photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Shona McCombes / GBR

“I came to Joya: AiR at a transitional moment: one week after moving house, a week of living crowded among boxes and plastic and paint, I arrived in this space of absolute spaciousness, clean simple lines and sparse open landscapes and sky. Rooms uncluttered with the debris of everyday life – a place for the mind to roam around without stumbling on something that stops it short.

It was transitional in other ways, too, the season changing palpably through the course of my November week here. Subtler than the sulk of the northern winters I'm used to, where the sun slams the door on you and holds a long grudge; here it's more of a gradual cooling off, a gentle turning away.

Like other transient spaces, there's something suspended about Joya, a cocooning. But there's also something like a narrative thread: a coming and going of people who each weave their own small set of journeys, an exchanging of routes, a passing down of stories (the moonlight dance, the sunrise hike – moments I missed that became part of the lore of the place).

Sometimes, the outside punctures it. During that one November week: news from the Argentinian election, from the Dutch election, relentless news from Palestine. The book I was working on – set in the Netherlands (land of carefully controlled waters and slowly sinking foundations), backgrounded by the Brazilian election of 2018 (land of vibrant mix and violent clash) – starting to feel real again, in good and bad ways. The book had gone through a long lull, and maybe it had felt like those vicious forces were going through a lull too, for a moment, the biggest and brashest of them briefly quieted – but none of it really gone, of course. The world expands and contracts; the work continues”.

Shona McCombes

Shona McCombes is a writer from Glasgow. Her fiction has been published in Gutter Magazine, New Writing Scotland, 3:AM Magazine and Extra Teeth, among others.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Louise Frances Smith / GBR

“Before starting my residency at Joya: AiR, I planned to spend my 11 days drawing, reading and walking into the surrounding landscape. I knew there was clay there but had no fixed intentions of using it - however, the clay drew me in! It’s such a huge part of the landscape you can’t escape it. I collected it on my walks and made it into slip and inks (from red earth) to make my drawings - trying to capture some of the textures in the landscape (with paint brushes I made using local materials), the patterns of strata, rocks, clay; the shape the water erosion has left (but noticing the absence of water); the black clusters of moss on the rocks. There was so much to explore and so much I wanted to try to record.

With another artist we collected and processed some clay in the sun - slaking, sieving, drying, turning, wedging. At the end of each day after this, I sat and watched the sun disappear over the top of the mountains while I made with the clay - a piece that started to grow across a stone that was used when Joya AiR was a farm. It was wonderful to be able to process the clay and connect with the landscape in this way.

I’m extremely grateful to Donna and Simon, their ethos for Joya is truly inspiring and I’ve learnt so much - it’s filled me with aspiration to learn more about how I can bring this way of life back into my everyday life. I’m also very grateful to the other artists I connected with at the residency and their generosity in sharing stories and their work”.

Louise Frances Smith

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Nina Elema / NED

“Joya: AiR is such a special place where nature, art and warmth are naturally blending together. The residency gave me a lot of perspective. Waking up with the sheering of the birds, having walks enjoying the nature and its views surrounded by the beautiful valleys every single day was truly liberating.

A rare opportunity where we set up a painting studio outside under the late November sun. It was the perfect place to focus on experimentation within my painting practice, inspired by the landscapes, the drought and the natural resources. Spending time with other artists was truly inspiring, resulting in new interest in new fields. Thank you Donna & Simon for the care and hospitality, and everyone that made this a wonderful experience”.

Nina Elema

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Henri Blommers / NED

“Het enige doel was geen doel, dat was mijn voornemen toen ik naar Joya reisde. Misschien wat schrijven en nadenken over de toekomst van mijn praktijk. En lezen en wat wandelen. Toen Simon de fourwheeldrive parkeerde bij het prachtig gelegen huis waar andere kunstenaars van de ondergaande zaten te genieten, voelde ik me gelijk thuis op deze magische plek. Een terp eigenlijk in een vallei met uitzicht rondom op bergen, amandel- en granaatappelbomen.

