This page shows residents and their projects in 2021.
most recent residents and their projects are in the newsletter.
Other pages show residents and their projects in 2020, 2019, 2018,  2017,  2016, 2015,  2014,  2012 and 2013  and 2004-2011. 
A visual collage of residents is in this slide show.

This page tells about most of the residencies and related events that took place in 2021. The most recent are in the newsletter.

We are very happy that Covid is finally fading away, Exhibitions, originally scheduled for 2020 and 2021, has been postponed to 2022 and 2023. 
This applied to The Mirror Between Us with Sherry Wiggins and Luís Branco (see a special page for more information), for Ressonânçias da Terra, an exhibition of Ingrid Simons (see this page for Ingrid for an impression) and for an exhibition with Rob Monaghan.

Sherry Wiggins (USA) and Luis Branco (Portugal) are participating in the OBRAS residency program already for six years. Their discipline is performative photography, in which Sherry is the performer and Luís the photographer. Their way of creating is highly interactive. See see page Wiggins/Branco for more info.
In 2021 they started a new project: “performing” famous mythical women such as Eve, Salome, Medea, Medusa and more. The first images are fascinating: see the slide show.

In April 2021 Sherry and Luís won the first price with "outside woman" in a photo exhibition "Eye of the Camara; MYTHS and LEGENDS (April, May, Littleton Museum Collorado USA). The photo will also be part of their exhibition in Évora in 2022.

Ingrid Simons (Holland) was scheduled to have an exhibition in the prestigious Galeria D. Dinis of the Municipal museum of Estremoz in April-June 2021, but COVID made this impossible. It will now be in spring 2022. See this page for info on Ingrid Simons at OBRAS over the past 10(!) years.

Holly Osborn (USA) was painting both figurative and abstract, and in increasing sizes: she started on panels of 20x30 cm panels and ended with canvases of 1x1,5 m. Her sources of inspiration were diverse as well: her own studio and the trees around the house, as well as the abandoned marble quarries. Several works were exhibited in the USA in January.
Holly worked many hours per day, but, fortunate for all fellow residents: she found time to show her amazing cooking talents.

In March - April, Antonio Tavares was working at OBRAS, especially to make paintings in sizes that are too big for his own studio. He was highly productive.
Apart from painting he was also contemplating on the history of the house: see this page.

Mia Baily (Australia, living in Germany) made progress with her second novel, making use of the classic three-act structure.Mia is writer and visual artist whose work examines the possibilities of sight, both physical and metaphorical. Central theme in her work is When we look, can we see? She thereby refers to questions such as: what of the world can we objectively know? Are we trapped in our history and culture?

Bobbie Esra Pertran was working on several projects. One was the story of her family: a true example of global nomadism during the past two centuries. She just got an invitation for an exhibition in Norway.
Bobbie was also fascinated by the wind. She started a collaboration with a fellow resident and composer: Tetsuya Hori. It may result into a music video.
And she made video and photo recordings of sunset at solstice.  

In OBRAS Holland, Yvonne Halfens made a series of sculptures, some of them life-size, others smaller and surrounded by colorful wooden sticks. The composition could suggest a throne but also a prison. Recurring element is a figure pointing to an opening in his chest. They are in the same time playful and sad. 

In July Yvonne want to OBRAS-Portugal, where she made sculptures by gluing thin tree branches together into more or less geometric frameworks. Some were painted in bright colors. The sculptures seem fragile but in fact they are amazingly strong. You nearly do not dare to touch them, but there is little risk of damage. This inherent contradiction gives them extra quality. Yvonne also painted imaginary figures and made a paper collage that reminds to a Portuguese tiled wall.

Wilma Geldof (Holland) writes for several age categories, but mostly for young adults. And most of her novels are related to World War II. The latest one (which she was working on in her previous residency): The girl with the braids, was rewarded with several prices and is translated into five languages.
Wilma came back to work on a new novel: Every day a drop of poison. It is about Maarten, a Dutch boy in WW 2 who is terribly bullied on school because his father sympathizes with the Nazis.  Maarten escapes by moving to an elite school run by Nazis. He proves to be a model student and is prepared for war. Different from most of his fellow students he survives. After the war, Maarten is arrested and has to learn living with the fact that he has been part of a killing machine.  
The artist talk of Wilma was impressive because of its content but also because she put it in a very personal context.  

