photo Simon Beckmann

"Joya: AiR was simplicity but also complexity in terms of exploration, adaptation, discovery, space and time. It's its own dimension. When I first got there and entered this small galaxy I felt overwhelmed, curious, spaced out but also relieved. A silence that can be weird to many at first, I found to be really calming, grounding and invigorating. It really helped me find the time to think. The colours of the landscape match the peace of the silence.

Time felt slow in the beginning, then suddenly really fast. The initial discomfort turned into a true appreciation of a simpler and slower pace: the conversations, meals, serene moments and the walks complemented the time spent working. The different sections of the day and their rituals became all really special and hold a warm place in my memory, which I hope to partly repeat in the future.

The environment, the care with which the place has been made as well as the stories associated with it gave me that kind of detachment and change that is needed for new ideas, self development and general views of the world.

While my main practice is something I am keen on continuing to grow, exchanging with different artists and hearing their stories was a reminder to continue expanding beyond one medium. To me this is what makes a residency and experience most valuable: learning from and being inspired by others. Simon and Donna have been able to create this physical as well as creative space that is unique and my work and overall mindset strongly benefited from. I will be excited and looking forward to visiting again!"

Sabina Plamenova

Sabina is an 'Interactive Media' postgraduate (Goldsmiths) and 'Sound and Media" graduate whose work was primarily in music production, vocals and audiovisual projects.
Although becoming involved in music at a pretty young age, she was previously also dedicated to photography, a field which she never completely abandoned.
She is currently a user researcher in music software, which has widened her perspective in terms of understanding the tools we use from both sides. 
As a musician and DJ she has performed at large scale festivals as well as smaller venues across Europe. She has also worked on different kinds of sound design projects (adverts, music for film and more).
She has lived in Berlin where she was active as a performer in the fields of both music as well as, for a short period of time, dance.

photo Simon Beckmann

“Durante mi estancia en la residencia, me he sentido en casa desde el primer momento. Me he sentido arropado por un paisaje increíble en medio de la nada, unas noches estrelladas tan bonitas que daban miedo y un compañerismo y un trato excelente por parte de Simon y Dona. Ha sido una experiencia increíble. Solo pude pasar cuatro noches, pero mi labor en la residencia no se detuvo en ningún momento.

Cerca de Murcia, mi lugar de nacimiento, decidí dejarme llevar por las sensaciones personales y los elementos que me rodeaban. Arropado por unas montañas majestuosas, donde el eco de los pájaros y los ladridos de Frida se repetían hasta el infinito. Este "eco", fue el punto de partida para desarrollar mi proyecto musical en JOYA.

Como productor de música electrónica, quise conectar con la naturaleza y hacer música partiendo de recursos orgánicos, todos ellos recogidos de la naturaleza.

Cada día, escogí un material que destacase en la residencia, lo recolecté, y lo manipulé para poder grabar los sonidos y las texturas que aportaban. Estuve componiendo piezas musicales manipulando las grabaciones obtenidas y convirtiéndolas en patrones rítmicos y melódicos inspirados en el clima. Temperatura, hora, humedad y localización.

Terminé mi estancia con un total de cuatro piezas musicales donde la madera, el viento, las piedras y el fuego fueron los protagonistas y los encargados de darle voz a cada una de las canciones”.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3hOScRnbfQX1CcPtA0wJgG

Ángel Diaz Fernandez

photo Simon Beckmann

Italian text below…

“If I think about my residency at Joya:AiR two words come to my mind: struggle and freedom. When I arrived in this amazing lunar place I was so overwhelmed by what I was seeing that my brain could't record anything without being lost. It was a never-ending try of focusing on a kind of knowledge I didn't have. I had no confidence with the landscape and probably I didn't have the confidence I thought with my body and myself, but with days I understood that what I thought it was discomfort was actually the best thing I have ever felt. Being out of my comfort zone made me be more perceptive about things around me and gave me the chance of being really free. That was really what I was looking for. So I started to question my background, my education and all the cultural stereotypes that are part of me and of my culture. I worked on myself in many ways thanks to the landscape that pushed me to do things I could have never done in my daily life, like working with the white clay taken from the "barranco", or climbing some rocks in order to get to a prehistoric cave. I could finally feel that every single muscle and cell of my body were working together to make me go through all the things I was scared by. I worked on these feelings during the residency and I realized a shaman mask that I wore in a video performance I did there. In the end I decided to leave the shaman mask in a special place inside the barranco. That place, with a tree that is almost completely out of the ground but silently keeps its complex roots in the vertical wall and struggles everyday to survive, that place really looked like me.

After the residency my body has news scars and cracks, and I have no longer reference points, and this is a really good point because it's the beginning of freedom”.

Lucrezia Costa

I was born in Rome and I've been living in Milan since 2000. I'm 25 and I graduated in Photography in 2019, then I took a master degree in Visual Art and Critical Studies in 2021. I partecipated to "Give photography a chance" in Brixia (2019), to "Somewhere along the lines" in Milan (2020) and to a virtual exhibition during Covid published on Artribune called "Blackout Book" in 2021. In 2021 I made a performance for MUDEC Milan about ecological and vernacular architecture, I partecipated to "AURA" exhibition in London in October (Gallery Holy Art) and I am expected to partecipate at "Artisticamente" (Area Contesa Gallery) in Rome in December. I published some interviews and readings on a contemporary art magazine called Juliet and I partecipated to Regina Josè Galindo performance "El canto se hizo grito" in June 2021 for Prometeo Gallery (Milan).