De volgende ochtend schreef ik bij zonsopkomst in mijn dagboek op het ijzeren bankje buiten. Naast mij lag een klein hoofdje van klei, de volgende dag twee en later zou ik overal kunstwerken aantreffen, zelfs een handgeschreven tekst van Zelda Salomon had de tijd doorstaan.

Na mijn eerste koffie begon ik aan wandelingen. Het woeste en tegelijkertijd gelidtekende landschap weerkaatste het frisse winterlicht en gaf een prachtige gloed. Al die witte omgeploegde boomgaarden en verlaten huizen, raakten me. Het daar zijn, alles kunnen, maar niets hoeven. Ruiken aan alle kruidige planten, takjes meenemen van rozemarijn, distels, stenen, het was allemaal heel zinnelijk. Voor ik het wist was ik papier aan het bekladderen met modder of fruitschillen en experimenteerde ik met van alles en nog wat met Vilém Flusser fluisterend in mijn oor om fotografische industriële processen te doorbreken.

Het hoogtepunt van de dag moest dan nog komen, de altijd klaarstaande - vanwege al mijn experimenten- en lieve  Donna en haar maaltijden. Toen ik opperde dat er een Joya receptenboek moest komen, begon de groep keihard te lachen. De vorige groep had dit ook al geopperd en de huidige groep zal waarschijnlijk hetzelfde opperen.

Na terugkomst hield ik tot op de dag hetzelfde ritme vast, spelen en experimenteren zijn de leidraad het doel dient zich altijd zelf wel onderbewust aan. Bedankt Simon en Donna voor wat een geweldige plek jullie hebben gecreëerd. Ik hoop tot snel”.

Henri Blommers

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AIR / Laurie Kemp / NED

“Joya: Air art residency is a magical place where poems start bubbling up at 4 a.m., your heart bursts into song upon seeing the sun set the sky aflame into a thousand glittering colours and the desert wind stills even the most over-active of minds. My writing residency was the perfect kickstart to writing my first novel.

I cried and ran and danced among the almond fields, and found inspiration, community and connection — to my inner muse, my fellow artists and Donna and Simon, Joya’s incredible hosts. ¡Nos vemos pronto, espero! Thank you for a fabulous time ♥️”

Laurie Kemp

Laurie holds a BA in Liberal Arts & Sciences and MSc is in Environmental Economics and additionally completed a year long course in Creative Writing, University of Amsterdam, 2017-2018

Meesterproef, Querido Academia, 2019-2020
Querido Academy is part of Querido, is a leading Dutch publishing house that admits up to 15 young authors per year to help them bring their ideas intro fruition and connect them to literary agencies.

Publication: The Octopus Woman, Voices of the Well, December, 2019 a magazine published by the Anima Mundi School, a learning and research center for the Feminine & the World Soul based on the psychology of Carl G. Jung.

Publication: Deliverance, Voices of the Well, December, 2022
Black-and-white drawings and corresponding poems detailing a year of loss, mourning and profound personal transformation.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Lucy Peters / GBR

“Joya: AiR is such an impressive project: an ecologically self-sustainable homestead which Simon and Donna share with a varied and ever-changing band of artists. To be in residence was an opportunity for me to invest time in my creative work, and a rare chance to do so alongside other writers, in company with painters, photographers, sculptors and conceptual artists. Days in the studio were punctuated by cups of coffee, cats visiting my window, and walks through an arid, mountainous landscape, spectacular and strange. In the evenings, residents shared moreish vegetarian meals prepared by Donna. I was so grateful for Joya’s cloistered calm and the connections that I made there”. 

Lucy Peters

Lucy’s short stories have been published in Mslexia, Structo, Ellipsis, The Citron Review and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction 2023. Her poetry has been published in a Three of Cups anthology and the magazine Strix. Her novel-in-progress, The Child’s Bargain, has been shortlisted for the First Novel Prize 2023 and longlisted for the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize 2023.  

