2009-2010:
In June 2010 Sally Stafford (Painter, UK) returned for a residency. In her landscapes she focused on the last traces of spring and the occurrence of summer heat. Her works will be exhibited in the Algarve.
Carolyne Caldwell (Painter, USA) experimented with a new stile. Her large abstracted landscapes got a great response.
Sandra Trujillo (visual artists, USA) made a series of surrealistic drawings of people in a world of pollution, consumption and escape behaviour. With Sandra we work on a plan for her return in 2012 with an exhibition and a student’s exchange project.
Hong Boram (Multi media artist, South Korea) took “balance” as her subject: the organisation of her thoughts and of the relation with her environment. This brought her to the creations of mobiles, fragile, small sculptings, and forty short videos: on locations such a church, a stone circle and a beach she added her one sound to the background by singing one well tuned tone.
Brian Bruya (USA) is professor Chinese philosophy at Michigan University. He worked on an article on “effortlessness”.
Yuling (visal artist; Taiwan, USA) focused on discovering her personal image language with Chinese and Western style elements.She was excited about cork.
Sherry Millner and Erny Larsen (film makers, USA) just returned from Vietnam. They edited their recent videos.
Luc van der Velde (Visual artist, Belgium) had an impressive solo-exhibition in the Igreja Sao Vicente in Évora. On eleven tissues of 2,5-1.5 m he presented the theme Nostalgia in a way that was both serene, peaceful, sad and longing . On Facebook is a photo report.
Miira Sippola (Finland) is theatre maker en writer of novels. She developed a proposal for performing in 2011 the Divina Commedia in a contemporary version in an abandoned marble quarry in Estremoz.
In May, Lim Shoo Wen (film maker, Singapore) wrote a film script on gender issues and used the offer to screen three short films in the public library of Évora.
Igor Reinhart (sculptor, Switzerland) carved a beautiful marble statue and prepared several art projects.
Sonia Vereira (scientist, Portugal) worked on her project on environmental education.
In March-April Gudrun Kainz (Austria) was one of ten artists in residents. Gudrun had her ceramics education in Austria, Hungary, England and Wales. Within ceramics her specialty is in Smoke Firing. In Evoramonte Gudrun was inspired by the rhythm of roof tiles, the texture of the oak bark and the red color of the local clay. She granted the residents a short introduction in smoke firing.
Ingrid Simons (painter; Holland) is highly inspired by the moon light: the atmosphere of creepiness, stillness and decay, the dualism of darkness and light in the darkness. In April Ingrid got a beautiful solo exhibition on this subject in the Igreja São Vicente in Évora, Portugal. The opening was done by Anke Schaeffers, cultural attaché of the Netherlands in Lisbon. Later she was invited to have a mini exhibition in the residency of the Netherlands ambassador. During her residency she experimented a lot with subjects and colors. She started applying, for the first time in 11 years, the color blue.
Carla Gonzalez (Portugal) studied Environmental Management and is currently in the finishing phase of writing her PhD thesis on small rivers in Alentejo. She believes that it is possible to become closer to reality (or a construction of it) by combining different worldviews, knowledge and experiences. To understand the farmers´ vision on rivers in their environment, Carla combined ecology, sociology, history and action research. In the months of her residency she had intense contacts with the artists. Together with Adriana Araujo (Ceramist from Brazil) she made a land art project entitled Ainda Não (Not Yet).
Stephan Denkendorf (Austria) is both a writer (of short stories on societal issues) and a drawer (half-abstract, cartoon like sketches). He only uses straight lines, never curves. In Evoramonte he made a series of drawings in which he added blue patches made from the wild iris that he found in the surrounding fields.
Sweta Srivastava Vikram is a writer living in New York City. During her residency in Evoramonte Sweta wrote poems in which she used elements of her direct surroundings such as eucalyptus, cork oak and bee-eater as metaphors for societal issues, especially human rights and gender inequality. One of these poems have already been published.
Miira Sippola (Finland) is theatre director and novelist. In Evoramonte she (nearly) put the last full stop in the manuscript of het latest novel. In the same time she developed the idea to perform the Divina Comedia in a contemporary version in an abandoned marble quarry in Estremoz. It is provisionally scheduled for September 2011.
Claire Anna Watson (Australia) is working on a Masters degree in Fine Art. She is intrigued by the hidden beauty of the ordinary. In a public park in Évora she “decorated” a tree with fruits and flowers, thereby referring to the Tree of Life. In Evoramonte she put seven black crows in an ancient olive tree in a reference to death.