Italiano
Se penso alla mia residenza a Joya:AiR mi vengono in mente due parole: fatica e libertà. Quando sono arrivata in questo meraviglioso luogo lunare sono stata così sopraffatta da ciò che vedevo e sentivo da non essere in grado di registrare gli eventi senza essere persa. Era un tentativo continuo di focalizzarsi su una conoscenza che però non possedevo. Non avevo confidenza con il paesaggio e probabilmente nemmeno con me stessa e con il mio corpo come pensavo, ma man mano che i giorni passavano ho capito che quel senso di discomfort che sentivo era la cosa migliore che mi potesse capitare. Essere fuori dalla mia comfort zone mi ha permesso di essere più ricettiva nei confronti di ciò che mi succedeva intorno e di essere davvero libera. Così ho iniziato a mettere in discussione il mio background, la mia istruzione e tutti i costrutti culturali che fanno parte di me. Ho lavorato su di me in molti modi grazie al paesaggio che mi ha permesso di fare cose che non avrei mai potuto fare nella mia vita quotidiana, come lavorare con l'argilla bianca presa nel "barranco", o fare un'arrampicata per arrivare a vedere delle caverne preistoriche. Ho sentito finalmente che ogni muscolo e ogni cellula del mio corpo stavano lavorando insieme per farmi superare ogni mia insicurezza o paura passata. Ho lavorato su questi sentimenti e ho creato una maschera da sciamano che ho indossato nella videoperformance che ho realizzato a Joya. Alla fine, ho deciso di lasciare la maschera da sciamano in un posto speciale dentro al barranco. Quel posto, con un albero che ha le sue radici ormai quasi completamente fuori dalla terra e che combatte silenziosamente ogni istante per rimanere aggrappato alla parete verticale, quel posto sembrava proprio me. Dopo la residenza il mio corpo ha nuove cicatrici e crepe, io non ho più punti di riferimento e credo che questo sia un buon inizio per la libertà.

photo Simon Beckmann

“Joya: AiR equals time. Just being two weeks there has given me (and I think all the others residents could confirm it) another perception. In Joya: AiR, time works in a different way: days are longer, although we always surrounded the fire at 6.30 pm, as if a low warming voice were inviting us to sit down and enjoy reading, talking or wondering about what wonderful dinner would Donna cook that night.

I have had lots of spare time to distribute in between organizing, documenting, correcting and working on my writing, wich has been key, but also I was able of taking long walks around the area (with its pine forest, dry rivers, caves, ruins and different landscapes to explore); watching the sunsets and the stars, getting to know the other artists and feeding myself with all those experiences. I felt I was not only in a providing environment but in the right place for me and for the incredible people I have met there.

Last week, I came back home knowing something has clicked in my mind. Joya: AiR is still with me or I am still there, somehow. And I am sure this is going to get me to a new (mental, artistic, maybe geographic) place. And I am thankful for that”.

Iria Fariñas

Iria studied Professional Formation in Visual Arts (Coco School, Alicante), a Poetry Masters (Billar de letras, Madrid) and she is currently studying Translation (Universidad Europea, Madrid). She has six publications: a short story called "Gritar en voz baja" (ed. Entre Ríos) and four poetry books: "Las huellas deshabitadas" (ed. Talón de Aquiles), "Antinomia" (Postdata ediciones), "Vista aérea" (ed. Entre Ríos) and "Ayer ya será tarde". The other publication is a novel she published more than ten years ago. She has won awards (mostly in micronarratives and some in poetry) and she has been published in various magazines, fanzines and anthologies. In addition she directs sociocultural project that work creativity with underprivileged schools in Alicante.

photo Simon Beckmann

‘During my residency at JOYA: AiR, I wanted to reconnect with my Spanish roots and create artworks inspired by the residency’s surroundings as well as explore themes of personal displacement and national identity.

After my arrival, I immediately felt a sudden sense of peace that I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. The landscape, the fresh air, the silence, the animals that lived there, the fruits and olive trees. Everything was so stimulating, it was like pure magic. All these factors led me to experiment with what nature was providing. 

Inspired by JOYA’s ecological mission, I felt the need to create sustainable work, so I collected clay from the mountains and made clay from scratch. The process involved collecting the soil, sifting it, mixing it with water and kneading it until ready. Through this newly discovered ritual, I found myself going back to the starting point and trusting my primitive instinct. 

The sculptures that I created were hybrids of the animals that lived near the complex (cats, goats, found bones) and the fruits that were growing in the land (persimmons, olives, pomegranates). 

Besides creating new work, part of the experience was to share thoughts with the other artists and learn more about other disciplines. We inspired each other somehow, either by asking for feedback or just by listening to each other in front of the fireplace every night after the wonderful dinner that Donna would prepare for us. 

I will be forever grateful for the time I got to spend at Joya: AiR. The environment felt so welcoming and peaceful, I even remember saying to Simon "I feel at home!" after only having spent a few hours there. Thank you, Simon and Donna, for doing what you do and for letting me live this experience’.