She won second prize in the Vogue Talent Contest 2010, was a runner-up in Mslexia’s Flash Fiction Competition 2023, was shortlisted in the Bridport Prize Flash Fiction Competition 2019, and was longlisted in the Bath Flash Fiction Award 2019 and the Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition 2020. 

Lucy has a degree in English Literature from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, the University of London. For over a decade, she has worked as an editor, copywriter and journalist, specialising in art and culture.

Freelance writer and editor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-peters-b6084442/

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Pilar Gimenez / ARG

"This was my first art residency and the first of many to come. It was a transformative experience. It opened many new doors for me, both personally and artistically.
Joya: AiR is a very special place where you can find inspiration in nature; kindness among the residents; and comfort in the facilities and the delicious food :)
The residence is in the middle of the mountains. The only sound you hear is the wind passing through the trees, which sounds like a strong river. Every walk is a new discovery, from which you come back with a new "joya" of the landscape or your inner self. The direct relationship of the residence with the environment, being sustainable and off the grid, is very impressive, and gives me hope that alternative ways of living are possible and real.
I am very grateful for this experience and willing to come back at some point in the near future."

Pilar Gimenez

Pilar is a graphic designer and visual artist from Buenos Aires, based in Berlin.

@piligb_djhada 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Katrien Simons / NED

"It was amazing having two full weeks to focus on my practice; to work, explore, be, experiment and dive into details.  To let nature and the land guide me, letting go of expectations and just surrender to what’s around.  To wander the area as if I were a child again. Touching, feeling, singing to the land, the dried up river and the trees.  Exploring, doing fieldwork, and connecting with the somewhat surreal landscape.

Then taking things into the studio and just play and experiment the rest of the day with materials from around. Telling me stories of the past, containing memories in paper. Teaching me about the Spanish land but also about me as an artist, my patterns, my ways..  

I loved how quiet it was.  And that you can wander for hours without running into a single person but instead encounter a family of wild boars.

Simon and Donna have created such a special place.  I'm very thankful for the beautiful time at Joya: AiR with all the other wonderful and inspiring artists.  Following each others dance moves underneath the stars on the last night topped it off :D"

Katrien Simons / instagram @katrienspuppets

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Tomotsugu Nakamura / JPN

‘We are all given 24 hours a day. if we live 85 years, we have 744,600 hours.

However, how we experience and live these hours is not the same.

I realized when I came here that we cannot experience the same time in the same way if we live in a different place.

Because here there is no sound, no animals live. I mean, all time has to face itself.

And I felt this.

The pressure to spend time in the present for future goals hits me like a big wave every day.

It is like when you feel the future is uncertain or when your competitors have achieved their goals.

But then it is important to fight this time with willpower.

That why I believe that fighting every day so we can seize opportunities when they arise will bring us closer to our goals’.

Tomotsugu Nakamura

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Andreas Scholz / IRE

DESI

 The boy,

Refusing to become an ‘ungeheueres Ungeziefer’

A fate suffered by so many others,

Decided that,

He would defy the paths,

Laid out before him,

He would not be bound,

By any external gaze.

And so,

When he awoke the next morning,

He put on his yellow-tinted glasses,

And parted ways with the dreams,

Bestowed upon him by others.

His metamorphosis now complete,

He claimed his destiny:

Desi,

His chosen name,

La Joya Dulce, sweet jewel,

The desiring one.

By Laurie Marie Kemp

Andreas Scholz, MRSS, MRPS, MSET

QTLS (SET); PGCE (UCL); M.F.A. (Goldsmiths); BA Hons (TU Dublin)

