“Tia Vellani here. In my visual arts practice, I'm motivated by the unsolved questions of where music comes from and why we love it. I build outdoor, multi-player musical instruments from recycled objects. I invent and orchestrate multimedia collaborations that combine music, visual art and science. I create digital art and tapestries from music. I compose music inspired by visual art and science.

My favourite parts about Joya: AiR were the design of the studios, living spaces, and schedule (late dinners being the only scheduled activity). They encouraged interaction with other artists as well as independent practice. There were plenty of cosy spots to sketch, chat, eat, read, dream, and work. There was enough wifi to keep in touch and for a bit of research when I needed it.

In the beginning I struggled to decide how to spend my precious 2 weeks. Was I going to practice drawing, write a journal, compose music, or was I going to use up the entire time trying to decide? After settling in though, I was content to simply be, come what may.

I chose to give a talk about my work the day after arriving because I wanted my conversations to be engaging and relevant straight away. I'm glad I did because artists at Joya: AiR come and go and several people left shortly after I arrived. The few conversations I had with them were transformative, as was hearing about their work. I also received some good advice about restructuring the presentation of my practice.

I took a lot of solo walks during the days, absorbing the deeply ancient landscape and bringing bits of it back in my pockets. I eventually started taking a sketchbook with me, overcoming the ego-mountain that was holding me back from learning to draw.

The fire was lit every evening where people played board games, read or had the chats. I unexpectedly managed to find time to write an application for a curatorial studio visit. It was easy to concentrate with no responsibilities, including feeding myself. Donna's dinners were delicious!

The volunteers, Jette and Georg, were as much a part of daily life as the artists. Georg gave me some pretty intense introductory sessions in programming with JavaScript to enable me to carry out my musical programming ideas on my own. Jette and I played duets on the beautiful old piano Donna and Simon have in the living room and went on sketch-walks together.

I wasn't aware of the emotional healing that was taking place in me while I was at Joya: AiR until I got home. At Los Gázquez (Joya: AiR) I woke up weeping more than once, grieving an accumulation of life's disappointments. My first morning back in Ireland, I woke up singing Bach. Literally. I woke myself up... singing. And the sheer weirdness of it made me smile. I'm so very grateful to Donna and Simon for all the love and work they put into creating a safe, stimulating place where one may heal”.

Tia Vellani

Tia integrates art, music and science in her practice. She considers herself a visual artist though she has had no formal training. She’s played music all her life: classical piano at age 3, concert flute, voice and West African percussion. Her educational background is in science (Ph.D and postdoctoral experience in genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry and genomics). 

photo Simon Beckmann

“Walking on (Joya) AiR.’ Quite literally! I was absolutely thrilled with my time here! This was genuinely one of the most exciting, relaxing and productive residencies I've been on. From people to place everything was easy going! Given that I had come from a stream of deadlines, schedules and life stresses, this was my opportunity to re-energise myself and reevaluate my art practice.

Like many people, it would be an understatement to say I was a little apprehensive and anxious coming into a new space, especially in a non-English speaking country where my Spanish is poor at best. The moment I met Donna and Simon I was put at ease. Joya AiR is in relatively close proximity to the popular Granada and Almería. However, travelling down the dark winding road at night to Joya AiR is a surreal haunting experience. When I arrived, the other artists and volunteers were so kind and made me feel right at home. 

With my worries loitering somewhere between Ireland and Malaga, this was the ideal breathing ground for creativity. You can come prepared with ideas and peppered with materials, or simply respond to the space with the resources you’re given. It was completely your decision. I chose the latter primarily because it was more practical not to be trucking suitcases of art materials across Europe. Mind you, the option to post materials there was also available. Whether you spent your time writing, reading, making art, performance, having a siesta or hiking it was completely up to you. I did a little of each. 

Like many visual artists before me I had an urgency to venture outdoors, walking and hiking for the first couple of days. I engaged with the land, and what Simon says about the land is just fascinating. From here, I developed a series of works and studies around the topography of the area. I thought a lot about how this isolated place was so exposed to the elements i.e. earth (mountains, landslides), water (flash floods), fire (light, sun, dry lands), wind (strong winds), void (surrounding echoes). These five elements became the foundation of the artworks I was to research, construct, and deconstruct.  

I used my computer and camera. I had no paper so I used toilet paper! I even used the clothes in my suitcase. I also involved my “learning” Spanish into the art. From the land I used signs, stones, fossils, poles, the mountains, echoes and the general environment. There were no deadlines or expectations from this residency, as the onus was placed on the development of work or enhancement of your practice. With that, work may well be completed in the duration of the residency, or simply six months after. 

Its wilderness was calming. Blue skies were welcomed. Lands awash with canyons (Barranco). Hills rippled the land. The architecture and design of the restored 5 farmhouses is simply divine. What’s diviner is the water system. Moreover, the development of a drilled well, solar panels and windmills blew me away. I’ll waste little time in also commending the complex sanitation system. In almost complete isolation, this dwelling would encourage most to withdraw, but for Donna and Simon it seemed like a challenge. This land can be ruthless, but decades of hard labour and commitment have given them both a great knowledge and understanding of this land. Their passion for ecology merges with art in this self-sustainable “paradise” that was for me inspiring, fascinating and refreshing. 

Whatever work you managed during the day, the evening times were spent interacting over dinner with fellow artists, performers, writers, and volunteers. To top it all off the food was exquisite, as Simon and Donna catered for all needs. Simon also brought his homemade cheese! With that, old stories were shared, deep conversations emerged, jokes had us in stitches and bad puns went unpunished. 

With spacious art studios, and comfortable private rooms, the residency also offered great communal and social spaces. I was especially delighted and honoured to be in the company of such wonderfully creative professional people. Everyday we immersed ourselves in art and philosophical conversations, and the artists presentations were exciting and a useful way to engage and create dialogue. Everything flowed so gracefully in many different languages. My fellow creatives were most kind, supportive and offered great advise. I have truly made friends for life in such a brief time. The only judgement came from the goat Fufu when you walked on her ground, or from Frida the dog when you didn’t pet her and she would retaliate by lying on your yoga mat in “downward facing dog”. The cats were far from perfect and weren’t too fussed either way but still deserve a mention. 