Kora Moya Rojo

Kora Moya Rojo is a visual artist creating paintings that revolve around fluidity, nostalgia, and womanhood. Rendered in a pulsating palette of cold blues and warm reds, her vibrant works infuse autobiographical, historical, and religious iconographies with a rural sensibility. Examining the complex effects of childhood trauma, female oppression and urban migration, she investigates personal displacement and national identity in symbolic scenarios that overflow with utopian potential. Digitally reconstructing dreams, imaginations and memories into enchanting drawings and canvases, Moya Rojo creates eerie worlds that inhabit the liminal space between the conscious and the unconscious. Her androgynous, embryonic figures stretch beyond the earthly domain to the otherworldly as they hybridize with provincial food, coalesce with existing objects, and mutate with unspecified surroundings. In a continuous metamorphosis, the internal and external forces at play make the familiar foreign, and the foreign disturbingly familiar.

Kora Moya Rojo (b. 1993, Spain) lives and works in London. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the University of Murcia (Murcia, Spain, 2015). Recent exhibitions include ‘Into the Cosmere‘ in Shoreditch (London, UK, 2021), ‘Euphoric’ at Procrastinarting (online, 2021), and ‘Every Woman Biennial’ at The Copeland Gallery (London, UK, 2021). Latest features include All She Makes and Friend of the Artist. Moya Rojo is part of the Winsor & Newton private art collection. She recently finished her residency at Joya Air (Spain, 2021) and has another one coming up at ArtHouse Pani (Mexico, 2022).

photo Simon Beckmann

‘At Joya: AiR, I felt free to wander, physically and artistically. There is a natural emphasis on respect for and reciprocity with one’s environment which, for me, opened up a different way of thinking about my creative process.

Everything about the surroundings at Joya lends itself to reflection: the architecture, the landscape, the company of other artists. It is an environment where beauty and inspiration are easily found. I was able to reflect on my writing in a way that I previously hadn’t been able to, I reoriented myself and my work. Initially I worked on a long-form fiction project, but soon I found myself experimenting with the work in other genres and mediums.

Conversations with artists from a such wide range of disciplines broadened my understanding of my own writing. These past two weeks were a turning point for me as a writer, as an artist. Simon and Donna were wonderful hosts; they have created such a breathtaking and necessary space. I arrived at Joya: AiR with an intention, and left the residency with a renewed insight into my practice’.

Kandace Walker

I am a writer and filmmaker based in Wales and London. I studied MA Black British Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. My writing has been published in The Guardian, Prototype and The Good Journal, among others. My short film 'Last Days of the Girl's Kingdom', produced in collaboration with DAZED and the ICA, was aired on Channel 4's Random Acts. In 2019, I won the Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize with my story 'Deep Heart'. My essay 'Everything I Will Give You', exploring representations of intimate partner violence in Welsh and Kenyan mythology, appeared in 'Just So You Know', an anthology of Welsh writers published by Parthian Press. I am represented by Abi Fellows at The Good Literary Agency.

photo by Kandace Walker (wild swimming in November)

photo Simon Beckmann

‘During my residency at JOYA: AiR I created a new series of sculptures and interventions that aimed to explore new forms of agency and awareness within my artistic practice. The works, inspired by ancestral Iberian material culture, unravel potential reinterpretations of ritual power, archaeological heritage, national identity and cultural appropriation.

JOYA’s land and ecological knowledge encouraged me to create artworks that reflect on the permeable boundaries that define our world and the larger-than-human dimension that defines it. For five weeks I explored the role that materiality can play in the negotiation and production of authenticity, identity, myth and place, acknowledging this land as the complex network of reciprocal interdependence that it truly is.

I also followed the footsteps of “El Corro y el Rosao”, two (con)artists from the nearby town of Totana who in the early 1900s, inspired by local archaeological discoveries, sold hundreds of ‘fake’ artefacts to collectors and institutions all over the world —including the Louvre and the British Museum. I was privileged to spend a few days in Totana working with local potters, giving shape to new works while combining history, legend, beliefs and my own personal expectations.

At the end of my residency I decided to honour this land by making a ritual offering at a pre-historic cave in the Parque Natural de Sierra María-Los Vélez. Eight sculptures were carefully placed inside the cave: sentinels of local spirits and deities, expressions of an ancestral knowledge that is real and imaginary at the same time’.

Jorge Mañes Rubio

Artist / TED Fellow / Watch his TED talk here go.ted.com/jorgemanesrubio

Based in Amsterdam, Jorge graduated in Design Products from the Royal College of Art London in 2010. He is also co-founder of the Design Museum Dharavi, a TED Senior Fellow and a recipient of the S&R Foundation Washington Award. He has recently collaborated with the European Space Agency on a pioneering project revolving around the future colonisation of the Moon, turned into a thought provoking TED talk.

photo Simon Beckmann

english translation below / traducción ingles al pie de pagina

“Otoño 2021

En el camino, Simon dice: ‘ahora ya puedes decir adiós a la civilización’!

Cuando llegué a Joya: AiR era de noche y la luz provenía del dosel celeste de estrellas, la luna estaba saliendo ... dentro de la casa alrededor del fuego estaban aquellos con los que compartiría mis siguientes 168 horas de residencia.