http://www.aindreasscholz.com/
instagram.com/aindreasscholz

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Marieli Pereira / ECU

I didn’t come to Joya: AiR with a specific project in mind, I wanted to allow myself to be influenced by the landscape, without any expectations or deadlines. When I arrived at Joya, I was welcomed by the most beautiful sunset. It’s a place where nature gives you various gifts, like the vast amount of clay, the intense smell of wild rosemary offering free aromatherapy, and the soft earthy tones of the natural pigments you can find in your morning walks.
For me Joya has been a nest, a safe space to create and share as I am and where I’m at as an artist. Being here allowed me to dive deeper, and tap into places within my own creativity, that I think can only happen in such a special space like this, and in fact my work started shifting and evolving as the days went by. I noticed myself being more open to explore new mediums and try new ways.
Thank you Simon and Donna for welcoming me into your home, for creating this wonderful experience for artists to flourish, and for your commitment to treat this planet with such love and respect that inspires us to make better choices to navigate on this earth.(and thank you Donna for the yummiest food)!
I am also thankful for the lovely people I was able to share this experience with and learn from. I hope we can cross paths again.

Marieli Pereira

Marieli is a designer and multidisciplinary artist from Ecuador based in Brooklyn, NY.
She obtained a degree in Design from Parsons The New School of Design and learned art from her mother at an early age. Her work has been a mix of mediums and styles ranging from painting, textile art, mixed media collage and digital illustration. Her sources of inspiration are, animals as magical beings and her culture. She is currently working as a freelance designer in the fashion industry and taking private commissioned paintings while on a journey of exploring, learning and finding new ways to express her creativity.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Henrietta McPhee / GBR

“To stay at Joya: AiR is an immediate immersion into an alternative way of existing; living simply, artistically, and attentively. Joya is situated high up, and I loved waking up in the morning in the clouds. Their moisture brings out the scent of rosemary, thyme, and pine growing on the hills. I enjoyed wandering in these hills, collecting fossils and other natural treasures. It was easy to focus on my work in this peaceful atmosphere.   

 During my stay I dug up some wild clay and used it to make sculptures, a mud beetle house and a snail-shell shaped dew catcher. When finished I placed them back in the land, joining some of the other artworks left by previous residents. I also made paintings on tiles of Fou Fou the family goat, the water catchment pool designed by Simon and Donna, and the beautiful landscape.   

 My stay at Joya and the hills of Velez Blanco will be very memorable. I met some lovely people, artists, playwrights, musicians.. We enjoyed delicious meals together prepared by Donna and had wonderful dinnertime conversations.  

I feel very privileged to have spent time at Joya: AiR and would love to return one day.  

Henrietta MacPhee

Henrietta MacPhee is a British artist whose practise is centred in clay. She graduated from City Lit in 2017 with a Diploma in Ceramics and works from her studio in South London.
Her work was selected for a number of prestigious shows in the UK including ‘Artworks’ organised by the Barbican Arts Group and curated by Turner prize contender Tai Shani.
In 2019 MacPhee was invited to present her work at the International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth, Wales as one of four artists selected for the Emerging Makers Award.
More recently her ceramic sculpture 'Banana fan' was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2020.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Daniel Doheny / CAN

“It was freeing to be in a place like Joya: AiR, lost in the mountains, with other artists who were all in process. Long quiet days where I could focus on my writing, then chat with everyone at the end of the day over dinner. The space in Joya is simple and relaxing, and for me, was all about letting things happen naturally.

Thanks again for everything!”

Daniel Doheny

Daniel is a comedic actor and writer from Vancouver, Canada. He has worked in feature films, television and theatre for the past decade. He has written for television and film, and performs his own work on stage.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Katie So / CAN

“I arrived at Joya: AiR in the dark—after sunset and without an idea of what my week there would look like.

By morning, after a coffee, after petting the dog, after feeding the goat, I understood that it’s best not to know what to expect from this sun bleached bastion at the top of a hill, far from everything else.

It’s quiet, for one thing. Quiet during the days, only my own self-deprecating thoughts to distract me—otherwise perfect for focus and reflection.

I drew a lot of rocks, a surprising amount of rocks.

After each evenings’ ritual of watching the sunset behind the hills, the tranquility of the day is disrupted by the residents sharing stories, methods, ideas, gripes about the world outside, all over a nourishing plate of food.

