Joya: AiR / Stijn Brinkman / NED

Coming to Joya: AiR, I didn’t know how to label myself as ‘artist’, whatever that might be. I didn’t bring my violin, nor did I bring my laptop. I came with just one pair of pants (that got torn on the bus to Vélez-Rubio), my binoculars, a cheap sound recorder, a notebook, and enough writing material.

Already on the second day, I felt how deep my relationship with this place and with the group became. Within such a small time, I felt such a strong connection to some of the fellow residents, and to the landscape full of non-human life around us. Getting to know the place as an individual embedded in a warm, caring group (and embedded in a timeline where hundreds of artists were inspired by the same place), became an intimate journey. I befriended an almond tree, melted my body into the softness of the cliffs, wrote a letter to a stone, and walked, walked, walked.

After all, I still couldn’t label myself as artist: these labels would fall short to the open-ended, touching, enriching experience that I had at Joya:AiR. What was most important to me, was the process of becoming close with my fellow residents and the place around us. By sharing this landscape together, I learnt about our bodies and skins, about crossroads of time, about movement. Big thanks to Simon and Donna for providing this opportunity to so many people, I hope I can come back one day!

Stijn Brinkman

After graduating his Bachelor of Russian Studies, his Bachelor in History and his Bachelor of Music (Classical Violin), Stijn Brinkman finished his Master studies in New Audiences Innovative Practice in Reykjavík, Iceland. He developed several projects to question our relationship with our surroundings by extending his performance art with interdisciplinary, site-specific approaches. He has played in hospitals, refugee centers, prisons, and other social institutions with different ensembles in The Netherlands.

Simon Beckmann3 June 2024