This page shows residents and their projects in 2024.
Other pages show residents and their projects in 2023, 2022, 2021, 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 2024. The most recent are in the newsletter.

Rachel Back is a poet / writer from Galilee, Israel. She came to write, but also to escape the violence of war for a few weeks. Rachel was working on her biography, which has a focus on her deep, genetically based depression. She chose to write her story in a creative non-fiction format: she took the myth of Demeter as a lead. It talks about Demeter mourning on her daughter Persephone, who was kidnapped, raped and enslaved by Hades, God of the underworld. Rachel took not Demeter, but Persephone as a focal point: her fate to live in the underworld, serving her rapist.
Rachel managed to finish a first draft and send it to her publisher.

Rachel gave us a Hebrew calligraphy: a wish for all who arrive and leave, to live in peace.

Nine Elder (USA) came to explore the marble quarries and other stony structures as part of her ongoing project: Embodied Geology. By combining the exploration of geological phenomena, man-made structures and changing ecologies, with social dynamics, deep sensing, intuition and personal truths, Nina connects the personal to the global and allows herself to contemplate on unknown planetary futures.
In the last days of her residency an idea was born to organise a month-long residency for some eight artists: Embodied Geologic Research Residency. See also obras events. More information follow on this website and on Nina’s: www.ninaelder.com.

Charlie Wührer (UK, living in Berlin) is an awarded writer of short stories, but at OBRAS she was working on her debut novel, Princess Court. In her own words: “It is about haunted spaces, guilt, queer and elderly love, care work, sex and friendship. What happens when a place foists its secrets onto strangers? When I wasn't writing, I was swimming, cooking things with clams and chorizo, and reading about haunted houses.”
Charley also gave a beautiful artist talk in which she told among others about living and working with two languages (she is part of a German family in the UK).
And she celebrated her birthday, for which a fellow resident, Sophie composed a song.
Charlie also exercised her skills in tarot cards reading.

Jonaki Ray (India) was working on the finishing touch of longing and belonging, an essay about her family history which was deeply influenced by the war in Bengalen in the 1940th. Jonaki’s family was living in the part that now is Bangladesh. They lost all properties and had to escape to India, where they started a new life in Delhi and Mumbay. The deeper layer in the essay is about how people struggle finding a balance between commemorating historical roots, mourning about losses and building a new future. The essay is written in English, and will be translated into Portuguese.

Aurélie Ferrière (France, living in Sweden) is specialised in composing contemporary music. She came to finish a commission (facing a hard deadline):  writing a chamber opera (the libretto, and the music for four voices and ensemble). She worked dedicated like a hermit, and managed: two days before the end of her residency she submitted the work. It will premiere on 7 December in Budapest and a week later in Berlin. While still cooling down, she received a new reason for celebration: she got a commission for writing an orchestral piece.
In another category she was fortunate as well: at the summer fest of Evoramonte she bought 10 tickets for 0,10€ each, and won three prices.

Maj Rafferty (Denmark) is film-maker, theatre director and video artist. But at OBRAS she was working on her first novel. It is about a young woman in London, who is writing a university paper about Freud's Case of Dora, but while working on her paper she gets anxieties like Freud's patient, and thinks she suffers from a “pop art disease”: she is hallucinating about pop art.

Maj also did a side-project, partly in collaboration with Derek Spencer: after they visited the bones-chapel in Evora, Maj got fascinated by funerals. They invented Gunther, whose deceased body (symbolised by stones and branches) was first exposed for some days in the patio and later brought in a ceremonial procession to his final resting place, where Maj recited a poem.  Maj explained that it was a funeral for all funerals that we wished to have attended but missed.

Usually, Yvonne Halfens (Holland) works with clay, but during her residency at OBRAS Yvonne started experimenting with papier-mâché. The summer heat speeded up the drying, and she was happy with some of the works, especially when the paper was soaked with pigments with vibrant colours.
Yvonne also made some miniature embroidery pieces in the same bright colours. And she managed to make a mould with papier-mâché that she could take home.