How much easier it is to be creative when you’re being fed and inspired, with space to think and make, unconcerned about the traffic of the commute home at the end of the day.

The pool isn’t half bad either”.

Katie So

Katie So is a multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, BC. Drawing on their acute sensitivity to sensory stimuli, Katie captures the essence of fleeting moments, infusing their practice with a keen sense of nostalgia and emotional depth. Their work serves as a poignant reflection on the subtleties of daily life, depicting snapshots of sensory impressions and the nuanced emotions tied to ephemeral memories.

Katie has showcased work in Canada and the US, and continues to diversify their studio practice by attending local and international artist residencies. 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Michalina W Klasik / Paweł Szeibel / Joanna Zdzienicka

Joya: AiR / Michalina W. Klassik

I returned to Joya: arte +ecología after 5 years. When I was here the first time, I was starting to work on “The Secret Activism” project, which I am still developing. Returning to the place where the first works from this project were created, allowed me to observe the evolution of my own attitude. – At the beginning, I struggled with the subject of coping with the difficult knowledge of man's destructive activities towards nature, information about climate change and the associated 6th mass extinction of species. I was accompanied by a sense of shame and powerlessness. Over time, however, my attitude evolved into one of hope and a desire to act. Works started to appear that include reflections on the possibility of constructing new narratives, adopting a non-anthropocentric worldview. This need to create new, good stories about the world increasingly dominated what I was doing. I have also started to pay more attention to collaborative activities – in the arts, intra - and inter - university,  within the framework of “’academic kinship” – understood as ”'an intellectual and ethical relationship with a group sharing a common vision of the world, especially the principles of knowledge construction and academic relationships” (Resilience Academic Team RAT, 2022). I am therefore grateful that I was able to come here as part of a symposium with two other artists with whom we work at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, and to use this time to wander together (which is an important part of each of us artistic practice), to talk and to be attentive to the landscape.

My collaborative thinking also includes interspecies collaboration, understood as an orientation towards the encounter and coexistence of human and non-human beings in the spirit of deep ecology. The various forms of this encounter become the subject for a new series of works.These include a work entitled “equal”, which I started during my stay and which I intend to continue working on.

I returned to Joya again after 5 years, but I never really left completely. This place and its good energy are still with me. Coming back here, all the meetings and conversations, the strength and faith with which Donna and Simon Beckmann run their project, remind me again that ‘I believe in Earth, in compassion and in cooperation — also above species and that I believe (despite all) in humankind.’*

*An excerpt from the “The Secret Activism Manifesto”', full text available on my website:

Michalina W Klasik

Joya: AiR / Paweł Szeibel

‘This is my second encounter with the landscape of the Almería province, a place that captivates with its infinity.

For me, examining and immersing myself in this place is invaluable. The unique experience encompasses only me, my possibilities, and the landscape. I draw inspiration from cognitive experiences and the totality of raw nature. The landscape around the Joya residence: arte + ecología provides an opportunity to study this place, from the ammonites to the urban structures of the nearest towns.

Participation in it inspired me to work with an object I encountered by chance: a braided "pleita" band used for shaping local cheese. It is an artifact woven by local craftsmen from "esparto" grass, typical of this place. It comes from nature and returns to it. Consistent with my previous artistic practices, I explore the possibilities of materials derived from plants, particularly those used in the practice of creating basic items that have remained unchanged for decades. Processing this material and bestowing upon it new forms grants me the opportunity to work on my next project.

I am also extremely pleased to have had the opportunity to participate in the Field Research - Transdisciplinary Approaches to Decolonizing Nature symposium, where I could present my previous research project.

Paweł Szeibel

Joya: AiR / Joanna Zdzienicka - Obałek

Closer {work with collection chiaro + scuro}

From the very beginning, I understood "Closer" as a noun, a device equipped with not only technical, but also mental tools. I perceive the activity associated with the project by this name as time spent under a certain special filter, amplifying the atmosphere of focus, close observation, or perhaps even affection towards the very fabric of an object.