After has been our house mate for more than a year, Leonor Venançio (Visual artist, Architect. Portugal) decided to return to Aribana. But she will continue participating in the micro cosmos of Marmeleira. On 29 January, she tookk part in an open atelier with a mosaic of 30 engravings and on 22 April she presented some of her short videos.
Antoinette Leroy (Holland) used her residency to get acquainted with Portuguese marble.
Laura Reixach (Spain) was inspired, both as an visual artist and illustrator by the oak trees in the surrounding landscape.
In January 2010 Caroline Ansink (composer, Holland) worked on her new opera dedicated to Florence Nightingale.
In December 2009 Lotte van Lieshout (Painter, Holland) made fantastic paintings inspired by the traders of the Estremoz market, the skull in the Bones Chapel of Evora and the waling sticks of shepherds.
Ruut van der Beele (film maker, Holland) collected items for his new movie.
Bjornar Berg (writer, philosopher. Norway) is working on an impressive essay on Thoughts. He describes how his thoughts dictate as a tyrant what he is doing, how he responds to fear, love and death, and they make him blind for other critical topics. He tries finding a way to defeat this tyrant. While working on the finishing touch Bjornar relieved the message that his editor decided to publish the essay. Probably, the title will become: Freedom is seeing the rain fall without having any thoughts.
Adriana Araujo (visual artist. Bahia, Brazil) compared to the heat of Bahia (Brazil) with the winter chill of Alentejo. She gave little tree branches a sweater. Her partner: Mauricio Santil (visual artist. Bahia, Brazil) did make cartoon like drawing on this issue. Later they made bigger more varied work that they will display in an exhibition in February in Estremoz. Part of their work will probably be presented again in Salvador (Bahia).
In October 2009 Dagmar Tinschmann (Germany) created photo collages of tree bark, sky scapes, lichens and native flowers. These will be exhibited in November in Germany.
Also in October John McDonald (Scotland) experimented with soil pigments, marble and slate. He made fascinating pottery and relief's.
In September we organised an exhibition, named Cedendo à Terra (Borrowing the Earth) for nine artists in residence:
- Birgitte Thorlacius (Denmark) showed etches and paintings of dried out plants
- Babette Werth (Germany) experimented with the Portuguese word “Secca” (dry). With dry grass stalks show wrote and painted this word tens of times.
- Olivia Bliss (Scotland) made highly original installations using cork, marble and rubbings of an oak tree stem, and included close ups of bee eyes and the human neural system. Olivia is a double talent: she showed her singers skills by performing during the inauguration of the exhibition and in several other occasions. ”. Her performance in an abandoned marble quarry will soon appear on Youtube.
- Christine Leathem (Northern Ireland) was inspired by the azulejos (blue white tiles which decorate the inner walls of ancient Portuguese houses. She did hang a curtain of carton azulajos, showing an abstraction of romantic images, blocking a corridor: Behind the curtain were marble step stones on which she printed again seemingly romantic images.
- Carl Ciesluk (Canada) constructed large triangles, some of laying sunk in the landscape, others standing or hanging, using the deep red clay of Borba.
- Frede Troelsen (Denmark) has more than 40 years of experience in sculpting granite, but for the first time he worked in marble. In less than a month a made 8 works. And he ordered the transport of 6 tons of marble blocks to Denmark.
- Leonor Venâncio (Portugal) showed in her prints and paintings an intriguing fusion of art and architecture.
- In addition we showed the land art work of Patricia Loucks (Canada, resident in June) and some photo compositions of Magda Giebels (Portugal).
In August Gregory McElwain (Egypt) was working on the finishing touch of his children’s book.
Emma Allotey (UK) nearly finished her novel on lovers with multicultural roots.
Noemi Maldonado, a Spanish guitarist and composer, did write nine songs for her new album and created three new ones.
The Portuguese-Spanish painter Rui Gomes Pereira made three very impressive, big oil paintings on the live and mind of kids living in slumps.
In June Pat Loucks (textile artist; Canada) got a wonderful exhibition in a 17th century monument: the Convento das Servas in Borba. A long time ago this convent was an incredibly rich cloister for Carmelites. Many frescos are dedicated to friendship and mystic love. Pat Loucks exhibited together with two Portuguese jewelry makers: Cláudia Branco and Miguel Tomás. A fruitful and inspiring combination as the works were complementary. More information is in Face Book.
Amy Clay (visual artist, USA) made a start of a one-year world tour that the named her “heroes journey”. She made collages of patterns that the observed in the surrounding landscape, ancient buildings and antique furniture.
Jodi Tychowsky (visual artist, Canada) made colorful landscapes with several techniques.