Annick Chevassu (France, UK) decided to use marble and cork as a starting point for her installations and small objects.
It resulted in marble slabs used as kind of billboard or as a base for painting figurines, and in pieces of cork with painted geometrical forms, floating in the crown of a tree.
When her partner Paul came over for some days, our shared dinners got a musical element. He is a gifted singer and guitar player, especially in blues.

Ella Zirina (Latvia, living in Holland) is jazz guitarist and composer. In February she came to OBRAS-Holland hoping to find a quiet space to compose music without distractions and responsibilities from the outside world. At her residence she felt that she could reconnect to her musical influences and, by taking walks in the nearby forest, ground herself into a calmer mindset that allowed her creativity to flow. She composed several pieces on guitar to be performed and recorded for her next album.

Tam Eastley (Canada, living in Berlin) was working on her second novel An Extinction Level Event. It tells about three women who have experienced similar events: they all saw a comet, suffered during the COVID pandemic, and felt stuck in their lives. But they differ in how they deal with them. Penelope now lives in Calgary and is obsessed with the comet and the past. Gem is an artist living in Berlin and is in a creative slump. Sam works online as a "background wife" and hates her job. As the novel progresses, the women will break free from what is holding them back—albeit in different ways and with differing outcomes.
The novel is about events that change us, and who we are when we come out the other side.

Kayla Kurin (Canada) left her country for a long-term tour along residencies in Portugal, Iceland, Greece and more. OBRAS was her first.
Kayla was working on her debut novel. It is story about two best friends trying to save their source of magic, which is disappearing. It touches on themes of climate change, capitalism, and extremism and features queer and disabled characters. At the end of her residency, she was nearly ready to submit a draft to literary agents.
Kayla was also working on a series of audio stories: bedtime stories for adults.

Although Antonio Tavares (Portugal) lives nearby, in March he was working at OBRAS to find the space, tranquillity and inspiration that he does not find at home. He was highly productive.  

Stefano Falcone, jazz pianist from Naples, Italy, had a residency with us in 2021. We hope to organise a concert for him in the scope of Evora Capital of Culture 2027.
Stefana composed a series of beautiful works, all dedicated to OBRAS. They were first brought to stage on the piano festival of Lecce, Italy in September 2022, and later published on SoundCloud. A beautiful teaser is on YouTube (see below). It gives a sample of his music, but also indicates how his music inspired fellow residents. A CD entitled OBRAS is released (www.worklabel.it) and distributed (www.IRD.it). The CD includes a flyer with texts by several residents. The CD cover was designed by Tim Gleason.

Holly Osborne (USA) had a residency in 2023. Several of her paintings were already sold before she left, other were exhibited in a beautiful solo show in Froelick Gallery, Portland Oregon USA, in April, May 2024.
While the majority of her paintings was figurative, she also moved towards abstraction: by using unrealistic colours, by not finishing parts of figures, by adding colour patches and by just applying forms that do not refer to any realism.

Janice Deary (South Africa, UK) returned to OBRAS. While her speciality is working with charcoal, she this time experimented with Indian ink, a totally different medium as making corrections is nearly impossible. As a source of inspiration she took poems of António Ramos Rosa (1924-2013). This Portuguese poet wrote about stones, leaves, sunlight, shadows – in a desire to return to a primordial, elemental state of being, to disappear into the earth, to become one with the trees, the sky, the wind, the rain. “I write, not to confirm, but to discover, to begin”.
Janice took sentences or words from a poem and made ink drawings that expresses her interpretation of the poem. Some were just experiments, but several others were incredibly beautiful and fascinating.
Janice also had a residency at OBRAS in 2023: see the video below. In April 2024 she showed some of her Portuguese works of 2023 in a solo exhibition in the prestigious Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh.  

Janice had residencies in 2023 and 2024. Her 2023 residency resulted in an exhibition in April 2024: she showed some of her Portuguese works of 2023 in a solo exhibition in the prestigious Patriot Hall Gallery in Edinburgh.  
And directly after her return from her Residency in May 2024 she got the opportunity to exhibit her Portuguese work of this year at the University of Glasgow and this triggered a whole sequence of responses. The inauguration was highlighted by students reciting and performing the work of António Ramos Rosa, the Portuguese Consulate in the UK decided to promote the exhibition, and the Camões Institute also requested to get involved. 