This residency was a joyas (!!!) one, and truly a breathe of fresh air. I explored new directions in my art practice; I was alight with ideas. Importantly, I had the time to develop them. This residency can be seen as a starting point for the emergence of new work as much as it can be a place for continuity of work. However, for me it gave the additional feature of losing excess baggage, metaphorically and literally. Time exists on a different plateau here in the hills! If I was to force an even greater bond with one place than what I have already established here, it is that the name “Brian” derives from the word “hill” or “high place” in old Celtic terms. In the end, I was only delighted and a little proud to wear my new Joya AiR t-shirt, which I bought to help support the good cause behind it. ( https://joya-tee.org/ ) This place is truly a playground for artists. All I wanted to do was art, and all I got to do was art. Space and time, what more could any artist ask for”? 

Joya AiR delivers! Slán.

Gracias, Simon, Donna and team.

http://www.bryangerardduffy.com/

photo Simon Beckmann

“My approach to Joya: AiR was some kind of escape from the obligations and distractions of my daily life. I showed up with an open mind not quite sure of my expectations, in any case they were pleasantly surpassed by Donna’s welcome and introduction to the house on my arrival.

The first morning I woke up with the urge to climb a mountain to the top, to get situated in space. Furthermore, I needed some kind of challenge to prove myself, to feel free and fully connected to the environment. Once I accomplish that need, I felt the peace, energy and freedom to let the experience flow, with no pressure to do, engage or pretend, just being. I enjoyed sharing my morning yoga sessions with fellow residents who wanted to join, having the day for myself and then savouring delicious dinner between brave conversations and lots of laughs. Grateful to spend time with all the people I had the pleasure to meet, fellow artists, especially friendly Bryan and sweet Lucy, who generously dedicated some time as my model for the “Fascinators” project .

Nature around me was stimulating and contemplative. Autumn. The cold wind blowing was a confirmation of the arid climate and invisible forces of the environment. I was overwhelmed by the silence down in the Barranco, where everything was still, silent testimony of the ravages of torrential water meandering paths through the land, landslides and hanging trees. I got  inspired and obsessed with the cracks in the dried soil. That's where my creative work exploded, filling the cracks, drawing the lines with red stripes made from discarded shopping plastic bags. Feeling the force of erosion in earth as I was dismantling a work of art, made of up-cycled plastic objects, that had been exhibited outdoors for more than two months and removing the eroded parts by sunlight. It’s still a work in progress, I still have to review and debug the images of the interventions I did there. One thing sure, I was deeply moved by the information that Simon shared about aquifers and agricultural super-exploitation in the area, and how this could have been one of the factors that caused Lorca’s earthquake”.

Ruth Peche

“My work has always been concerned with the effects of humankind abusing and depleting natural resources, polluting our soil and belittling our home Mother Earth, showing so little respect. For that reason I appreciate so much both the dedication and effort of Simon and Donna to build this place with such awareness and respect for the natural environment.

I still keep in my memory the piano notes played by Jetta (volunteer) heard from outside the house, while watching the olive branches move through the wind with the full moon in the background”.

photo Simon Beckmann

“I am more interested in process than in product. Processes are fluid, always changing like statements of relationship. I try to live an aesthetically conditioned process that is always reassessing its own path. This practice leaves traces. I consider those traces not as representations but as once-againnesses, always in relation to the previous one yet never identical”.

Fernando Calzadilla, Ph.D.
www.fernandocalzadilla.com

photo Simon Beckmann

“When I first arrived at Joya: AIR I was taken aback by the sheer remoteness and silence of the ancient landscape. I can’t recall a time where I’ve felt so disconnected from society, so it felt great to wander around the mountains, collecting fossils as I went along, and this sense of discovery and being able to map the environment kickstarted my work. 

I began meandering through the gullies (‘las barrancas’) to source my own clay and the act of walking through these passages that had been carved out from the landscape felt like I was passing through time itself. I have occasionally thought about making work out of local clay but learning how to process it from the ground seemed intimidating, so I’ve never actually tried it. I devoted my time to digging down into the rocky floor and the experience of doing this by hand felt primitive, but it connected me to my surroundings, and I felt compelled to build sculptures in and around the barrancas. By doing this I felt a deeper connection the work I was making and working outside the context of a studio gave me a fresh perspective to my work. Joya: AIR is a wonderful and transformative adventure in a truly unique setting. Thank you to Simon and Donna for hosting such an amazing place for artists to work”.

Carl Anderson

Carl Anderson is a London-based artist working predominately in ceramics. By considering Paganism, Folklore and early Mythology, he creates a visual language that is archetypical of hazard and cautionary tale. Certain motifs often appear in his works: chains, dagger-like protrusions and brick cladding. These derive from an interest in how we perceive authority in social structures and how the objects themselves have the potential to become gestural forms of dominance and power. 

Carl attended the Architectural Association to study Architecture between 2009 and 2010 but left to pursue his interest in art. Architecture is still a big influence of his but his interests lie in materiality and form, as opposed to creating functional living spaces using computer-aided design. In place of this he decided to do a Foundation Diploma in Fine Art in 2012 at the Greater Brighton Metropolitan College. He undertook this course as a pathway to explore as many mediums as possible and it's here where he solidified his passion for sculpture.

www.carlandersonart.com 

photo Simon Beckmann

“First time I arrived to the residency, I was overwhelmed by the uninterrupted space.

Dried clay soils, spiky plants and buzzing of bee; somehow I found them subtle and tender

even though there was such a contrast with the environment where I came from.

The great nature swallowed me and I fell asleep in complete darkness and silence at the first night.

Sounds emerged from the quietness.

Lights illuminated surroundings from the darkness.

To see the process of defining the world, I started to face myself.

Noises echoed in my head and I kept reflect my practice and myself in the studio.

Perhaps I was confused vividness of the vast nature.

Different scales of space and solitary existence of myself different sense of time.

Each element changed my perceptions interactively. 

All the components which constructs my world fell apart.

Then I realised how I possessed massive information which I had no idea what exactly is.

I collected things as I did in my childhood. Stones, wood and rusty metal container; Smells, textures, colours and shapes.

Individual details evoke something else from my memories, experience.

The figurative connections among objects reminded me of the different structures of metaphysical world.

During the residency, I worked different media such as painting, sculpture, photography and performance to reconstruct objects from fragments surrounding me. Through the practice, I explored the pathways among objects, environments and me as a processor. The process made me dive in multiple layers of my own cognitive system.

It was very strange and alienated feeling to get back civilised environments after the residency. The residency opened me new understandings towards the relations to the world and me and also myself. The noises in the city tends to drown sounds to but now I can always remember the subtle but clear voices of objects that I found in Joya: AiR.