The moonlit landscape on our journey appeared suddenly, although I don't remember the exact moment of this visual leap. It probably happened shortly after we got into a taxi in Velez Rubio. It seemed to me that the car windows had turned into screens filled with a white-gray texture, interwoven with a network of protruding roots. The landscape was becoming increasingly simpler. Eyes tired from constant scanning, after a long journey, finally found relief.

Time spent in this completely new landscape for me – because that's how I perceive it (especially compared to the post-industrial region of Poland where I live and the very center of the city in which I reside) – made me rekindle my interest in the concept of light, but in a completely different context than before. One thread of this context is the sensory level, which I don't always let dominate in my artistic pursuits – it has to be very intense to have the final say. I now rely on a strong sense of the presence of such energy, thinking about the energy accumulated in every element that makes up my surrounding environment, about a kind of accumulated pure warmth that I felt at every step of all my walks and hikes around the Joya center from the first to the last step. An internal warmth... despite the absence of very high temperatures. Maybe, thanks to this internal sense of warmth, I felt that even though my artistic practices are based on collecting, this time I don't want, maybe I shouldn't even take anything with me...? I was afraid I would disturb some balance that had been defining itself in this place over the years. I felt that all I needed was to look as broadly as possible at the entire composition surrounding me, and then put the objects I studied back in their place. Another aspect, long present in my practice, is the constant need to peer inside objects, to illuminate them, not just metaphorically but literally - using scanners, tomographs, photographing them from every possible angle, examining them under a magnifying glass. The aforementioned Closer (as a tool) activated strongly during the residency, for which I am immensely grateful. I still feel the echo of that warmth. On its wave, a new series is being created, where the shape of a shadow will be responsible for the narrative... or perhaps, the edge of light?

Joanna Zdzienicka - Obałek

Three artists / adjuncts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, in residence as part of the symposium ‘Transdiciplinary Approached to Decolonising Nature’.

photo Lauren Taylor

Joya: AiR / Isobel Atacus / GBR

Smatterings.

2. I'm in Spain. On a residency. There’s a large black dog and an honesty box for crisps. I don’t know if a week is long enough to produce something but, the feeling is generative and restful, and – well, I’m here, and I have lots of ideas about what I want to do, tying up loose ends and letting new connections grow, but I also feel like I’m trying to de-clutter and wherever I happen to be this is a constant sensation. It’s really good to be in a studio with only a few selected things. I remember something Adam Philips wrote about clutter although I’m pretty certain he was quoting something from Marion Milner but something about how we need clutter because in trying to find something through the clutter we might find something else along the way – but I don’t have my notebook with me to note down the reference because I brought a new notebook so that all my other notes wouldn’t get in the way and clutter up my week –

How matter gets in the way of –  well                       I know where this is heading:

What is the matter with clutter is matter the matter of clutter, its mattering and why does this matter the clutter that clutters my matter it matters and clutters

 Isobel Atacus

Encompassing sculpture and writing, Atacus’ work playfully questions the fleeting and ambivalent nature of interactions that take place in the physical realm. Stretching from the physical landscape to the intimacy of the domestic space, her practice engages with the objects and materials that surround us, upending ways we give meaning to things through re-describing their materiality in new ways. Dwelling on a frequent sense of a loss of control, my work often involves a form of exchange, subverting my own expectations of how materials might behave.

 Alongside this she directs an artist-run space, the icing room. She currently live in London, with ongoing projects in Lisbon.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Fernando Delgado Hierro / ESP

“I had a really immersive experience at Joya Air. In that unique spot between the mountains I had the chance to experience time in a different way. As Donna told me, the city disappeared from my face after a couple of days, and with it the sense of rush. I was able then to be focused and relaxed at the same time. My days flowed with inspiration, so I was able to be productive and calmed. At night I had a great time at the lovely dinners with the other artists (the exquisite food and the British sense of humour of the residents made a perfect combo). And of course I had the chance to meet Foufou the goat, to walk during the sunset, to pet a huge dog called Frida, to look at the stars (all of them), and to wonder among the trees until I found the perfect place to sit and think for a while. It’s been only one week, but it felt much longer, in the best way possible”.

