Joya: AiR / Zoe Tissandier / GBR

photo Simon Beckmann

'Welcome Pilgrims!' was the message I received in the booklet in my hotel room in Granada. Yes, I thought, I am on a journey to a place of particular significance. Having already undertaken the residency in 2017, I was aware of this special place and felt compelled to return to Joya: AiR for a second visit. Though this time I didn't come with a specific project in mind, rather I bought a camera, sound recording equipment, notebook and some other tools and wanted to see what would emerge. 

Collecting and constellations were the themes which occupied me this visit. I recorded my residency experience through images, sounds, and written words. I re-walked the paths of my previous visit whilst ruminating on time passing but also discovered new spaces to explore and thus fresh ideas to reflect on.  

Late night dinners and conversations under the stars allowed me to look upward and attempt to locate the astronomical shapes above me. This led to making my own miniature sculptural constellations with pins and cotton thread, letting the marks on pieces of wood dictate the path of the pattern. 

However, the term constellation came to mean something other than just the celestial. For me, it was about revealing connections between ideas, and allowing the thoughts and collected documents to form something meaningful, if only at this stage as a map in my mind. 

And of course, constellation also referred to the network created between the other resident artists and visitors. The sharing of ideas, knowledge and working processes with this particular set of creative souls influenced my thoughts and overall thoroughly engaging residency experience.  

I think that the Joya: AiR residency has an incredible ability to allow the interior self to flourish whilst existing in the most beautiful exterior space’. 

Zoe Tissandier . http://zoetissandier.co.uk/

Zoe Tissandier’s current practice employs various methods and materials in working through ideas of the archive, collecting, memory, and history, including video, letterpress, projection, sound and installation. She utilises found objects, text and stories, as a way to generate new meanings and assemblages. Spending time accessing material and taking inspiration from various archives, collections and museums, she is interested in the distinction between public and personal archives, the former taking up order and efficiency as its main principles of structuring, the latter embracing unofficial, subjective material to recall different histories and ideas.