Great thanks for Simon, Donna, all lovely hosts and artists who inspired me and I am looking forward to return the place again”.

Chika Annen

photo Simon Beckmann

“The first two weeks of October 2019, I had the privilege of working in Cortijada Los Gázquez, home to Joya: AiR. In the weeks prior to my departure I was busy with the preparations. In which discipline do I want to work? Painting, drawing, monotype, collage, photography? On the one hand you don't want to limit yourself but at the same time it can be helpful . Then there are the practical matters such as tickets, car rental, luggage, directions to get there, etc. In order to prepare myself I collect as much information as possible about the location. Endless hours of tracking on google earth: the landscape, vegetation, routes, surrounding villages. Hoping that somehow this information is meaningful. The first hours after my arrival I realised that despite all the planning I could not prepare for what I encountered and what happened to me in the following weeks.

My studio offered a fantastic view of the surrounding landscape. As the day progressed, this landscape underwent  magnificent colour changes. I spent most of my stay in the studio. The calming effect of this space has had a great influence on the course of my stay. I had planned to spend a lot of time in the landscape. But gradually the need became less and less. The studio, my work, my music and the light were my companions. And for most of the time this was enough for me.

Nevertheless, contact with other artists and the hospitality of Donna and Simon have been a crucial part of my stay. They were my "family", my safety net. I intensely enjoyed the regular evening ritual. Donna's cooking is unsurpassed and forms the basis for a wonderful gathering and a perfect conclusion of every working day.

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to write about my stay and work. But I am increasingly aware that this will never do justice to my experiences. What struck me most during my stay and still does, is what an immensely generous gesture it is of Donna and Simon to give artists time. This seems like an open door, and perhaps it is. But I can't believe how Joya: AiR's initial concept and the way in which Donna and Simon have given it form has affected me so deeply. Every day I became more aware of how time seemed to slow down. And how happy that made me”.

Stijn Kriele

Stijn Kriele’s recent work is all about how the tides’ movements influence the landscape. The artist from Tilburg (the Netherlands) emphatically focuses on the dutch (constructed) landscape. He translates his observations into works on paper, oil paintings and photographs in which shades of green and grey dominate and where peace and quiet, clarity and serenity are of the highest importance. The man-made landscapes Kriele photographed are so highly organised and choreographed that the photographs approach the core tenets of fundamental painting. Air, water, bunkers, breakwaters, poles, landing jetties, gravel beds and sandy expanses which together constitute more or less geometrically organised compositions that consist of straight lines, planes and horizontal bands. The photographs nevertheless concern concrete observations, recorded by the camera, which have not been manipulated. This also applies to the photograph of the droplets on the rain slicked window pane. It would be convenient to term the painter’s approach minimalist or formal, but that would not do justice to the expeditions he undertakes. Kriele wants to access the essence of experiencing a landscape and to get the most from a minimal use of image elements, but does not do so dogmatically. The options are dictated by the image elements present. In his paintings and works on paper, the artist is free to determine the setting, the palette, the lines and the distribution of planes. However, there are definitely visible similarities between the photographs and the ‘free’ paintings. These correspondences can be attributed to the way in which Kriele observes the landscape, the manner in which he selects elements and translates his observations.

https://www.stijnkriele.nl/

photo Simon Beckmann

As if attention to anything a funny goat or a stone or earth embedding your feet

would soak in light

the warmth of this place grows through knowing it is an ecological project that the Beckmann family have invested in to care for la tierra de los Vélez. To care for something needs awareness.

A conscious attention to where you inhabit.
This makes me think of Jiddu Krishnamurti:

“Silence is something that comes naturally when you are watching without motive, without any kind of demand, just to watch, to see the beauty of a single star in the sky, or to watch a single tree in a field (...) Then it that watching, in that alertness, there is something that is beyond words, beyond all measure.”

Here, time is suspended
and it expands without rush through the infinite mountain paths where the only obstacle you could possibly find is you – and when such silence is confronted with the attention and self-respect necessary to create, this place enhances your creativity. Perhaps that is why everyone seemed to have such vivid dreams, here.

Mira com el silenci s’inunda de tu,

i ets tu desfent-hi a dintre,
fort com la terra blanca.

El silenci sempre t’enfronta amb alguna cosa, es destapa una veritat inundada. Dins l’estudi que comparteixes amb altres artistes, omplert i buidat cada setmana, no hi ha cap altra veritat que tu mateixa. Del fons de tu mateixa és d’on surt l’obra d’art, o de poesia.

Mira com un moment se’t desfà dins dels ulls.

Mira com un instant es suspèn en l’aire

The house is built with the energy of this place, a sort of awareness of yourself. When I arrived at Joya: AiR the concrete surfaces and the white walls created a big silence, as if emptied from any judgement. The studio shares this – with a similar energy to the humidity of the air during the firsts days at Los Gázquez after the cold drop, saying “something happened here”. Other artists you might never meet have been creating here. You share the place where creation moves the air. It empties itself and refills with the awareness of creation.

Com una ametlla caient d’un arbre.

Caminant pel parc natural t’enfrontes a la veritat d’aquest lloc. Després de la gota freda, una emergència climàtica crida en silenci.

This place makes you exist saying there is so much time

while its silence says “a horrific stormed just passed,
did you know it is only getting bigger
did you know there’s not much time

to stop it”

“Silence is a denial of noise – but the smallest noise in the midst of silence becomes enormous.”

Joan Miró

Silence is what poetry does:
poetry creates silence around words

so that words weigh more.

Joya:AIR does this with its artists.

Mireia Molina Costa

Instagram @mireiamolina_

photo Simon Beckmann

"What a joy it was to consciously carve out 2 weeks to fully immerse in Joya: AiR. After a huge few years facilitating projects in Australia, and opening a new contemporary art gallery, I was desperately in need of extended time and a slower pace - returning to the core reasons of why I want to create.

I used my time at Joya: AiR to open myself wholeheartedly to the environment, to absorb, record and reflect, and experiment with new techniques in the studio. Having the opportunity to play and experiment amongst the full support of exceptional creatives made me feel so valued as an artist. At no point did I question my various paths of inquiry, because they all felt validated and supported by the Joya: AiR team and other resident artists.