Lindsie Canton (visual artist, Canada) worked abstract and conceptually with circles and organic forms. She experimented with etching together with Jodi and Magda Giebels.
George Moore (USA) wrote 31 poems during his residency in May. Most of them were directly inspired by his direct surroundings: a slightly socially disabled shepherd, an abandoned chapel, encounters on the farmers market and so on.
Helga Eibl (Painter; Austria) returned after a fruitful residency in 2008. And again she was highly productive.
In April Leonor Venançio (Portugal) showed her recent drawings in an “open-atelier” and in May she joined Christel van Hoeckel in making floating objects.
Sibylla Weisweiler (Germany made intriguing studies in warm colors for the urban landscapes that she will make in the months to come. Berlin is the subject, And her leitmotiv is “appear and disappear”.
Christel van Hoeckel (Holland) made a number of installations, objects and collages, mainly with the use of found materials. They impressed a lot, among other reasons because many of the works concerned the rearranging her feelings after the decease of her boyfriend.
Bia Maas (Holland) painted pigs, railway tracks and a dead lizard in the sink of the swimming pool shower. But these were just breaks in her main project: to photograph in black-and-white the interiors of unpretentious Alentejan houses.
In March / April we organized a prestigious solo exhibition: O Espaço do tempo of René Coelho (France / Holland) in the Igreja S. Vicente in Évora. In photo collages and video installations he considers the relativity of time and space. The decay of tulips, changes of his face over 65 years and the move of clouds were the metaphors that he used.
In December 2008 /January 2009 the Australian artist / scientist: Tori Lawson was our guest. As part of her doctorate she did a performance in Évora. She walked from the Capella d´Ossos along the aqueduct of to a cork oaks plantation. In the Capella she left behind a sentence chopped in marble: art makes me immortal and in the plantation a marble sheet with photography kills me. During the walk she recited poems of Lord Byron on his Iberian journey. The result will be presented on internet and in an art book that will be incorporated in the collection of the library in Évora, an Australian library and the royal library in The Hague, The Netherlands.
In the period 2005-2008 among the artists in residence were: September, Ana Friedman (visual artist, Germany), Luc van der Velde (visual artist, Belgium), Dan Scott (sound artist, UK), Trish Cunning (multi media artist,UK), Marchall Crossman (Visual artist, USA), Anne MacMahon (art photographer, Ireland), Janice Fuller (Poet, USA), Babette Werth (Visal artist, Germany), Helga Eibl (visual artist, Austria), Katalin Nagy (textile artist, Hungary, Istvan Kovacs (Multi mediaartist, Hungary), Jee Won Kim (Dacer, choreorgapher; South Korea), Janet Pierce (Painter, Ireland), Patricia Loucks (Textile artist, Canada), Sally Stafford (painter, UK) and Fritska van Dorsten (Sculptor, Netherlands), Adam Ceczki (video artist, Australia), Nicole van Schaijck (painter, Holland), Iris Haeck (writer; The Netherlands), Liljana Maletin-Vojvodic (writer, photographer; Serbia), Dragan Vojvodic (visual artist; Serbia), Carla Ribeira (dancer, choreographer; Portugal) Anne Mc Mahon (art photographer; Ireland), Karen Kerkhoven (choreographer, Australia), Sally Stafford (painter; UK), Howard Ross (painter, Canada), Jennifer Hurley (poet; USA), Ana Parreira (multi media artist; Portugal), Erik Dyckhoff (singer, Netherlands, Belgium), Josephine Alcott (multi media artist, landscape architect; USA), Jacobien de Rooy (visual artist; Netherlands), Tathiana Lobo (dancer; Portugal / Brazil), Christian Hüssel (Germany; writer), Lissa Brennan (USA); play write and performer). Monica de Miranda (Portugal / England); multi-media artist. Kirsten Svenstrup (Denmark; ceramist), Joergen Svenstrup (Denmark; painter), Hanni Stolker (the Netherlands, painter). Gaylord Brewer (USA, poet). Caroline Ansink (The Netherlands, composer), Adrièn Brequet (France; photographer). C éline Charpentier (France, visual artists), Monique Kwist (Netherlands; visual artists), Elsa Cham's (Portugal,dancer), John Macdonald Barret (Scotland; visual artist), Anita Ammerlaan (The Netherlands, painter), Paula Dreijer (USA; musician), Jan Kremer (the Netherlands; writer), Sung Ung Kim (South Korea; photographer), Jun Kim (South Korea: sound artist), JCJ Vanderheijde (The Netherlands; visual artist), Molly Sturges (USA; Singer and actor), Chris Jonas (USA; Sax player and actor), Christopher Steadman (England; video artist).
