuration. The paintings are thought of as an after-image, the viewer encounters a residual map of the artists movements and decisions in making them. Informed by feminism and affect theory, and resonating with elements of the Occult, her work further challenges the binaries between theory and practice.  

"The residency here at Joya: AiR has allowed me some precious reflection time, a chance to explore a new landscape and meet other artists from around the world. I needed to spend some time researching further opportunities for personal progression, applying for more residencies and exhibitions, and looking into ways of gaining funding for my artistic practice.

I have been able to gain valuable feedback from others when I presented my work, allowing me to channel into some ideas that I may not of thought had much value before. I have developed these ideas while here and planned how to transfer the ideas into my studio space at home.

This experience has been my first residency since graduating last year, and it has been a really useful platform to learn how they work. The residency at Joya: AiR is very self-led which has been beneficial to me, having a  studio space, to share ideas and talk to others, is what I found most important in my studies and I have really enjoyed being able to do that again here".

Chloe Belcher

http://fineartinstallation.wixsite.com/chloebelcher

"My time at JOYA: AiR was spent exploring, filming, writing and performing in the immense landscape that surrounds the beautiful house. I made a new work here, although writing this on the last night of the residency I cannot say what the work is – I have spent the entire time generating material and am yet to start editing, such is the reluctance to spend time in front of the screen. It is a fantastic environment for working and thinking, the seclusion offered by the national park is invaluable. Simon and Donna are excellent residency hosts, encouraging dialogue between residents but allowing everybody the time and space to develop their practices in the best way they see fit. Oh, and it is impossible to not mention Donna’s amazing cooking – I eagerly await a JOYA Recipe Book"!

Sam Williams

“The hot sun as my witness: blind sun, blond bones, bleeding hills – put thistles and mud on the wounds, roll in the dust like a coydog, scream into those anthills, run fast without looking, close those eyes, shut those curtains, high sun, high strung, big snakes in the road, big desert, big sky, clouds zoom by…”

David Wojnarowicz

Sam Williams is an artist filmmaker based in London, where he studied MA Sculpture / Moving Image at the Royal College of Art. He has shown work nationally at institutions such as Tate Britain, V&A, Sadler’s Wells, Outpost and Baltic39 and screened internationally in countries including Egypt, Russia, Germany and Norway. As part of the audio-visual group Emptyset he has performed across Europe and has shown collaborative works with Rosemary Butcher MBE at The Place, Nottingham Contemporary and Akademie der Künste (Berlin). He was awarded the Relax Digital Commission (2016) and the Stuart Croft Foundation Award (2017) and has been artist in residence at Baltic39 (Newcastle), Cité international des arts (Paris), JOYA AiR (Andalusia) and ArtHouse Jersey. This year he received an A-N Professional Development Bursary to initiate choreographic workshops for non-dance artists, writers and curators. Sam is a founding trustee of the Rosemary Butcher Foundation where he will help oversee the preservation and promotion of her archive and legacy.

www.sam-w.com

"This week has made me aware of how much we have grown in our daily lives with modern technology, internet and social media. How we have become accustomed to a multitude of stimuli and choices and how our concentration span is getting shorter and shorter. Without all these influences you will be forced to adapt to your environment, to adopt a different pace, to look and really see, to listen and really hear and to feel and really experience. This week at Joya: AiR gave me the opportunity to slow down, to distance myself from my work and to reflect on that while experimenting with the input of a natural environment and getting new insights.

Simon and Donna, thank you for this opportunity, this lovely quiet place in the centre of the Sierra María Los Vélez, the fantastic food and your hospitality. I will definitely return. Thanks also to all the other artists I met this week, with whom I had great conversations and above all a lot of fun".

Marjolein Witte

www.marjoleinwitte.com