"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