Cathy Rose (USA) was working on a novel that tells about a hippy community, living in yurts. She is intrigued by the impact of unconventional lifestyles: the idealism, misunderstandings, blurred values, clashes and disillusions. She made use of her own youth experiences as well as her background as psychologist.
A nice co-incidence was that, near to us some yurts are used as part of an eco-village. During her artist talk Cathy showed her talent as a reader. Especially a short story about a lunatic who got fascinated by a Buddha necklace, was both moving and funny.  

Elisabeth Melkonyan (Austria) brought a role of paper: 20 cm wide and 30 meters long. She started drawing and painting on it three years ago and finished at OBRAS. It shows small natural elements that she found during her traveling. To exhibit it in full length the big hall was too small. She needed a 10m extension outside.  Elisabeth made other sculptural works, both inside her studio and outside, inspired by nature as well as work of Sherry Wiggins. A recurring subject in Elisabeth´s work is the ocean. She presented several pieces that relate to it.

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei had the biggest show of his career, and he was doing it in a country he’s fallen in love with: Portugal. The artist ticks off what appeals to him about Portugal: the slow pace of life, very open” people, very acceptable food and abundant sunshine.
Ai arrived in Portugal in 2019 and has no plans to return to Germany or England, where he has also lived since leaving China in 2015. He bought a house near Montemor, 40 kms from OBRAS. “I always make decisions by my personal instinct. I feel comfortable here. Remaining in Portugal was probably the best decision I ever made,” Ai said.
His new exhibition, “Rapture” (11 June until 28 November, in the Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon). It shows 85 pieces including some of his iconic works, as well as new ones produced in Portugal. “Forever Bicycles,” from 2015, a giant sculpture using 960 stainless steel bicycles as building blocks, stands at the entrance to the building. Ai's 16-meter-long (52-foot-long) black inflatable boat with human figures, which alludes to the migration crisis, is also in Lisbon.
Ai has traveled across Portugal visiting craftspeople to learn about using traditional Portuguese materials such as marble, textiles, hand-painted tiles and cork.

We visited the exhibition of Ai Weiwei, and all of a surprise we met him in person (!). And even more of a surprise: he had heard about us and said "being nearly neighbors I should like to come and visit you" (!!) Let us see what the future brings us.

Sabine Scholl (Austria) was working on a novel about Jews in WW2 who were waiting in Lisbon in an attempt to escape Europe and get shipped to the USA. The story tells about their fear and expectation, but also about those who made the trip and started a new life, which for some was filled with frustrations and disillusions.

Nuno Santos (artist name Chullage) had a short but highly productive residency, for which he brought a complete sound studio. He was working on a new album: he mixed electronic music (such as Hip Hop) with African music on traditional instruments and with the sounds of sheep bells. At the end of his residency he invited all fellow residents for a jam session. He proved to be an excellent composer, conductor and animator. Everybody was excited.

On 20 April was the premiere of O Riso dos Necrófagos : a play that tells about the Batepá massacre in 1953 in São Tomé.
In September 2020 Teatro Griot, a theatre group from Lisbon had rehearsals at OBRAS  for this play and we were honored to be invited for the premiere in Culturgest, Lisbon. In 2021 it will tour through Portugal and abroad.
The play is highly actual in the scope of Black Lives Matter. More information on content en actors is on the page residents 2020.

Tim Gleason (USA) was sketching every day: sometimes abstract, sometimes objects from his direct surroundings, sometimes conceptual. He fixed every work on the wall of his studio until he had filled the full surface of 10 to 6 m. The video gives an impression. At the end of his residency he put all works in his suitcase, because they are meant to be building stones for big paintings that he will make at home.
The music in this video is an improvisation by a fellow resident: Stefano Falcone (see also elsewhere in this newsletter). 

Marianne Noordzij (Holland) is a sound artist. She collected sounds from the surroundings (marble, sheep bells, the voice of Anna Maria, ..), manipulated them a bit and made an improvisation with it, using a mixing table. She gave an impressive presentation in an ancient, stone walled meadow, 50 meters from the house.

Stefano Falcone (Italy) is jazz pianist and composer. During his residency he composed nine pieces for piano solo. These were premiered two weeks later on the Piano Festival in Lecce (24 September). Stefano granted his fellow residents a wonderful short living-room concert. He improvised after having collected the wishes of his audience on aspects such as mood, tempo and tonality.
Stefano was working on a CD that will be released by the end of 2022. It is entitled “OBRAS”. Another resident: Tim Gleason (USA) will design the cover of the CD and some other residents will write a short text.

