Joya: arte + ecología / AiR - Cortijada Los Gázquez
Joya: AiR is based at Cortijada Los Gázquez, a group of former farm dwellings situated at an altitude of approximately 1,000 metres in the Sierra María–Los Vélez Natural Park, Almería. The property and its surrounding land extend across approximately twenty hectares.
Cortijo is the Spanish word for a rural farmhouse; a cortijada is a small group of farm buildings. Los Gázquez takes its name from the family who once lived and worked here.
Cortijada Los Gázquez in the late 1960's
Gázquez family member using a trillilo to thresh wheat. Late 1960's
Until the late 1960s, Los Gázquez supported an extended family living in five adjoining dwellings. Their livelihood depended principally on subsistence agriculture, livestock and the careful use of limited local resources.
Terraces created level ground for growing cereal crops for flour and animal feed. A traditional rainwater catchment and distribution system directed episodic rainfall towards cultivated land and a small retention area. This allowed the family to grow vegetables and raise animals, while uncultivated areas provided grazing, gathered plants and game.
Clay, stone, timber and esparto were used for buildings, tools, vessels, furniture and other necessities. Knowledge of the land was embedded in repeated practices: maintaining terraces, managing water, cultivating difficult ground and responding to the seasons.
Life at Los Gázquez was demanding. The settlement had no mains electricity or running water, and access to education and other services was limited. The effects of the Spanish Civil War, its aftermath and the wider economic transformation of Spain formed part of the conditions faced by rural families throughout the region.
During the late 1960s, the Gázquez family left in search of work and greater security. Like many people from inland rural communities, family members moved to Spain’s growing industrial centres and to agricultural regions in France. Los Gázquez was abandoned as a permanently inhabited and cultivated settlement.
The departure of the family also changed the land. Terraces and water systems were no longer maintained, cultivated ground was gradually occupied by scrub and trees, and buildings began to deteriorate. These changes remain visible in the landscape today.
Los Gázquez, winter 2006, in a state of ruin.
Joya: AiR at Los Gázquez
Joya: AiR was established in 2006 as an independent residency for artists, writers and researchers. Simon and Donna Beckmann purchased Cortijada Los Gázquez in 2009 and began the long process of restoring its buildings and reinhabiting the surrounding land.
The restoration required the acquisition of new practical knowledge and a close engagement with the material structure of the cortijada. Existing buildings were repaired and adapted to provide living accommodation, studios and shared spaces, while retaining their relationship with the original settlement.
Image caption: Los Gázquez after restoration, spring 2012.
As Joya: AiR developed at Los Gázquez, the residency became increasingly connected to the ecological conditions of the site. Living off-grid required sustained attention to energy, water, waste, food, buildings and the surrounding land. These were not treated as matters separate from cultural activity, but as part of the context in which artistic and intellectual work took place.
Artists, writers and researchers brought different forms of knowledge and observation to Joya. Their work contributed to an expanding enquiry into the relationships between contemporary culture, rural history, environmental responsibility and life in an arid landscape.
The physical history of Los Gázquez continues to inform this enquiry. Terraces, tracks, walls, water channels and abandoned cultivated ground retain evidence of earlier ways of living and working. Some structures continue to influence the movement of water, soil, plants, animals and people, even when their original use has ended.
The restoration of the cortijada did not return Los Gázquez to an earlier condition. It established another period in the life of the place: one shaped by artistic practice, ecological observation, hospitality, maintenance and adaptation.
After the restoration. Spring 2012.
A continuing history
Members and descendants of the Gázquez family have continued to visit the property and share their memories of life here. Their accounts add lived experience to the physical evidence retained in the buildings and landscape.
This history is neither complete nor confined to the past. The land continues to change through drought, rainfall, erosion, vegetation, wildlife and human activity. Decisions about cultivation, access, water, habitat and maintenance become part of what the place will be in the future.
Joya: atlas extends this history through an evolving record of the landscape—its topography, water, habitats, cultivation, cultural activity and inherited structures. It brings earlier land use, more than twenty years of work at Joya: AiR and present ecological change into the same continuing enquiry.
Los Gázquez 2012
