Joya: AiR / Violetta Paez - Argentina / Maria Paris - Columbia

photo Simon Beckmann

Maria is a Colombian artist based in Paris working with text, publication and various researches on myth, time, distance and repetition, a continual conversation and inquiry about fact and belief, myth and reality. Violeta is an Argentinian writer based in London working with curation and performative lectures that aim to think affectively, theoretically and politically about sustainability and living amongst other species. 

“We went to Joya: AiR to work on ´To say soft is not to say tender´,  a collaborative project involving a publication and a series of lectures on ideas of translatability, language and sustainability. 

We’ve been working on collaborative projects like Twice and elsewhere an online platform consisting of a series of monthly exchanges between two artists from different contexts.

 During our time in the residency, we spent a lot of time laying the foundations for a new project, discussing what each one of us wanted to work on. 

Being in Joya gave us the unique experience of being isolated while working, which gave us the opportunity to spend an unlimited amount of time to discuss and argue and forced us to stay with the project and with the process of collaborating that can be uncomfortable at times. 

Besides our collaboration being surrounded by other artists was extremely helpful, as there were a lot of conversations and peer discussions with other artists, Simon and Donna. Each night,  one of the participating artists presented their work before dinner, it was a unique opportunity to discuss work in a relaxed amicable context. As the artists were from around the world and didn’t know each other, the exchange was very fertile. To have to talk about your practice in a context where is not usually shown and to people that are not already familiar with it, makes you look at it from different perspectives. 

It was really good to hear from Simon about how the house functions and the different sustainable systems that allow them to reutilise resources and produce as little waste as possible. 

From a more personal point of view being able to spend time with the landscape was refreshing as we were both coming from fast-paced cities and cloudy winters.  

Thanks for such a wonderful experience! 

Violeta Paez and Maria Paris