The material I created in the first week was based on my combined experiences travelling from Australia to Spain. Film and digital photos, and original sketches were collaged together as a mural on the courtyard walls on the exterior of el cortijo, layering my experiences and thoughtfully choosing imagery that reflected my time here in a contemporary painting style. I worked in tandem with the sun and mapped her shadows across the walls, which then became graphic elements within the mural itself - a collaboration I hope to continue on future surfaces.

Simon and Donna make everyone feel so welcome, and I felt nourished by their conscious cooking, thoughtful hospitality and exceptional company. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that I'll be back."

Emily Devers

Emily holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, with intentions to pursue a Masters of Fine Art in 2020. She is the Director of contemporary art gallery and social enterprise The Third Quarter, festival facilitator of Sea Walls Australia and maintains her independent practice as a travelling mural painter.

Emily Devers

The Third Quarter

photo Simon Beckmann

‘Thinking of Joya: AiR is for me thinking of a quiet place. A place which can be found in all of us, but which is not always accessible. Here, in the midst of a natural reserve you only have to close your eyes and you are immediately connected to it. 

You hear the bees humming, the birds singing, the wind blowing, you feel the sun on your skin and the air in your hair. 

The hard, but round, stone I’m sitting on grounds me, generations before us have used this stone to press crops. 

The circle closes when you know that the wind turbine generates electricity for the house, the sun heats up the water through solar panels, the water is being cleaned, and hopefully the well in the mountains will bring enough water to Joya: AiR again once the plans are being executed. 

The humming continues with the busyness of the other artists, all here to create, everyone investigating ‘their’ piece of land, their space, their interests.

Joya: AiR is an energy spot in the midst of a deserted landscape, which brings joy and new ‘fuel’ to everyone who stays here…

One week after my residency at Joya: AiR I still carry the calm inside me.

My days are less organised, I take more time to breath, to look around, to hold on for a moment, to not do anything for a short time. Something that is so natural over there. You look up from your paper and look into the distance, in the landscape, the valley in the back of the house.

This is a sensation, a memory, which is carried on. I can ‘replay’ it, when I need it. 

During my residence  at Joya: AiR, I had planned to continue working on my works on paper. These works are made of leftover pieces of tissue paper resulting from the cutouts of previous work. 

When I applied to Joya: AiR, I had seen images of the landscape, and the house itself with its interesting ceiling structures and stairs, many geometric shapes and spaces which I wanted to investigate and take as a starting point for my works.

Once I was there I was overwhelmed with the greatness of the landscape, and therefore started with the small square view from my bedroom window...

A few sketches of the spaces.  

And then I felt the need for bigger paper.

I had packed some of the tissue papers which I use in Berlin, and went through them to find shapes and 

colours relating to the environment at Joya: AiR…

I start by testing how the shape works within the confines of the paper, then I glue them onto it…

3 big ones done, all 57 x 75.7 centimeters big, I ran out of glue sticks…

So I went for a walk in the dry river bed near the house. I was hoping to find fossils, but I didn’t, except this big one below, unfortunately impossible to take home. While picking up stones I realised that some of them weren’t stones, but pieces of clay. I took some with me…

Back at the house, some of them started to fall apart, and I wondered, what if I soak them in water and make them soft again, could I use them to draw on the paper?

First tests on small Fabriano watercolour paper…

Then a big one…

Here I combined the riverbed clay with a sheet of paper…

Here I combined the riverbed clay with a sheet of paper…

‘I took some little rocks of clay with me to Berlin, of course, and my Joya: AiR series is not finished. I still have many more things to do and will enjoy thinking back to this wonderful time.

It is so impressive what Donna and Simon have built there, with their hands (and the help of others), what they do to maintain this beautiful place and how they welcome artists from all over the world, who then sit together during amazing meals which Donna creates (with Lucy), and which nourish us all and give the base for exchange. It is an immense advantage for creative work not to have to think about organising and cooking food, but to have the head free for other things and then, after a long and intense day, to look forward to the meal in the evening. 

The encounter with people of different nationalities working in various disciplines adds another dimension to the residency, there is so much exchange, we were such a wonderful group together that one wonders: how do Donna and Simon choose the people?

I would love to return to Joya: AiR any time. There is so much more to explore. So much more which I cannot put in words.

So much more I would like to work on, investigate and absorb to have it enter my artworks which can then hopefully speak to other people about this special place, better than my words can’.

Kim Bartelt . http://www.kimbartelt.com/

photo Simon Beckmann

“I had the honour of spending time with such gorgeous energy and spirit via fellow creatives at Joya: AiR, who were all bestowing big beautiful brains bursting with talent and personality. One of the privileges of being an artist is to go on residency and be introduced to other thought provoking practices (animation, architecture, body art, illustration, installation, flamenco, food, filmmaking, geography and landscape, music, painting, performance, sculpture, writing) as well as learning from different nationalities and cultures, all under the same roof.  None of this learning and exchange would have happened without Donna and Simon championing the importance of all the artists sitting down to the one  ritual evening meal (exquisitely prepared banquet!) every night, and they were right.

The remarkable and cinematic scenery that engulfed us in the Andalucían /Almerían mountain ranges- was such a rich experience, I could never have dreamed it. So much peace up there in the remote Los Gázquez (home of Joya: AiR), intensified by minimal wifi and phone signal.  This was a gift for ones art practice,  and it allowed a consistency and flow with both reading and writing that I don’t normally have the joy of experiencing in my normally very urban existence. This kind of peace lent itself to poetry.

From someone who meditates, the peace and tranquility there was deafening and took me a couple of days to redefine my own understanding of what stillness is.  This new found state granted me the focus and aural fidelity to edit recordings of my late grandmother which I had not listened to since their inception in 2009/2010. These recordings are a snapshot of rural Ireland in 1930s- 1960s, documenting traditions, rituals and social etiquette of times long gone. The recordings have become the backbone of a short animated film that is currently in development, and a film I proposed to progress while at Joya: AiR.

During my last few days at Joya, an “electrical surge” of insomnia hit me (it happens about twice a year)  nervous and excited with ideas I was waking up 3.44am. Unable to sleep, I began to write and draw. The stillness in the air was even more astounding at that time of the night, mystical even. These episodes of insomnia resulted in a feverish blast of work in the studio with a series of collages that will later be translated into large scale painting.  This work wasn’t planned or intended when coming to Joya: AIR. However, this is the beauty of having that time undisturbed and untainted by modernity (i.e. phone signal/wifi/ consumerism).  Similar to the Buddha’s lotus that rises from muddy waters; in Andalucía, the minds sediment settled to the bottom, and like gold panning, new ideas naturally and freely distilled and rose to the top, waiting to be plucked out with ease, experimented with, and transcribed into new ventures.