Natasha Carlos (USA) worked on a long-term project: she makes portraits of parts of herself, surrounded by nature. She, for instance, climbed in a tree, dressed in black trying to merge with the branches of the tree, and showing only her bare foot. She was also experimenting with mirrors in the pasture and with floating flowers. For Natasha the residency was emotional, because she has Portuguese parents.  

Clarrise Baleja Saidi (Canada) was editing the novel that she started in 2019 and worked on during her OBRAS residency in 2020. It tells about the dramatic life of a woman surmounting her fears and traumas, experiences partly due to the realities around her and partly due to her troubled mind. The novel is now agented. Baleja also began etching a new project.

Tetsuya Hori (Japan, living in Germany) was working on a composition for piano for four hands. In addition he was collecting sounds from the surroundings, ranging from marble sawing machines to bells of cows, sheep and goats, for which he lent a set from Almerindo, the local shepherd.

Nazaré Soares (Norway, Spain) works on a long-term project: The Witch Trail. The project started as The Witch Trials and focused on lost legends, alchemy and female power. But it is evolving towards an exploration of the spiritual power of nature. Her tools are common from hippies and New Age (offering ceremonies to Goddesses, listening to your soul and to the spirit of objects), but her larger goal is to reconnect to nature. She invites people to bring natural objects closer to both body and mind. Being an artist she feels free to give a personal interpretation to scientific and historical facts and ancient stories.
The residents were invited to participate in two happenings. One was in an abandoned marble quarry and focused on the “wisdom” of rocks, and a second one was an offering ceremony around an ancient well and was dedicated to our relation with water.    
The slide show gives an interpretation of her work at OBRAS.

Gunnþóra Ólafsdóttir (Iceland) was working on a scientific article on the health benefits of nature. That nature has a positive effect on mental and physical health is undisputed in the public domain and is relevant for public health, insurance companies, tourism and nature management. But politics and economy increasingly need solid scientific proof of this presumption.
Gunnþóra was leader of an interdisciplinary project group that did an experiment with young adults exposed to nature. The impact was measured with interviews and bio indicators such as telomerase.  Results were not conclusive, but gave guidance for an effective strategy to proof the hypothesis. Her artist talk triggered a lively discussion on the perceived value of nature.

Sherry Wiggins just published her book The Unknown Heroine. It is now in print. An exhibition on this project was in March-April at Michael Warren Contemporary (Denver, USA).
The Unknown Heroine is a project of performative photography by Sherry (performer) and Luis Branco (photographer), that was executed in 2019 in the residence of OBRAS-Holland. The images suggest to portray a middle aged woman that dreams of a grand and compelling life, but is trapped in her role as housewife: she seems to doubt whether this is caused by society or by herself. She lives in a confusing mix of facts and fantasies, of existential wishes and of deep fears.
The project is deeply inspired by the work of Claude Cahun (1894 – 1954), a French feminist and surrealist multi-media artist. In her book Sherry writes a letter to Claude Cahun. Cydney Payton contributed with an essay on the work of Sherry.
See more on the residencies and exhibitions of Sherry Wiggins at OBRAS on this page.   

Jane Flett (UK, living in Germany) worked on her 100-words-stories project and presented some of them. They were close to poetry: highly condensed, partly abstract and metaphorical, and triggering the imagination. Jane also started a new novel
(and she proved to be an expert in explaining tarot cards.)

With an amazing creative power Katia Wille (Brazil) was working on Trans Figura, a long term project that examines the emotions caused by risks (such as the pandemic) and the potential of these emotions to trigger change.
Katia took supermarket bags: she cuts, paints, embroiders and re-assembles them into a new bag that she offers to people to use it half a year and then return for to be exhibited. She thereby connects a social object with an art object.
Another part of Trans Figura is exploring robotics. Using Artificial Intelligence she made a painted canvas making movement depending of the emotion of the viewer. At OBRAS she used the breeze over an oat field to let a canvas move that laid on top of it.  
She also explored cork, marble and cactus leaves as mediums for her artwork.
Katia forms strong team with Hans Blankenburgh (Holland, Living in Brazil) for getting ideas and feedback, as well as for solving technical and logistic problems.   