Entre idas y venidas tardaron 9 meses en llegar a ese día.

Simon mientras me lleva a dar un paseo para presentar el proyecto con los árboles frutales me pregunta:

¿cómo puedo ayudarte?

Le respondí: vine a hacer un compost.

Así comenzó mi narrativa simbiótica de días y noches en este lugar de los vientos.

Ocho cuadernos en mi maleta y en la nube un "diario de viaje" con ciento treinta y ocho paginas: año 2020.

Guías/mapas/coordenadas de pensamiento: borradores de proyectos: muchos no realizados, conversaciones escritas, apuntes de los más diversos estudios: libros, cursos, conferencias, practicas de meditación, sueños...

Me propuse generar energía creativa a partir de las memorias/transformación catalizadas por parámetros de los territorios materiales e inmateriales del paisaje y entorno de Joya: AiR para generar un proyecto que recibió el nombre de Compost: laboratorio vivo.

Somos parte de este Compost:

El inspirador proyecto de generar vida eco-evolutiva de nuestros anfitriones y guardianes Donna, Simon, Frida y FouFou, los estimulantes procesos/proyectos artísticos de cada uno de los residentes, las charlas en la cena donde nos reuníamos todos,

... la comida fresca, vitalizante e deliciosa preparada ceremoniosamente cada dia. ... todos los silencios y ruidos .... los colores.Las noches frías y los días calurosos ... la tierra con cicatrices y el ecosistema abundante ..., la convivencia empática de plantas, animales y humanos...el natural y postnatural.

Tengo los poros abiertos y un proyecto semilla alimentado por Joya: AiR. Y como dijo la bella Donna cuando me devolvió a Vélez Rubio:

¡Todo es una elección!”

Daniela Ruiz

Arquitecta y urbanista formada por la Fundación Armando Alvares Penteado - FAAP - SP en 2004.
2005 posgrado en Arquitectura, Imagen y Diseño en Elisava Escuela Universitaria en Barcelona, ​​España.
2005 parte del grupo de arquitectos Bamboolab en colaboración con COAIB, UIB y ESB - Palma de Mallorca - España.
Formación en visual merchandising por SENAC-SP
Formación en permacultura por IPEC - Pirenópolis
Formación en Paisajismo Biodinámico con el Prof. Manfred Osterroht en Sao Paulo.
2007 hasta 2010 product development para la empresa Ethnix, en India, Vietnam, Filipinas y China
En enero de 2017 hasta 2018 periodo sabático y recibió el nombre de Our Own Way.
2017/2018 parte del equipo de periodistas de la revista Casa e Jardim manteniendo una columna digital sobre Our Own Way
En junio de 2019, vine a vivir en Barcelona.
Durante los últimos 15 años he tenido mi propio estudio en Sao Paulo, donde trabajo en colaboración con otros arquitectos y diseñadores en proyectos arquitectónicos y paisajísticos.

en inglés

“Autumn 2021

Along the way, Simon said: now you can say goodbye to civilization!

When I arrived at Joya: AiR it was night and the light came from the celestial canopy of stars, the moon was rising ... inside the house around the fire were those with whom I would share my next 168 hours in residence.

Between comings and goings it took 9 months to get to that day.

Simon while taking me for a walk to present the project with fruit trees asks me:

‘how can I help you’?

I replied: I came to make a compost.

Thus began my symbiotic narrative of days and nights in this place of the winds.

Eight notebooks in my suitcase and in the cloud a "travel diary" with one hundred and thirty-eight pages: year 2020.

Guides / maps / thought coordinates: project drafts: many unrealized, written conversations, notes from the most diverse studies: books, courses, conferences, meditation practices, dreams ...

I set out to generate creative energy from memories / transformation catalyzed by parameters of the material and immaterial territories of the Joya landscape and environment to generate a project that received the name Compost: Living Laboratory.

We are part of this Compost:

The inspiring project of generating eco-evolutionary life of our hosts and guardians Donna, Simon, Frida and FouFou, the stimulating artistic processes / projects of each of the residents, the talks at dinner where we all met,

... fresh, invigorating and delicious food prepared ceremoniously every day. ... all the silences and noises ... the colors, the cold nights and hot days ... the scarred land and the abundant ecosystem ..., the empathic coexistence of plants, animals and humans ... the natural and postnatural.

I have open pores and a seed project powered by Joya: AiR. And as the beautiful Donna said when she gave me back to Vélez Rubio:

Everything is a choice”!

Daniela Ruiz

photo Simon Beckmann

“Joya: AiR is spare and nearly silent in October. Located in Almería at the eastern extreme of Andalucía, its valleys extend like long stairways, alternating dwarf pines with almond orchards. I feel privileged to have worked on a couple of projects suggested by this setting at the cortijada Simon and Donna have restored in beautiful regional style.

Here, I found an intimate, light-filled courtyard to set up “Water Trick.” This installation, in which glasses of water are suspended upside down on a pane of glass, relates to the complex methods of channeling water to agricultural and urban centers in semi-arid regions like Almería and Southern California. The “trick” is to trap a measure of water, which creates a mirror-like effect on the multicolored glasses. However visually alluring on the surface, the floating table is ephemeral and ultimately subject to failure in the same way that lush gardens and oasis-like golf courses conjured from semi-desert are unsustainable.