Thank you to all the artists and creators at Joya: AiR and heartfelt gratitude to Donna and Simon, Sesame and Solomon for being so welcoming and utterly inspiring in every way”.

Aisling Conroy 

aislingconroystudio.com

Bio

Aisling Conroy is a multidisciplinary artist using drawing, painting, print, sound, installation, theatre, and animation. Her practice explores the idea of intention, repetition and reincarnation. Responding to psychology and vulnerability in the human condition, she draws on influences from sacred art, nature, literature, and the socio political landscape and there is an ongoing emphasis on the process which involves improvisation, chance, play;  with colour, form and composition.

 Aisling graduated from The National College of Art and Design with a BA Hons degree in Fine Art Print, 2009; and a Master of Fine Art postgraduate degree, 2011. Aisling has worked for the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) and for the Edward Murphy Library of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), on numerous archival, digitisation, research and educational projects (2012-2017). She now works in the animation, audio-visual sector for Animation Ireland. Aisling is also an Associate Gallery Artist with the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin.

photo Simon Beckmann

‘La Ilustración, en su empeño por liberar a los Europeos de los poderes feudales y de la hegemonía de la iglesia, impuso la racionalidad como principio para hacer inteligible el mundo. Toda la realidad fenoménica es decir, las plantas, los animales, los minerales, los cambios atmosféricos, los objetos culturales, etc. podían y debían ser nombrados, catalogados, ordenados, diseccionados para así, ser comprendidos. Todo se podía conocer. Nada debía escapar a la fuerza de la razón, a su capacidad de análisis. El humanismo es aquella tradición de pensamiento que considera que gracias a esta capacidad de conocer la realidad, los humanos están por encima de los demás seres del mundo. Que los derechos de los humanos han de perseverar sobre los derechos de todo ser o ente no-humano. Que gracias a tres principios operativos: la objetividad, la crítica o el afecto, los humanos pueden entender y controlar el mundo en el que viven. Que el planeta es un escenario para que los humanos prosperen y que los seres que lo pueblan están al servicio de las necesidades y privilegios humanos. Así, la razón y el humanismo se impusieron violentamente sobre los cuerpos y las vidas de quienes tenían formas de entender y vivir diferentes. Quienes “aún vivían sometidos bajo el poder de las cosas”. Quienes aún dependían de otros humanos, de las plantas, de los animales, de los objetos para construir su bienestar.  

Gran parte de las perspectivas de análisis cultural de las que disponemos en la actualidad han heredado esta tradición de pensamiento. Se siguen basando en las idea de que los objetos culturales se pueden hacer inteligibles gracias a una combinación del análisis objetivo, la crítica o entendiendo su capacidad de afectarnos. Que los humanos somos seres autónomos del entorno en el que vivimos. Que la escisión sujeto-objeto, natura-cultura, humano-no-humano, son vectores que sirven para dar cuenta de la realidad de la que somos parte. Que gracias a la razón nos podemos situar en una relación de verticalidad para con los objetos y seres que nos rodean. Que gracias a nuestra capacidad de conocer, nos podemos liberar de la fuerza, de la magia, del influjo de los objetos culturales que se empeñan en convivir y marcar nuestras vidas. Durante mi estancia en el entorno privilegiado de Joya: AiR, he estado investigando y escribiendo en torno a cómo se podría entender el análisis cultural como una herramienta de reparación. Como una estrategia para identificar, cuidar los vínculos y evidenciar las interdependencias que nos engarzan en tramas de objetos y sujetos. Como mecanismo para empezar a aceptar las maneras en las que actúan, nos determinan y definen los objetos culturales. El análisis cultural como herramienta para aceptar que las cosas brillan y nos iluminan, que tienen poder sobre nosotros, que en ocasiones nos pueden conquistar. Durante la residencia he trabajado en formas de habitar la indeterminación, las ambivalencias y la complejidad que presentan los objetos culturales con los que hemos crecido y convivido. He buscado formas de entender el análisis cultural como forma de reparar, de acercar y evidenciar las interdependencias radicales que articulan nuestra realidad’.

Jaron Rowan

Investigador cultural, escritor y profesor.

Jaron Rowan es coordinador de la Unidad de Investigación y Doctorado de BAU, Centro de Diseño Universitario, en Barcelona. Ha escrito el libro Emprendedores en cultura (Dream Traffickers, 2010), "Memes: Idiot Intelligence, Rare Politics and Digital Folklore" (Capitan Swing, 2015) y "State Free Culture" (Dream Traffickers, 2016). También ha colaborado y coescrito libros como "Innovación en la cultura" (Traffickers of Dreams, 2009), "Cultura digital libre" (Icaria, 2012) y "La tragedia del derecho de autor" (Virus, 2013), así como colaborando con medios y revistas.

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.

photo Simon Beckmann

“Joya: AiR is an arts residency for artists and writers. Joya: AiR describes itself as not only a unique, stimulating and contemplative environment for international artists and writers, but as a meeting point for divergent and creative thinking. The residency offers an ‘off-grid’ experience in the heart of the Parque Natural Sierra María-Los Vélez in the north of the Provincia de Almería, Andalucía.

My residency at Joya: AiR was generously supported by The Art for the Environment International Artist Residency Programme, an award to explore concerns that define the twenty-first century - biodiversity, environmental sustainability, social economy, human rights - and through their artistic practice, envision a world of tomorrow. I had proposed to make a new series of artworks sitting within the body of work called Future Geology. A self-initiated material futures project which I propose to conduct further research and material experimentation for during the focused period of the residency.

The gems on the image are a poetic translation of these topics (2014-15)

Future Geology

Future Geology focusses on the simulation of human effects on the earth’s crust. In the era of Anthropocene, human activities have a global impact on the Earth. The project addresses the effects of humankind depleting natural resources and polluting our soil. In reading rocks, we read the story of our restless planet. We come to understand its complex patterns of interaction and the nature of change over deep geological time.

Therefore, I created ‘future stones’ over the past nine years; made of artificial materials such as metal, chemical resin, plastic, aluminium, concrete, textile, plaster, glass fiber and glass. In this project I am looking for new compositions that question how our soil can be used for aesthetic purposes, exploring the design opportunities presented by recycled materials. Over the last years I have been refining the sculptures and adding onto it. This artist in residency helps to crystallise my creative practice further and the image below shows one of the first sculptures of this ongoing project made in 2010.