Kedarnath Awati (India) is composer and arranger. At OBRAS he transcribed a composition that he created for orchestra, to a piece for piano. And he was working on a new piece for orchestra that includes several elements of Indian music but will get a western classic sonata/symphony structure.
In addition, he established several contacts with fellow residents that may lead to future collaborations.
Kadarnath gave a wonderful artist talk about his musical career and several of his compositions. His presentation flowed smoothly into a dinner, shared with our residents and Portuguese friends, during which cantas alentejanas, a fado, a blues and a Hindu folk song were sung.

On 31 May Marsja Mudde took us for a small walk while singing songs of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) and contemporaries.Marsja named the walk A Musical Pilgrimage. 
Program:
Nu lat uch lusten also hubsches meres
Marien-leich (Marian song) by Frauenlob (ca. 1300)
O pastor omnipotens
Antiphon from the mystical play Ordo Virtutum, by Hildegard von Bingen (ca. 1150)            
O dulcis electe
Responsory for St. John at Patmos, by Hildegard von Bingen (ca. 1140)    
Laudemus virgine
Maria-themed pilgrims’ song from northern Spain. Anonymous (early medieval).
Laude iocunda
Sequens for St. Peter (and about music and forgiveness). Anonymous from Limoges (ca. 1100)

Lucie  Robert (Canada) was fascinated by everything she encountered around her: tiles, embroidery, shedding flower petals, dust of marble and clay, wind and light/shadow. She translated her impressions in abstract forms, resulting in beautiful and fascinating small installations. And being a university lecturer in “Reflecting on Arts”, she gave a highly informative artist talk.

Sabine Schol (Austria) was working on a historical novel on female resistance fighters in WWII. Earlier this year she studied the archives of Venice on this subject. One of the chocking discoveries was that after the war they were treated as if they have been prostitutes rather than freedom fighters.
Sabine also working on PR for the novel she was working on during her residency in 2023 and that will soon be published. It is about Jewish refugees who in WW2 tried to escape Europe via Lisbon. She mixed facts that she discovered in archives in Lisbon and Bordeau (France), with fiction. Part of the fiction is a love story that takes place in Casa Miradouro: the cottage in which she was living during her 2023 residency.

Nora van Dam (Holland) was working on ‘The Parade’: an autobiographical personal storytelling performance. In recent years (partly during her previous residencies at OBRAS), Nora wrote a lot about her experiences and this year she composed a performance out of this material. She gave it the format of watching a festive parade: first high expectations and excitement, and then an anticlimax that then leads to new insights. The first draft of the performance has now been recorded on video. The piece is scheduled to premiere in January 2025 in The Netherlands. www.dramaplaats.nl

Juliette Sallin (Switzerland) is textile artist. She was dying and printing large silk tissues, with pigments extracted from plants, clay and metallic oxides, mostly collected from the direct surroundings.
Julliette´s art research revolves around the female body as a vehicle of desire: what we feel toward someone and the one we provoke in them. This vital and slightly disturbing overflow is highlighted by an intertwining of the feminine and plant world.
Juliette made an impressive three-meters-high installation with silk panels. It provoked a feeling of immersion; it was sensual, spiritual and sacral.
The work was a try out for a public exhibition where the visitors will be invited to apprehend the work with their body to take on its full meaning.

Dylan McNulty (UK, living in Germany) was working on Femmelandia, a novel about a gender non-conforming student, Char, who is possessed by a spirit called The Snatcher.
When the possessed body experiences an extreme emotion, Char tries to wrestle back control by keeping the body in a state of superficial pleasure. The body and the spirit create an ultra-feminine version of “Char”, based on the expectations of those around them. This successfully gains The Snatcher the shallow comforts (popularity, casual sex) they crave.
The novel is structured in three parts: the Snatcher’s perspective, Char regaining control, and Snatcher & Char understand the possession as a traumatic/survival instinct. The story then works towards a place of integration, in line with trauma theory.
Dylan was also writing an impressive poem on the duality of experience for trans people who transitioned later in life: what they do to survive vs. what to affirm them. The poem talks not just on hormonal or social shifts, but merely about existing as a trans person.