My other project involved constituting the local soil to clay, which I worked into portraits of historical and fictional characters, including Hamda bint Ziyad, one of medieval Andalucía’s foremost women poets. Hermenegildo, a Jamaican subject adopted and highly educated by a childless plantation owner, emerged from the clay next. I also sculpted the woman for whom Francisco de Quevedo’s flame swam cold water and Shakespeare’s Dark Lady, possibly the final descendent of a Nasrid subject who fled Granada in 1492. I left this gallery of characters near a furrowed field where they are gradually going back to dust”.

Carolie Parker

Carolie Parker is a visual artist and writer with a background in foreign languages and art history. Along with studying studio art and Spanish literature at UC Irvine, she earned an MA in comparative literature at UCLA (Latin American, US and French poetry). Her poetry has come out most recently in Sixth Finch, The Yale Review and Denver Quarterly. What Books Press published Mirage Industry, a book-length collection of her work, in 2016. In 2019, the Fellows of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles) selected her for a Curator’s Lab Award, which funded Medium, an exhibition focusing on the relationship between language and visual image. Her visual work has been shown at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, LAVA Projects, The Armory Center for the Arts and 515 at the Bendix Building among others; residencies include a MacDowell Fellowship and three weeks as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.

photo Simon Beckmann

“My residence at Joya: AiR was like living on an island. A lovely arid white-clayed island surrounded by pine-covered slopes. The borders were set by the distance you could travel by foot and return to the house in a day. By doing so I had more time to get to know the area, as opposed to when you only look in passing (as I mostly do when I do my walks). Here I had more time to observe the details, the little gems, the particulars telling the story of the ground. Collecting items I found instead of photographing the landscape was a new experiment of mapping the the landscape, which makes an interesting addition to the vocabulary I use in my books.

Additionally the time to quietly get to know the surroundings gave my the opportunity to find suitable places to make some interventions in the landscape so they are more rooted and connected with the land. And by being here longer gave the greater possibility to invest far more time realising it. Which resulted in far bigger, detailed and profound work.

Beside the great hospitality there was the meeting of other artist and their practice was a great inspiration. The time spend helped me to really position my work better and gave me the incentive to continue on the path chosen. So my visit really worked out well and was a great encouragement”.

Roelant Meijer

He makes special publications of walks near and far. With photography, short texts and the form of books bring the story to life, but above all they give his walks a deeper experience, which connects to universal human dreams. His search for silence and emptiness, fascination for the horizon - and what lies beyond it - call for recognition and expose deeper values.

On the road or on location, he intervenes in the landscape (land art). Previous interventions are made at Concots-Escamps (France), Along the walk - different locations in The Netherlands

photo Roelant Meijer (for Joya: AiR)

“My time at Joya: AiR was part of a larger review of my creative practice with the aim of experimenting within the landscape: making shorter walking journeys; creating and documenting ephemeral artworks; using natural materials, artefacts, and the landscape itself; and to consider the relationships between lifestyle and the warming European environment.

I arrived equipped with field recording equipment to learn more about how to capture sounds and images and quickly realised the challenge I had within such a quiet landscape. But with this came a slowing down, listening, observing and connecting. Walking each day, I let things unfold naturally recording birdsong, insects, wind, bells, rockfall, water, and footsteps, whilst also using what I found around me to create a record of each walk as lines and forms on the ground.

Thanks so much to Simon and Donna who have made Joya: AiR such an incredible place. I loved having the space and time to be able to explore working in this way; being alone; and also, in amazing company with them and the other artists and writers in residence.

Hannah Scott

Hannah is a graduate of Central Saint Martins MA Art and Science 2017 and BA Arts and Design 2000, and Middlesex University MSc Multimedia Application Design 2003; a member of the Wilderness Art Collective; a MullenLowe NOVA award winner; and an alumna of The Arctic Circle artist residency. Her work is grounded on scientific research and she has worked with climate and environmental scientists, and other professionals, to accurately inform her research. Key collaborations include a project about waste with the UK Government Office for Science; and a project about microplastics with Kings College London MRC-PHE Centre for Environment & Health. Recent works include: ‘270 Single Uses’, an installation highlighting the relationship between marine plastic litter from Britain and Arctic sea ice; ‘All At Sea’, a collaborative installation about the sea with artist Maria Macc; ‘All This Stuff Is Killing Me’, an installation reflecting on mass-consumption at the Royal Geographical Society, featured on BBC Radio 4’s ‘All In The Mind’, longlisted for the 2021 Aesthetica Art Prize; ‘To The Ends Of The Earth’, a film about the sea projected onto a shipping container in the central Australian desert. She worked for BBC News until 2018 when she left her job to pursue her career as an artist full time.

photo Simon Beckmann

'During my residency at Joya: AiR I was particularly drawn to the microscopic communities that I found myself a part of, both immersed and juxtaposed with the vastness of the landscape. Shells, insects, millions of individual leaves and stones, bones and stars at night, that co existed as part of this intense environment of beauty and extremes.