First sculpture made of Future Geology (2010)

The JOYA: AiR experience

Grateful for the opportunity to travel to Joya: AiR I tried to approach the residency as a blank canvas in order to arrive with an open approach and allow myself to soak the environment up as much as possible. However, in preparation of the residency together with the research I conducted I did get an image on how Joya: AiR might be. A beautifully renovated artist in residency located in the “parque natural sierra de maria los velez” surrounded by an incredibly mountain landscape. On my arrival that was confirmed directly. At 8.30PM I got picked up at the bus stop Velez Rubio (the closest you can get with public transport). Simon friendly welcomed me and took me with his Land Rover over the rural country roads to the natural park. It is a 20 minute drive and that made that we approached the house steady but slowly while the sunset took place. A magical start of this amazing experience.

view from Joya: AiR

On arrival my expectations were more than true. The curators of Joya: AiR, Donna and Simon, greeted me with open arms and it was a warm (literally and figuratively) place to stay for two weeks. One of the most special experiences at Joya: AiR was the silence. Especially when being used to living in London, which is never silent or quiet, that was something that stood out from my very first day. It is an incredible valuable gift to experience silence, peace of mind and tranquility. The benefits of that has seeped through to my art. Granting yourself the headspace to sit and contemplate is priceless. I was distracted the very first days, because I am pretty addicted to being constantly productive. For me this felt very unusual and a bit uncomfortable to get used to as well. In English there isn’t a specific word for it, but in Dutch we call it “niksen”. These very first days of “doing nothing” gave me new insights and ideas and I started to love it. I would usually go on a morning walk before it got 36 degrees outside. I would walk through the valley, climb a mountain or sit under a tree to observe and generate ideas. After a couple of days I started making and realising ideas that weren’t part of the plan.

landscape around Joya: AiR

Apart from the contemplative aspect of the residency, the social contact and community aspect was an important part of the experience as well. We would present our work to each other, share perspectives on particular subject and generate ideas on how to make a living as an artist. During the day the artist would work individually and approximately every second evening one of the residents would present their work followed by a tasty dinner party where everyone would share thoughts and ideas. Sharing stories, experience and food was absolutely an added value and contributed to the many fruitful conversations I had.

supper time at Joya: AiR

sunset at Joya: AiR

Outcome

As a multi-disciplinary artist my work always involves creative research, narratives, installation art and material innovation. During residency I developed and discovered the potential of these Future Geology materials further. For this edition of Future Geology I focussed solely on plastic and created rock formations made from household waste or plastic found in nature. These artificial rocks I photographed in nature to start a dialogue with the viewer on when nature starts or ends. And when a landscape finishes or ends. The findings of the work I made in the first week were translated in the series of sculptures I created in the second week.

Photographs out of photographic serie made at JOYA, Future Geology (2019)

During the artistic research about plastics and landscapes I found out that the region Almería in Spain contains a plastic sea. This involves 30 miles of white plastic greenhouses. Once a year the plastic needs to be replaced and the plastic sheets are dumped on the land. This resulted in land covered with plastics which are meters high. Even though, I didn’t have the possibility to visit this region myself, it does resonate with my project and the research influenced the formation of the project Future Geology.

Plastic Sea from an aerial perspective, Almeria, Spain

In many aspects my time at Joya: AiR was valuable. Personally as well as professionally. Beauty, silence, environment and headspace was enriching and nourishing. Granting yourself the time to re-work and revise is priceless. The off-grid experience in rural Spain made me also critically look at my own living environment on an off-grid narrowboat in London and ultimately the amazing insights and conversations with the fellow residents is absolutely something to cherish.

Impact and future plans

At Joya: AiR I got the opportunity to expand and create a new body of work. Besides that it also gave me the unique opportunity to think about my future plans. What is next and which ambitions do I want to realise and prioritise. My time in rural Spain was an inspiring and great input to crystallise my future plans. As an environmentalist this influenced not only my perspective on my work, but also on my personal life. The residency is off-grid and carbon neutral. It was very interesting to hear the presentation by Simon about their story and in particular the water life cycle. It is a tricky thing especially in such a dry area. Also the electricity is generated in a sustainable way with photo voltaic and wind energy. That made it an inspirational source in itself as an artist working with the environment. On top of that, the experience also made me look at my own living environment. In London, off-grid and on a narrow boat. Totally self-sufficient as well but in a completely different manner. Some parts of this do overlap, but others differ. This made me look at my current living critically. Thoughts about how improvement could be made for me personally but also for the waters of the canal river trust. This might result in a future project. In the next 6-10 months I would love to find a suitable place in London to exhibit the collection of Future Geology artworks. Besides that I am looking into future opportunities on living on a narrow boat floating over the London canals. I do have the ambition to create, form and make my own boat from scratch and make it a platform for the future. Not only fuelling my own ambition, but also serving tourists, visitors and Londoners”.

Gwen van den Bout

Biography

Gwen is a London and Rotterdam based conceptual artist, graduate of a masters in Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. In her work she translates stories into interactive and sensorial spaces where the audience can explore her work intuitively and create their own meaning. Gwen makes art installations, curates exhibitions and creates sensorial brand experiences. Gwen previously studied at two universities in the Netherlands where she completed a BA at Breda University of Applied Science and a BA at Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam. She gained industry experience at several museums and cultural festivals, as well as with luxury retail companies, including working as a Visual Merchandiser for de Bijenkorf, the largest department store in the Netherlands. Gwen also won an open call from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam to exhibit her contemporary installation artwork at the museum. Looking to the future, Gwen is focused on working in multi-disciplinary environments where she can communicate stories – ranging from exhibitions in museums, intuitive installations and outstanding window design. She is passionate about participative culture and bridging the gap between the commercial and cultural worlds.

photo Simon Beckmann

“Arriving at Joya: AiR you enter another world, one where layers of distraction are replaced by a feeling of alert presence, your creative energies are unobstructed, schedules and money are suspended, and you re-experience aspects of nature that for a city dweller are too often forgotten. Joya: AiR is also a thrilling demonstration that alternative, less destructive ways of living are possible.