Ethna Barry (Canada) is painting intuitively. Her abstract paintings are inspired by elements around her, such as cork and branches covered by lichens, but also summer heat and night sky. In addition to pencils she is using techniques such as dripping and scratching with wooden sticks. She was also experimenting with the third dimension by painting on transparent paper that she hung on a laundry line or by rolling a painting up and fixing it on the wall as a cylinder.
Ethna had a beautiful exhibition in the patio, where her art work communicated surprisingly well with the shadow / light patrons on the white walls and with the lush green of the trees.  

Peter Bremer  (Holland) generally paints abstract, but this time he decided to make a series of portraits in oil paint of his fellow residents. The one above is of Sebastiaan van Bijleveld.

With seven actors and technical crew of three, Monica de Miranda (Portugal) was shooting her film: A ILJA: a visual poem on the unknown story of slavery in the Alentejo. One of the actors was her daughter Jara. Mónica came in December, February, April and June. Most of the screenings were done in April at OBRAS and its direct surroundings. A LIJA is full of visual metaphors. For instance, an actor is always carrying a suitcase with soil and water from his home country. And the destruction of the landscape by marble quarrying symbolizes the damage of black lives.

Nora van Dam (Holland) felt that she has nearly completely recovered from a serious health problem. This motivated her to restart her theater activities. She made a video in which she recites part of Joie de Vivre, a story written by Albert Camus that tells about a fat young woman who sings in a pub surrounded by over-exited drunken men. The way Nora brings this monologue is very touching (see Nora´s Facebook site, although only spoken in Dutch).

Léon Biezeman returned to OBRAS Holland and experienced a special time, not only because of the COVID lockdown, but also because it was the snowiest and coldest period (-15 o C) in two decades. Good for him that it was sunny, so good for winter walks. Léon came to start writing his second book for dyslectic children. It is about a kid that very much enjoys his holidays at the grandparents, But he has strange experiences when looking at the newspaper, when picking a box with flower bulbs … These are his first steps in a voyage towards understanding.
He hopes to finish it during a residency in 2022 at OBRAS-Portugal. His first book, which he was working on during his previous residency, will be launched in September 2021.

Floriane Colas (France) has an education in moviemaking and is specialising in scriptwriting. She was working on the script for THE MONOCLE, a series with an historical context: the first Lesbian bar in Paris (Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker we frequent guests). The story tells about problems of getting the establishment accepted, not only as a meeting point for lesbians but even as an initiative taken by a woman. But it also tells about emerging movements of LGBT, emancipation and feminism. However, THE MONOCLE is first of all fiction. The head character: Maxine, starts a bar for having a refuge where she can be herself and meet soul mates, but also as a base from where she can take revenge on those who made her youth a hell. Stepwise she starts doubting if revenge is needed to make her happy.
In her artist talk Floriane presented an outline for the teaser. She did it that vividly that all were sucked into the story.   

 Luc van der Velde (Belgium) made a series of land-art installations dedicated to combining natural with artificial materials: a 5 meters high pillar of hay wrapped in plastic, a rubber off print of a tree bark, a 2x4 meters jute tissue covered with local clay,  and more. After having installed them in the landscape he invited residents and friends to join for a walk. It was more than just visiting an open-air art exhibition. It also felt like a procession, a celebration, a contemplation on how we see our surroundings.

Rob van Weegen (Holland) came to work on a theatre play that tells about a couple that is divorcing. The dialogues are poignant in their indirectness: the man hopes to repair the relation while the woman is sure about her decision to divorce, but both fear the discussion. They both talk about meaningless little things, he to gain some affection, she to avoid the real subject. During his artist talk Rob played a scene together with Gunnþóra. It was very moving.

For Anna Maria Achatz (Austria) the first step in creating art is choosing a colour. With green acrylic ink on 20x30 cm rice paper she made clusters of similar abstract forms. The first object that she took as a starting point for her paintings was a prematurely shed little pomegranate. Later she adapted colour (first yellow and later magenta entered her work) and paper type (including pages of an 80 years old railroad magazine), but not her formal language. At the end of her six-weeks residency she had made more than 150 paintings.

Rolf Straver (Holland) came to compose music and to work on a music related book, but his surroundings triggered him to many other directions. We exercised his voice for the Bach choir that he will join once he is back home. He wrote some poems (in English, German and Russian), inspired by a viewpoint under an oak tree. And he found a former love back: the guitar. He started his composer’s career with it, but later focused on other instruments. In his artist talk he discussed his statement that a strategy model that was designed for legal cases and for management, may be applicable for art critiques as well. It resulted in a discussion on the role of facts in art.   