“He tenido una experiencia realmente inmersiva en Joya Air. En ese lugar único entre las montañas tuve la oportunidad de experimentar el tiempo de un modo distinto. Como me dijo Donna, la ciudad desapareció de mi cara después de un par de días, y con ella la sensación de prisa. Conseguí entonces estar enfocado y relajado al mismo tiempo. Mis días fluyeron con inspiración, pude ser productivo a la vez que estaba en calma. Por la noche disfruté de unas cenas encantadoras con el resto de artistas (la comida exquisita y el sentido del humor británico fueron una combinación perfecta). Y por supuesto tuve la oportunidad de conocer a la cabra FouFou, de pasear al atardecer, de acariciar a un perro enorme llamada Frida, de mirar las estrellas (todas y cada una de ellas), y de vagar entre los árboles hasta encontrar algún hueco en el que sentarme y pensar. Ha sido solo una semana, pero la he sentido como mucho más, en el mejor de los sentidos”.

Fernando Delgado Hierro

Fernando graduated from RESAD in Textual Interpretation in 2013 and since then he has been working as an actor in theater with directors like Pablo Messiez, or in films like 'Pig' or 'The Rite of Spring'. In 2021 he won the Max award for best new author for 'Los Remedios', the first text he released. Later, with the Exlímite company, he premiered 'Cluster', which was performed at the Teatro Español, in the Matadero warehouses. He has also directed a production for the Spanish Theater, called 'El mal de la Montaña', with text by Santiago Loza.

Fernando se licenció en la RESAD en Interpretación Textual en 2013 y desde entonces trabaja como actor en teatro con directores como Pablo Messiez, o en películas como 'El cerdo' o 'La consagración de la primavera'. En 2021 ganó el premio Max al mejor autor novel por 'Los Remedios', primer texto que estrenó. Posteriormente, con la compañía Exlímite estrenó 'Cluster', que se representó en el Teatro Español, en las naves de Matadero. También ha dirigido un montaje para el Teatro Español, llamado 'El mal de la Montaña', con texto de Santiago Loza.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Celestína Minichová / SVK

“I am an transmedia artist focused on working within the realm of feminist urgencies. My deep interest spills over and extends at the intersection of eco  and xeno urgencies. While exploring these intelectual and linguistic phenomena from various angles I mainly try to "gazexperience"  and comprehend them though performativity, creation of sound-scapes and site-specific environments. I am constantly becoming otherwise together with other creatures of medianatures - here, there and in between with consequences.

My time at Joya: AiR was fullfilled with sharing, learning and horizons-expanding in contemplative, focused and joyfull space. Within a vertical cross section of globaly orientated artists I had the opportunity to peep into, experience and soak in other rich libraries of knowledge. I am grateful both on personal as well as professional level. This beautiful time stays with me.”

Celestína Minichová

Celestína is a Slovak intermedia art student studying for a a bachelor degree at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. She works mainly within the media of site-specific performance art, language and sound as well as installation. Focusing on creating SF, imagining possible futures projecting them to the present times. She works with nature - roots, soil and at the moment stones. In August 2022 she had my first solo exhibition in Florence, Gallery Chiasso Perduto. Currently she is an exchange student at Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Jerusalem, department of Fine Arts. Performances include - Chthuleographies in Belgrade at G12HUB with Marta Jovanović, Earthly Talks in Prague at Petrohradská Collective, YES/NO in Bratislava at A4 with Klára Kusá, Preliatia in Bratislava at RARE with Katarína Poliačiková, collaborative project We (Shall) See at Kunsthalle Bratislava.