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On 22 September we had a beautiful open Studio, with participation of Aagje Linssen, Elaine Nguyen, Wilma Geldof, Jeroen Vrijsen, Vika, Aura Sevón, Manuel Leromain, Jane Flett and Andrea Brasch.
 
The title A FOX ON EQUINOX refers to 22 September, the day that summer and winter are in balance, and to the fox that popped up nearly every evening.
Below are statements of the participation artists.

Elaine Nguyen (USA) made an installation with a floating carpet, was drawing on marble shards using the cyanotype technique, laid out a labyrinth and made many drawings, all dedicated to fears, fate and understanding her dreams. Her statement: “Many years ago, I saw an immeasurable sea of sulphur, sand, and blood fountains and witnessed this deep sadness in my bones become resolved in a dream. The imagery of two people under a red roof and lanterns was haunting. I arrived at OBRAS to see the roof from my dreams.
In California, I had been making portals to places in time, in Portugal I am making portals to dream worlds. I am contemplating fate & fortune, destinies & debt that is owed from past lives. I am creating the labyrinth that I walk in, thinking that perhaps the giant bee I run from has the cure I seek in the form of a sting. I feel as if I am one dream away from understanding something.” More info: Instagram @elainetnguyen website: www.eleinenguyen.com

Jeroen Vrijsen (Holland): “In my work I am concerned in human intelligence, technological development, scientific progress and artificial intelligence. Recent developments in human engineering make me aware that we are on the threshold of a new era that can’t be foretold. Unexpected twists in modern history urge us to look with fresh eyes. It’s a race for independence, for keeping democracy, and for saving planet earth.
With these thoughts in mind, I started a new series of paintings. My visit to the marble quarries helped me shaping my ideas on human interventions in the past, present and future.” More info: www.jeroenvrijsen.nl

Wilma Geldof (Holland) writes for all ages, but her most important books are the historical World War II novels 'Every day a drop of poison' (about a convinced Nazi child) and 'The girl with the pigtails' (about Netherlands' youngest girl in the armed resistance).
Both books have won (international) awards. 'The Girl with the Pigtails' has been translated into seven languages and the international film rights have been sold. Wilma’s latest World War II novel will be released in the spring of 2025.
During her 2024 residency at OBRAS, Wilma was working on a contemporary novel for young people (and adults) about the intense relationship between sixteen-year-old Livia and her eccentric brother, who, after the death of her mother, continues to live together. Will Livia be able to find her own way while her brother slowly seems to go crazy?
At her artists talk, Wilma explained why this subject is so refreshing in her writers´ career. Although she was highly successful with her creative non-fiction novels about WWII, she longed to explore other issues.
More info: Wilmageldof.nl

Aura Sevón (Finland/France) is a writer, translator and literary scholar. She just finished her PhD which deals with trans-lingual women’s writing, and is now working on the book version of her dissertation. In addition she working on an essay-novel in which she tackles the themes of love and sexuality in the era of modern technologies, exploring the intersections of gender, sexuality, technology, emotions, desire, and language in the world of online dating.
And she started a postdoctoral project together with a group of scholars, she writes new Wikipedia entries about under-represented and marginalized female artists and authors.
More info: Website: www.aurasevon.com; Thesis: aura thesis; General info: aura

Jane Flett is a Scottish writer who lives in Berlin. Her poems and short stories have been awarded multiple times, but FREAKSLAW is Jane´s first novel. It has just become available from Penguin and will soon be launched in the USA.
FREAKSLAW was partly written during her six residencies at OBRAS. It is about a strange traveling company: deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem, that infiltrate the grey world of a sleepy Scottish town. The teenagers embrace the newcomers, but they have sinister plans for a revenge. Tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that’s been simmering for centuries is about to be unleashed…
Aware of her recent successes she was highly inspired to write a series of short stories.
More info: Instagram: @thejaneflett, Website: Janeflett.com