Despite the arid climate, there is everywhere a multitude of life. You become very attuned to this, and also to a sense of heightened imagination. An almond tree resembles a musical score. There are characters in the rocks. The sounds of earth crumbling down a slope hint at huge, invisible forces. Crevices and peaks in the landscape suggest narrative arcs. Dry barrancos cut meandering paths through the land, allowing you to walk and observe from a highly unusual perspective. Stories present themselves in fluid forms that nevertheless build on each other the more you explore. And the land is very seductive, always enticing you to walk a bit further and try climbing the next peak.

I initially planned to experiment with recording my voice in the landscape surrounding Joya: AiR. But what I found there was so compelling that this plan was sidelined in favour of long daily walks during which I listened, observed and recorded sounds and images. By following the contours of the land and using instinct as a guide, I found ideas began flowing freely. Unexpectedly, outlines for at least two new projects coalesced during these walks. My aim now is to use the material and thoughts I gathered while at Joya: AiR to develop new video and sound works.

Behind the house is an open flat area once used to thresh wheat. One of my favourite activities was to stand there, on what feels like a huge theatre stage, where I saw myself as a tiny but connected actor in a vast, beautiful landscape. I mean 'actor' in the sense of becoming another, playing, story and myth; but also as 'one who takes action', a creatively engaged consciousness rather than an atomised individual. I was also drawn to the sound of the wind turbine spinning nearby, a small but hopeful example of the kind of action I'm thinking of. Simon's presentation, in which he explained how Joya: AiR runs sustainably off-grid, was a thought-provoking insight into the profound importance of working with the land to manage water, a reality that is easily overlooked in the rush of city / nomadic life.

Simon and Donna's passion and care for what they do is evident in every facet of the physical structure of Joya: AiR, and in the social warmth they engender. During my stay, I felt no pressure to do anything or guilt about doing nothing. This freedom from 'productivity' meant that I ended up having one of the most productive periods I can remember, all in a spirit of open and shared curiosity.

Thanks a million to you both for creating this magical and vital place, your generous hosting, sharing of knowledge, and the awesome food. Thanks also to Lucy for being such a helpful, witty and fun presence. And to my fascinating and inspiring fellow residents - thank you all so much for adding immeasurably to the experience”!

Thom Driver

Thom Driver has an extensive background in music, and in recent years has moved into working with sound installations, video, writing and drawing. He graduated in 2018 from the MA Fine Art (Master of Voice) at Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam. Primarily he is interested in the boundaries and contradictions between language and other paths of communication. His work is included in a forthcoming book on the wider Master of Voice project, to be published by Sternberg Press in 2020.

www.thomdriver.net

photo Simon Beckmann

"La meva primera sensació en ser acceptada a Joya: AiR va ser que volia tenir temps per a poder explorar i analitzar tot allò que m'havia passat l'últim any.

Allà he descobert que a vegades és possible oblidar-se del temps, com si no existís, tot es para i només hi ha espai per a tu i el teu projecte.

Vaig voler reflexionar sobre tot allò que m'havia passat, buscar una identitat i tenir la capacitat d'absorbir el que l'espai m'anava a proporcionar.

Joya: AiR és un lloc ple d'energia d'aquesta que t'atrapa i no vols deixar de sentir mai.

Simon i Donna han aconseguit crear un espai lliure on se sent l'art per les parets de la casa. Entrar en els estudis és una onada de sensacions momentànies i d'energies que altres artistes han deixat.

Joya: AiR m'ha fet conèixer altres tipus d'expressió i apreciar cada simple cosa amb més consciència i afecte.

El meu projecte és la creació d'un "Solo" basat en les paraules " Desconegut" i "nostàlgia". Encara segueix en preparació, però sens dubte aquesta setmana m'ha obert les portes a un altre tipus d'inspiració.

- Deberíamos considerar perdidos los días en que no hemos bailado almenos una vez. -Friedrich Nietzsche. "

Henar Garcia

photo Simon Beckmann

“In the middle of two mountains, there was a Brazilian cuttlefish learning how to fly between cacarecos and feelings, making paintings and animations.

Cacarecos are meaningless objects, silly objects.

The Brazilian cuttlefish is very attached to objects.

She is a fanatic collector of stories that the objects tell her.

She collects feelings and images through small things that she finds around her.

She is very visual, and express herself trough the clothes that she wears, paintings that she creates, and landscapes that she observes and record.

But nothing of this really matters to anyone else but her.

She paint her favourite objects because they tell her stories that cuddle her heart, but actually they are only a representation that she created to the loves that passed through her life.

Sometimes she is the object, many times she is an object.

She is addicted to loving things, and constantly moving, the result of this is a constant feeling of longing, melancholy and nostalgia, and this is saudades.

The Brazilian cuttlefish is obsessed with visual representations of saudades”.

Marina Sader . www.marinasader.com

photo Simon Beckmann

‘In August, you arrive at a radiant homestead on yellow terrain, roam along fertile fields, scramble up a mountain, find light seeping through small cracks in dark rock, see seeds everywhere and nowhere, once buried and wind tossed. Semi-arid, yes, and wholly aromatic this place: lavender and thyme, pine and rosemary.

What more? Before the conceptualizing and narrating, there is the still mind. One that is tranquil, observing. Undisturbed and unencumbered. What you hoped for. Time to revise and edit and you do, fastened for hours to the page and the screen. You return to a story about memory and a father’s journey. You trace the making of identities and communities in a small Alaskan town. (The silence here connects you to the woods of your childhood home.)

By the late afternoon, a delirious wind slams shut the bedroom shutter, begging you to nap, but you stay awake in those fiery hours in a kind of trance until a cowbell rings. Close the notebook and the laptop. Set down the pen. Follow the clang downstairs. Your frenzied appetite, which has taken over, is filled by stunning bounty, bowls of white bean puree, ripe red garden tomatoes and pasta, savory onion pizza and hummus (and more and more). Seconds? Thirds? Yes, please!

Talk around the table with your cohort of wondrous creatives dips into origins and accents, family lore, that (or the next) day’s hike, the humorous and the intimate. You learn of the host’s arduous and, thankfully, successful efforts to locate water underground and bring it up, up and into the house and around the farm. In this history of viability, persistence is vital. Water is everything. 

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was,” observes Toni Morrison. This luminary passed just days earlier and you wonder more deeply about her words and this place, about extracting memory like water from the ground.

When an inky sky arrives, so do the Swan, the Great Bear, the Harp. (You’ve identified them on your phone’s app!) Music streams from inside out, the DJ youth favoring Spanish trap and reggaeton. We drink water, sip wine, mountains melting into black. Look up again. At bright Saturn. The daylight’s buzzing wasps gone now, replaced by cricket song, cats skittering along wall tops and roof edges, laughter rising”.