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AiR / Josephine Cachemaille / NZL

“Joya: AiR is remote, a collection of beautifully rebuilt farmhouses, encircled by ambitious permaculture earthworks, projects with gardens and orchards, gray water filtering systems, and a semi-constructed freshwater modernist pool oasis. All of this is surrounded by dry clay hills punctured with wilding Aleppo pines, Quercus oaks, thistles, wild herbs, and heat.

My residency was during high summer, and the journey by bus to Joya: AiR through entirely unfamiliar landscape left me feeling vulnerable. The land felt exhausted: endless olive and almond orchards, White Poplar forestry blocks, limestone and marble quarries, and abandoned farms.  

While I had solicited the residency for the usual reasons - to disrupt my studio-based practice, to introduce new conditions under which to make, to shake the tree -  this vulnerability was still uncomfortable. 

My response was to turn to materials and processes that might connect me to the landscape, to make gentle gestures in the hope that this tough, gutsy place would become familiar and friendly.  I walked in the mornings before the sun was intense, picking herbs - crushing them, wearing them next to my body - and later under my pillow when I slept. I collected stones to make soft red and yellow pigments to paint calico, and mixed earth into clay to fashion into a surrogate arm and hand that I could lay down onto the thorny ground. I swam in the late afternoons to cool off and calm down.

The somatic nature of these actions nurtured conditions conducive to thinking through tender things. This approach opened channels of connection and attachment and gave me fresh, painful insight into the deep dependency I have on the non-human world. 

Everyone I met at Joya: AiR was brave, and while Joya is a retreat, a withdrawal from norms, it is also a frontier in which to venture out into unknowns”.

Josephine Cachemaille

For years I have approached materials as sensuous bodies with needs, desires and agency, but only recently have begun to understand that my making processes and the final assemblages themselves (often composite bodies and beings) kindle attachments and enduring affectionate relationships. My current work is concerned with nurture, care and healing. My practice has become an important site to explicitly hope and be optimistic; to cope with anxieties; and to form attachments and connections - with humans and non-human materials alike.

I work with a range of media to create installations comprising soft and hard sculpture, paintings and assemblages. The manipulation of these components and their relationships in the studio result in installations that function as psychological landscapes that I can examine, order, and arrange as I think through tender things, 

photo Simon Beckmann

Joya: AIR / Faiza Hasan / PAK - ENG

“Joya: AiR came to me at a time when I was feeling creatively stifled, when I needed the time and space to recharge and recuperate. Within a few hours of showing up, the dry, sparse almost lunar landscape, the intense heat, the rows of almond trees, the scent of wild mountain rosemary and thyme, all cupped within the towering mountains, made something relax inside me. I’d start the days with a trek in the mountains and valleys, when the sun had barely crested the horizon, through forests silent but for the chirrups of birds or a scurrying rabbit and was rewarded one day when a herd of Ibex, as startled by me as I was by them, thundered right past me.

My days were spent writing, the whup, whup of the wind turbine and the buzz of bees a comfort in the background, with siestas in the afternoons as the temperature soared. I’d bump into fellow artists in the kitchen over lunch and chat about what we’d worked on or complain about the lack of inspiration as Frida the dog padded up for cuddles. Evenings we gathered to watch the sun set behind the mountains, then tucked into one of Donna’s soul satisfying meals and talked late into the night about life, art and oddly enough - Jung. At night I’d go to sleep looking out of my window at a dome of glittering, star studded skies, one of the clearest I have ever seen.

My three weeks at Joya: AiR will stay with me for a long time. Not only did I manage to make great progress with my work, but I also met many fantastic artists, made many friends and felt that creative spark come back to life.

Faiza Hasan

Faiza Hasan has worked as a journalist for publications in the US and Pakistan, and has an MA in Journalism from Stanford University, an MA in Creative Writing from Cambridge University, and has been a contributor at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, as well as the San Miguel Writers’ Conference. She also trained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu and ran a pop up restaurant in London, then a bistro in Windsor and an online macaroon store, which she had to shut down due to a chronic pain condition, Fibromyalgia. She writes short stories and has just finished writing her first novel, The Ties that Bind Us.