Time became different, the days were wholesome. The bond that was formed between Grazie, Hanna and myself felt like it was magical. We engaged in slow drawing and completed a collaborative work together, that is possibly somewhere in Barcelona by now.. I felt real positive energy from this tribe, brought together by Simon and Donna through our evening meal, a nourishing ritual where we would share the experiences of our day together and our thoughts about the world. I left feeling that this experience was the beginning of a new and intriguing journey that I had only just about started'

Petros Chrisostomou

Petros’s family are originally from Cyprus, but he was born and grew up in London. He studied Fine Art at St Martins College before moving on to do his MA at The Royal Academy Schools in London. Having completed his education in 2008 he was awarded a scholarship from Galerie Xippas in 2010 to live and work in New York for a year.
He completed the ISCP Program at the end of 2011 and decided to stay in New York for a longer period. Consequently he started working with Nicholas Robinson Gallery and Linda R Silverman Fine Art, both in New York City.
His work has been published in over five different languages and he has his work included in both commercial and Museum shows. Most recently he has participated in residencies at The Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Alberta, Canada, and also at The Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY, as well as in exhibitions at The SCAD Museum, Savannah, Georgia, and the Centquatre 104 in Paris as part of the collection of BIC. Other exhibitions include, 'Nirvana-Strange forms of Pleasure' Gewrbemusum, winterthor, Switzerland, and 'In present Tense, Young Greek Artists' EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens.

photo Simon Beckmann

'When I arrived at Joya: AIR I was determined to start working on a writing project. During the pandemic it was hard for me to find space to create, the space already felt occupied with bad news, worries and expectations.

With my time at Joya: AIR I wanted to make up for this waste of time and disappear into my computer for a month so I could come home with a lot of results.

The complete opposite happened.

 When I arrived, I was blown away by the beauty of it all. I could not ignore the space. The nature, the mountains, the beautiful studio, the other artists, the food, the stunning white building, the sun, the heath, the art, the time.

I could not bring myself to my computer, I had to do something with the space. I played with objects collected from the nature, rocks, bones, roots, old tuna cans from generations of sheep herds. I started creating things with my hands instead of on my computer.

I decided that It is okay to take up space, to take time, to not feel pressure, to just have fun, to just breath and exist. Sometimes that is enough and as an artist I have to trust that everything will start flowing once I decide to let go.

In the Netherlands we use the word ‘onthaasten’ directly translated ‘de-hurrying’ to slow down. It became an practice in ‘onthaasten'.

When I came home, I did not have any physical results but I gained way more than I had expected.'

Hanna Fleer

Hanna has just finished two theatre schools of (both) four years. The first one was in the direction of performance and the second, the one she graduated from in 2020, was for writing for performance. She makes installations, podcasts, movies and theatre. She has just finished a multilingual play that will be performed in France directed by Anne Berelowitch and right now she is working on a play for children that will be performed at schools in the Netherlands. Her work has recently been published by 'Buitenkunst' a bundle of very short plays.

photo Simon Beckmann

“During my stay at the residency I have been working with the paper “Working with chronic pain in maternity. Practical implications of art therapy practice in mother-child relation.”. The main attempt of this research is to investigate intersubjective affective space provoked by chronic pain experience and to question ethical modalities of maternal subjectivity by analysing the work of affect, sensation, and emotion. My research interest focuses on exploring how chronic pain is constructed and how traumatic experiences are born on the level of affect and on the level of emotion. I explore the concept of “extended body” in pain, “absent body” and “present body” in pain addressing art practices of collaging and clay work which help to shift foci of strong chronic pain experiences and to re-establish intersubjective affectivity and sensibility of female subjectivity and of mother-child relation. Also together with my partner David Muñoz González we were developing a project “My Happy Pain” which can be found here https://myhappypain.com”

Irina Poleshchuk

Poleshchuck received a PhD in Social Sciences at the university of Helsinki, 2010, from 2013 to 2017 she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the university of Helsinki. 2005 -2021 She is an Associate Professor at the European Humanities University (Lithuania), She teaches different subject on arts, history of European civilisation, contemporary art and architecture. Recent articles: • In collaboration with Yolanda Blanco, ‘Fenomenologia del dolor a traves el collage”, Ciutadans. Revista de Ciencies Social d’Ándorra, 2020, 17, p. 46 – 52. https://www.iea.ad/publicacions-cres/revista-ciutadans/ciutadans-numero-17; • “Temporalization of mother-child relation: experience of chronic pain”, Topos 2020, P. 158-175, ISSN: 1815-0047. - http://journals.ehu.lt/index.php/topos/issue/view/56 ; • “Formation of Sensibility in Mother-Child Relation: Temporal Dephasing and Traumatic Displacement”, Journal of Clinical Philosophy 19, Osaka 2018, p.64-78, ISSN: 1349-9904. http://www.let.osaka-u.ac.jp/clph/pdf/vol19.pdf

photo Simon Beckmann

“As an artist passionate about nature and drawing, the time spent at residency at Joya: AiR was exactly the place I needed to be after an intense pandemic year. Being in touch with the soul of the south of Spain through the walks around the area, sketches made directly from nature, the stare of trees during the day and the stars at night is something that is indescribable in just one sentence. The days at Joya: AiR not only informed my PhD research in drawing, but also allowed me to deeply connect with the nature around me and to myself. It is a process that just started there, and that I know will open more doors to my artistic practice.