​​​​​Nita Noveno

Hey, JOYA: Simon, Donna, Soli, Sessi; my fellow residents/artists/explorers: Zoe, Claudia, Alessandra, Simon L., Kazumi, Sylvia, Thibault, Samra, Rich, Jaron, Delia, and Susanne ;furry, four-legged friends, Frida and Fou Fou; the grand Sierra Maria - Los Vélez, sunsets blazing, mantises praying, agua fresca y corriente, muchas gracias y abrazos!

Nita Noveno teaches composition and literature at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. She is a graduate of The New School MFA Creative Writing Program and the founder and co-host of Sunday Salon(sundaysalon.com), a long-running monthly reading series in NYC. Nita writes about memory, culture, identity, and immigrant lives. Her work has appeared in Kweli, About Place Journal, and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s Open City Magazine, among other publications. Originally from Southeast Alaska, she lives in Queens, New York.

photo Simon Beckmann

“I've flown to Joya: AiR from London with an open mind. I wanted to relax, refresh and escape from my city life. Having done an art residency at Walthamstow Wetlands in London which stores around 40% of the water that will arrive in peoples' taps after cleaning I wondered, what the landscape could be like in a desert environment? I wanted to know how the land and its' habitat is affected by the driest spells of Andalusien summer. The next day I arrived the temperature has climbed to the 40 degrees celsius! I'd never been in such heat before (apart from the dry sauna).

During my three weeks of research I indulged in lots of sunrise and sunset walks, birdwatching, insect watching (and escaping from if I were chased by a fly), goat walking, rock formations scanning, barranco exploring, mostly avoiding the deep midday heat, fossil hunting and looking for marks of any other animals left behind. Most of my curiosities were tickled by learning about the alpine desert landscape I was set deeply within. I'm a sculptor. I had to bring some of this sun-scorched landscape with me indoors to an art studio. Canvas bags full of soil and clay in three different colours were so exciting to work with and desperately heavy to carry in. Full of minerals and colour, the soil helped me to produce dozens of prints on paper. Another line of inquiry in my research had taken a turn by chance. When I planted linseeds as an experiment, something has happened. Hundreds of forest ants queued up for the seeds and have been simply taking them away down their hole! Leaving the mud marks behind as they were pulling the seeds, they produced delicate drawings.

I'm back now in London. I can reflect back at my summer and it's clear to me, this art residency not only has given me a chance to play without any guilt or time constraint but also has changed my aesthetic sensibilities. I see the world differently. I need the white rocky walls or sun-bleached sedimentary rock, I need more of the green, and I need more clarity and more open space. In my mind and in my life, however dramatic this may sound. Thank you, Joya, so much for having me there and sharing with me your world. Thanks a million!

Silvia Krupinska

http://cargocollective.com/silviakrupinska

Silvia Krupinska is a London-based sculptor of Slovak origin. She moved to London in 1999, studied Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and Design, UAL (grad. 2006) and took an MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins College, UAL (grad. 2016). 
She has exhibited internationally, including in an EU-Art-Network exhibition in Palazzo Albrizzi, The Venice Biennale 2009 and I've also participated in a number of shows and art symposiums in Austria, Germany, Azerbaijan and Slovakia. 

photo Simon Beckmann

“The light, the light, the light…

“Everything is always in the process of becoming and perishing and never really is” 

– Plato’s Timaeus, John Bowker, God - A Very Short Introduction, p17

At Joya: AIR the days seem to stretch themselves out, from one into the other.

I enjoyed the seclusion of the house in the open hills and mountains, quiet and very lively at the same time. I was surprised to learn the landscape is a desert, while yet so green, beautiful, but not an easy landscape for me to photograph. Within my project When Is A Mountain, I was looking for something particular and this wasn’t within my grasp. A challenge. But the landscape always gives something, so I embraced it as it is while making photographs and video’s of parts of hills and mountains, with the stillness of the softly moving ‘moody trees’. 

Besides the environment, Joya: AIR was perfect for me to work on another part of the same project. In the ever-blazing sun I could make my little studio outside and - with the elements of the landscape - make landscape type images of stones I brought with me from previous travels. Joya AIR was also perfect to experiment with making sequences, to take the time to photograph the movement of light and shadow on the mountains and stones during the course of a day.

Simon and Donna’s house is gorgeous, everything made with great attention, passion and consideration. They’re very welcoming and my fellow artists were great. We had good talks and laughs and interesting presentations. A joyful experience! And every day I saw the sun rise from my bedroom window and enjoyed the sunsets; both gorgeous and never really the same”.

Claudia den Boer (NL)

27/08/2019

Claudia den Boer (NL, 1979) studied visual arts and got her BA in photography at art academy AKV| St.Joost and holds a teachers degree from art academy ABV. Her first long-term personal project Anchors (2016) was made into a photo book, designed by Rob van Hoesel and published by The Eriskay Connection. It was presented at Breda Photo 2016 and was part of the Experimental Book Platform by Punto de Fuga during Paris Photo 2016. In 2017 her work was selected for the collection of FotoFilmic/PULP Gallery in Vancouver (CA). The book has been exhibited at photofestival Naarden (NL), Athens Photo Festival (GR), I Book Show in Brighton (UK) and in St.Petersburg (RU). Claudia participated in two desert AIR-programs; the New Mexican desert (US, 2013) and the Sahara (MA, 2015) and was selected to take part in ISSP (LV) in 2016. Claudia received a partial grand in 2017 for a working period at International Art Residency Can Serrat (ES) where she started working on her new personal project ‘When is a mountain’ and in 2018 travelled to the Georgian Caucasus for this work in progress.

Claudia also likes to collaborate in multi disciplinary projects. In the past she worked with architectural firm Ontwerplab (NL) on research project and publication Verborgen Stad (Hidden City). In 2016 she started collaborating with choreographer Katja Grässli (CH/NL) and became artistic partner of Foundation MoveToMeet. MoveToMeet was funded by Makersfonds (2017), P.B. Cultuurfonds (2017 and 2018) and Impulsgelden (2018) and are working on two long-term projects: project Stil Geluid (Silent Sound) on the subject of silence and intercultural project and collaboration with dancers Beh Chin Lau (MY) and Natalie Wagner (CH/DE) and cultural philosopher Marc Colpaert (BE) titled Cataract. In both of these projects she expands her photography to the space of the decor of the dance performances.