Merritt Tierce and Julia Dyer (USA) worked on the outline and a script for WALK WITH ME. It is a mega project: a television series over three seasons and seven episodes per season. The first layer is a crime story full of twists of the plot. A university professor is killed, seemingly as a me-too revenge. But obvious explanations prove not to work. A second layer is the exploration of an unknown world, partly pre-Christian, partly supernatural, a world that may provide solutions for the current social and environmental collapse.  And a third layer is the existential question: are we going to self-destruct or are we going to change?
In their artist talk Merritt and Julia invited the fellow residents to imagine and play several characters and happenings, resulting in an experience that was informative and very exciting.
Earlier scripts of Merritt and Julia were bought by Netflix and HBO.

Andrea Brasch is game designer. She took a two-month residency to work on a proposal for a multi-years project. She had been highly successful with her previous game: The Journey of the Imperfect Circle, which won three important awards. She worked on it for many years, also at OBRAS. Her new game will be about human relations. She had several brainstorms with the other residencies. Andrea also worked on an exhibition about what it is to be a woman. Part will be with virtual reality. 

Victoria Gosling (UK, living in Germany) was writing a novel, a work of literary fiction, using the structure and story line of the 5th century legend of King Arthur. But Victoria´s story is about the power of the big tech companies, spy ware and hackers. In her story Lancelot became Lance Alett, an Afghanistan war veteran who suffers from PTSD. Just like the legend of King Arthur, it is about heroism, betrayal and addiction to power, but Victoria´s story focuses on two female characters. Victoria worked very hard with few breaks (her daily swim) and managed to finish her first draft the day before she left.

Gerry van der Linden came OBRAS Holland to work on a new anthology: Alles is vroeger. The title is in Dutch and difficult to translate because of a double meaning. It refers to both  Everything comes from the Past and All is Earlier than Usual.
The poems are about what has been and comes back and never leaves, about the tension due to everything meshing together and falling apart, which causes us, humans, a loss of control over ourselves and our environment. It is a total reset of everything we have taken for granted until now.
The collection of poems will be released by the publisher Nieuw Amsterdam, in summer 2021.

Nico Huijbregts (Holland) started a new novel during his residency at OBRAS Holland. He describes it as a philosophical quest for what is needed to connect to the world. The story tells about a new bridge that is being built in a city. When one day this bridge suddenly drifts away, the life of the successful artist Babel also seem to loose its direction. The story also tells about works of art that are not completely square, about disappearing into a painting, about catatonic camping and about heroes from the silver screen.
In July, Nico came to OBRAS-Portugal. There, he used several of his artistic talents. He composed a few pieces for piano and made a poem about the bench under an oak tree, near to the Casa Principal. Have a look on Nico´s Facebook site for a video impression and the full text (spoken in Dutch, subtitled in English). And he started a new project that has a link with the novel he is working on (see above): he asks people to imagine to be a collapsing bridge (!): you loose your base and connections that gave your life a meaning. Nico intends to make a compilation of these interviews in the format of a newspaper.

Gerry van der Linden (Holland) did the final editing of her newest poetry album: "Niemand blijft het langst" (nobody stays the longest), which is scheduled to be published in September. In addition she made many new poems, some of them contemplative and others hilarious. During her artist talk she also showed a collection of observations and small objects from her direct surroundings.

Since 2014 Luís Branco (Portugal) co-operates with Foundation OBRAS. He photographed the work of a number of artists in residence and had collaborative projects. This resulted in exhibitions, videos and a publication. We have created a page on this website to give an impression of the results.

In 2021 OBRAS experienced an amazing spring burst of nature: see the video above.

A phase has ended. About 15 minutes from OBRAS is an abandoned train station. It will soon be converted into tourists´ apartments.
The building tells about a history of well over 100 years. Some artists in residence gave it a second live. The past ten years it was the venue of site specific happenings and photo shoots, and its walls were used for some highly artistic murals. The page on man-made structures in nature gives an impression.

About OBRAS:
In November 2021, Foundation OBRAS made a kind of a new start. It got two new board members, it updated its statutes and the House Governance Rules, and adopted the newest regulations and codes on Governance Culture, on Fair Practice and on Diversity & Inclusion.