Needless to say that the love that Simon and Donna give to this place is the most important piece that makes the experience at Joya: AiR impeccable. I felt nourished and taken care of in all details. I will never forget the delicious meals shared with the other residents during the nights full of interesting conversations around history, life, ecology and, of course, art.

Thanks for bringing such joy to the world”.

Grazielle Portella

Grazielle Portella is a Visual Artist, Designer and PhD Fellow in Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon, with full-scholarship funded by Foundation for Science and Technology - FCT (Portugal). Informed by philosophy, neuroscience and aesthetics theories, in her Doctorate research she develops the concept of slow drawing in a context of an accelerated post-digitalized world.
Her research emerges from her personal artistic practice, crossed by an extensive professional experience at big tech corporation (2011-2017, Google) and a Master in Digital Design (2016, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo), in which she problematized the greater usage of new technologies and the effects in both visual art and design fields. In this paradigm, she currently questions the importance of a contemplative, meditative and affective practices in contemporary art, proposing the act of drawing as a tool to engage into deeper levels of the presence, intuition, and empathy.

photo Simon Beckmann

“Joya: AiR is astonishing and mesmerising. 

Arriving, I immediately forgot the plan I wanted to work on, I even forgot it instantly on arrival when I saw everything around me. 

There was so much beauty, silence and at the same time sounds, dryness with so much colour and energy. 

It was so great to feel the wind, meeting the fox in the middle of the night, walking up the mountain early in the morning.  

Being so small as a human being and unimportant and at the same time questioning myself: Can I be part of this thing that is bigger than me?

I decided to start playing, intuitively playing with what I see, feel, hear and smell. I transferred my feelings of all the things I saw when I had my walks or was just sitting and feeling the wind while looking at the mountains. 

While working in the studio and at the same time bringing these works outside back to connect with the world around me made me play even more. 

The importance of being connected to your unconsciousness became really intense and powerful at this place. Realizing that the place where you are dictates your actions when being aware of the energy that surrounds you. 

I am very thankful I could spend some time at Joya: AiR. I felt so welcome and surrounded by such beautiful warmth that will resonate with me for quite a while”.

Tinca Veerman

photo Simon Beckmann

“I arrived at Joya: AiR with the intention of documenting and observing the environment. I hoped to create images while creating no waste and find new ways of working and learning, attempting to utilize or understand but not abuse the environment itself. As I settled in, the landscape began to manifest images on my behalf, I looked for ways to capture them a while longer - the midsummer hot winds, or the stillness of midday, the sound of a fly in your ear and little else, the ash of the clay, the feel of dusty grasses, the emptiness of a dry river, or the solidness of the sun -  revealing what I can only imagine would be the landscape developing images for itself in ways I would never have imagined. Using the detritus of the landscape, the clays, discarded tree fruits and dried up plants, I looked for the hidden worlds, from plant dyes to sun stains to begin to understand how they receive light and how we receive them. How does the sun trace its own image? Can a stone speak through its own strength? I came to understand the boundlessness of questions we can occupy given the access space and that time becomes constructed within its beginnings as well as it's remains. The experience has taught me immense patience and exploration but also the capacity to listen to the body in space, understanding that it can reveal relationships and languages we don't understand how to hear or see, it can allow us to consider dust or even the discarded as a new cosmos ready to be formed. 

Lara Orawski

Lara Orawski is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist and educator, exploring the boundaries and paradoxes of consciousness, sentience, as well as accepted and alternate realities. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2019 with a Masters in Photography and Philosophy. Her previous studies were focused in psychology and political science, at the University of Ottawa. Her interdisciplinary background across humanities and politics serves as a deep influence for her current research; much of which is rooted in the concepts of manipulation, evolution, and emergent identities among ecological, technological, and political shifts. 

photo Simon Beckmann

sun by sun

“For our project to create a sun-made image of the sun the Joya:AiR studio was just what we were looking for.
The new project called “sun by sun” required reliable sunshine because an image of the sun had to be burned onto a 1,6 m2 wooden surface by the means of concentrated sun light.

And also the fusion of arte + ecología corresponded perfectly to us as the duo sunWorks (www.sunworks.click).

sunWorks

Alexandra Centmayer (www.alexandracentmayer.com) is an artist trained at Kunsthochschule Kassel, Universidad Complutense Madrid, and University of the Arts Berlin. In her painting she creates worlds that often have their origins in her immediate surroundings. Individual colour spaces are created through serial work, layering, and superimposing. The repetition gradually refines the ever-new view of the initial situation.

Rolf Behringer (www.solarezukunft.org) does projects on education for sustainable development. He has established a production of solar stoves in Germany and some small-scale solar cooker productions around the world. In 2009 he founded the international solar food processing network.
He developed several schemes such as bicycle cinema, experiments with renewable energy and some solar projects in schools.

All collaboration work is inspired and driven by the sun. 

In 2014 the duo won the audience award with “Von der Sonne gezeichnet” (drawn by the sun) at the international exhibition EnergieWendeKunst in Berlin.

Alexandra:

“Transforming high-tech NASA images of the sun with a very low-tech approach seemed to be a very appropriate work in this secluded and rural place of the world. The meditative act of drawing dot by dot onto the wood in preparation of the burning of the image turned the studio into a nun´s cell. 