Aagje Linssen (Holland): “I try to visualize my inner world of experiences. I want to immerse myself in garden elements but also in vast landscapes. I want to sharpen my senses and gain experiences in environments that are new to me: megalithic monuments and marble quarries, but also starry skies, a rose flowering out of season and a fox visiting me at dusk. For me, painting is a process of converting thoughts and considerations into sensing the imagination and its meaning. I work with egg tempera and watercolour on canvas and paper.”
More info: Instagram: @aagjelinssen

Manuel Leromain (France, Belgium): “I enjoy cutting materials as paper or fabric and playing with colour, shapes and counter-shapes to create my own vocabulary.
By mixing different media such as nylon and cotton canvas, I create a large surface, similar to a painting. I assemble elements using a sewing machine or glue, resulting in collage, a patchwork or a tapestry. At OBRAS I was inspired by the deep red clay, the nature and marble quarries, but also by the true story of Anna Maria, a beautiful girl from Evoramonte, who had no other choice than to step in the footsteps of her father and become the pigs castratrice of the neighbourhood, thereby scaring all potential lovers.”
More info: insta: @manuel_leromain, website : leromain-manuel.com

Once again Andrea Brasch (Denmark, Portugal) was inspired by the rich environment at OBRAS. During her residency she continues work on her game 'Travelling Light - A year in the lives of Leah, Lars, Ivy and Samson'.
In this game you experience the dramatic storylines of four friends in their early 30ties, all in a quarter-life crisis. This autobiographical game deals with individual perceptions of reality and our relationship with plants.
Andrea Brasch is a digital artist who works with computer games and installation art. Her practice is closely linked to technology, primarily within the field of installations and digital games. Her work starts with research, an idea, and from there technology will set the boundaries for what is feasible. The work often takes its starting point in the physical body, and from this framework deals with themes as gender, feminism, and human nature.
More info: andreabrasch.com

Vika (USA) is multimedia artist and writer currently based in San Francisco. Her work examines the relationship between hope and tragedy. Through time-based mediums, sculpture, music,  and poetry, they stage a notion of being human that is akin to being angel: the human body appear in her work as that of angels, stars, and heavens. At OBRAS-Portugal, Vika is developing this work in a project tentatively titled “acts of submission,” a sustained study of marble as both form and substance.
(Vika is a pseudonym. Her real name is known by OBRAS. Her social media are under construction)

Gregorio Molina (Spain) is visual artist with an interest in relating visual and verbal languages. He was drawing scenes, little elaborated and unfinished, with the intention create an open narrative. In the same time, he was working on a novel on stalking and being stalked. He may include the drawings in the novel, but not as illustrations.
And during a shared dinner, Gregorio proofed to be a gifted singer.

Sophie Tassignon (Belgium, Germany) is singer and composer with a background in jazz.
Using her multilingual skills, she was working with Russian, Arabic and Hebrew poems for her songs. She was also preparing for concerts in the US, Germany and Belgium. And she collaborated with Ingrid Simons (see Ingrids project) and Rachel Back. On 25 May Sophie gave a concert in the Big Hall of Foundation OBRAS. She presented recently composed songs. Some were created during her artistic residency at Foundation OBRAS. One was recorded in an abandoned marble quarry.
The lyrics of one song is a poem by the Israeli poet Rachel Back (also an OBRAS resident) that Sophie put to music and did sing in Hebrew. The poem was written in 2001, inspired by Rachel Back’s compassion with the Palestinian people. Sophie did also sing a song in Arabic: a Palestinian folk song from the time of the British occupation (1920-1948) telling that the prison is not forever.

Derek Spencer (USA) is theatre and film maker, and performer. At OBRAS he was working on a performance entitled Field of Flesh, that premiered in September 2024 in Chicago. The performance takes the form of a rambunctious immersive meal in which audiences join the actors around a dinner table of inedible food. It touches issues like familial interdependency, psychic decay, American culinary culture and the relationship between food and death.
At his artist talk, Derek also showed an example of video work he is currently exploring. In direct-address shots the video showed a cheerful cacophony of arguing and partying revellers who are escorted out of the nightclub by bouncers. Deeper layers in this video are about the limits of language and decision-making paralysis.