The sensation of shifting from this very small unit to the big picture was completed when stepping out at night under the gorgeous sky with trillions of stars and the milky way”.

sunWorks

Rolf: 

“First of all, I was so happy when I saw the autonomous energy system. All electricity and hot water are produced by sun and wind. Both sources are available in abundance and it shows us so clearly that it really makes sense to use decentralised renewable energy.

Burning our image of the sun with different sized lenses for 19 days, spending hours and hours in the sun, covered by sun protecting clothes, wearing welding goggles and burning thousands of different sized dots in the wooden surface was a very special experience. It is very intensive, working many hours with the sun. Thanks to Donna und Simon for this wonderful space that has given so many artists a chance to work focused and relaxed on their projects and at the same time bringing international artists together and giving us a chance to exchange and share experience and thoughts, mainly during the fantastic dinners, sometimes under the moon”. 

sunWorks

photo Simon Beckmann

Josechu Tercero

(Barcelona 1967)

Artista plástico y visual.

Memoria de actividades realizadas durante la residencia en JOYA:AiR, Belez Blanco, Almería entre los días 1 y 18 de julio de 2021. 

Animal Farm 1 / Josechu Tercero y Nathalie Rey

“El planteamiento de los trabajos artísticos durante la residencia artística en las instalaciones de la Cortijada de los Gázquez, Vélez Blanco, Almería Joya: AiR conjuntamente con al artista Nathalie Rey (París 1976) discurrió en dos ámbitos diferenciados. Por un lado, realizamos una serie de grabaciones en vídeo de dos proyectos de videoarte bajo los títulos genéricos de PornCity y Guiris en busca del agua, consistentes en grabarnos a nosotros mismos en acciones en localizaciones de la zona en un caso como cerdos estalinistas en referencia a la novela Rebelión en la granja de Georges Orwell, con caretas reales de cerdo realizando danzas y movimientos inquietantes; y en el segundo caso, ataviados cual guiris grotescos despistados en biquini y bañador y elementos de atrezzo como un gran flotador en forma de Unicornio, manguitos, sombreros, gafas de buzo, pelota de plástico, pequeña bañera inflable, etc en busca de alguna playa en los paisajes áridos del altiplano o cursos secos de ríos y rieras. Asimismo, realizamos fotografías de ambas acciones.

Animal Farm 2 / Josechu Tercero y Nathalie Rey

“También realizamos la documentación fotográfica del proceso diario de la acción del sol en nuestro cuerpo, en nuestras pieles, con las marcas propias de las quemaduras. Como una manera de documentar ese proceso diario de la sobreexposición al sol”.

Josechu Tercero y Nathalie Rey

Josechu Tercero y Nathalie Rey

Josechu Tercero y Nathalie Rey

Josechu Tercero y Nathalie Rey

“Por otro lado, cada uno de nosotros realizó en paralelo un trabajo propio. En mi caso, y con motivo del dossier presentado para la solicitud de esta residencia, sobre la temática que vengo desarrollando durante años en los ámbitos del dibujo, la pintura, la fotografía y el vídeo, las construcciones de piedra seca como usos agrarios, ganaderos y de caza de zonas deprimidas. Me propuse después de unas excursiones de observación por la zona, la creación de un “majano”, llamado así en la región de Castilla La Mancha, región de mis antepasados y próxima a la provincia de Almería, una construcción con piedras en forma de cono como marca de los lindes del territorio”. 

Josechu Tercero

“Dicho majano constaba de 54 piedras recogidas en la zona (mi edad actual) que antes de ser pintadas con spray de colores de la gama de los rosas y fucsias, como afirmación feminista y de ser instalado en un lugar acordado próximo a la cortijada y de su zona de influencia, fui dibujando en láminas DIN-A3 en lápiz y grafito en polvo, como una manera de catalogarlas”. 

Josechu Tercero

“Así disponía del documento en forma de 54 dibujos para ser mostrados como pequeño mural y del propio “majano rosa” que instalé el día 17 de julio para que quedara como señal de parte de mi trabajo durante la citada residencia”.

Josechu Tercero

photo Simon Beckmann

“Joya: AiR is a unique experience, where there are as many stones as inspiration, as much calm as reflection.

It’s an encounter with yourself, your thoughts, your creativity and your palate.

Thanks to its unparalleled dishes that nourish your body and your ideas, you can explore new methods, techniques and resources to create from new and different perspectives.

Joya: AiR marks a before and after in the life of an artist or writer. The residents and hosts, Frida (the giant schnauzer) and For Fou ( the goat) are the perfect compliment for the creative process”

Jacobo Márquez

Jacobo es CEO en Here Comes The Sun, compañia productora de entretenimiento en vivo. Ha representado artistas nacionales e internacionales, producido teatro, festivales culturales en alianza con gobiernos y conciertos. El Festival Roxy es uno de los proyectos más grandes que ha realizado atendiendo a más de 22,000 personas. Actualmente prepara su segundo documental sobre la Hoja Santa en Oaxaca, México.

Adicional a eso es co-creador de “Cobarde Bar”, el cual abre en septiembre su segundo lugar. Dirige la Fundación “Sabrá Dios” donde apoya los proyectos del campo realicionados con el mezcal, co dirige el Centro Cultural Squash73 y Dirge la Galería de Arte Carni.Galería.