As part of their residency at OBRAS in May (see elsewhere on this page), Sophie Tassignon and Ingrid Simons did a life performance at dusk on the edge of an oat field. Ingrid was painting with Indian ink a 5 meters long sheet, responding on Sophie singing “Molitva”, a song written by Bulat Okudzhava.
The intention was to give the video only show time on 1 September at noon! But the artists decided to keep it online for longer. Click on “Tassignon & Simons” to watch it.
If you want to receive the lead sheet for "Molitva" or a PDF with some of Ingrid’s artwork: leave a comment on this video, and the artists will send these to you.
By  subscribing to “Sophie´s newsletter” you will get a free mp3.

Nico Huijbregts (Holland) finished composing ten songs for a CD project. Nico names them 'songs' because they are not pop songs and not classical songs but something in between. For Nico all sources that inspires him, come together in the songs: jazz, pop, contemporary, musicals from the forties and fifties of the last century.
In addition, Nico prepared a concert in which he will sing Yiddish and Sephardic music. The concert will be on 29 September in InDeOudeVictor (Batenburg, Holland), on the occasion of an exhibition of sculptures of Yvonne Halfens. For a teaser check Nico’s FB site.

Martine de Kok (Belgium) is a multi-talent, which she experiences as both a gift and a burden. She spent much time on getting a new vision on her artistic career: do I have to focus or not?, do I push myself in a time management framework or not?, etcetera. Apart from that she was also productive with composing new songs and making drawings of birds. At her artist talk she presented some of her creations and played a beautiful improvisation on piano.

On 11 April, Sherry Wiggins was interviewed on TV about her performative photography project and especially about her mythical heroines. 

Fran Lui (Taiwan) studied arts and architecture in Taipé and came to London for a pop-up study in bio design. Fran´s focus is on the relationship between man and nature, and more specifically on how spaces can be co-created and co-habited by human and other beings.
At OBRAS Fran was experimenting with cork. She made a site-specific work with cork strips floating as chandeliers between some cork oaks. It refers to mycorrhiza: the fungal network that connects roots of different trees and that is essential for tree health, especially in cork oak plantations. But it also refers to the notion that we are all interconnected. Fran applied to participate with this work in this town was a forest, an art exhibition in London.
Fran also worked with ceramics. She made a dancing couple, partly covered with cork. It was fired in the workshop of Inocencia (Evoramonte) and was named Cortiça (Portuguese for cork).  

This year, Sherry Wiggins (USA) came twice to OBRAS-Portugal. She is working already for four years on her HEROINES project: she performs mythical and historical heroines. An important driver for Sherry is that she wants to be a role model for ageing women to feel strong. Her performances are photographed by Luis Branco (Portugal), with who she has a years-long professional relationship. Their work has been exhibited in both the USA and Portugal. 
 
At this moment Sherry focusses on ancient goddesses, including the Greek goddess Circe, known from Homer’s The Odyssey, with her tamed lions and the men she transformed into swine; Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood, fertility and magic; and Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and sexuality.
Via Aphrodite Sherry got interested in Inanna and Ishtar, her predecessors / sister goddesses of love and sexuality (and more) in ancient Mesopotamia.
These goddesses fascinate Sherry for their special powers and independence. They are all sexy, badass goddesses.

Another project was reperforming the painting of Venus in Front of the Mirror, from Peter Paul Rubens (1615), for which two other friends participated in the image.

Sherry was also working on preforming the goddess Inanna and on the Sumerian priestess, poet and princess Enheduanna (c. 2300 B.C.), who has written long poems and hymns devoted to Inanna. Her texts are the first in human history of which the author is known.

Janet Steen (USA) was working on a chapter that will become part of an essay on abandoned sites. It will contain details on the history of Herdade da Marmeleira and surrounding landscape. Janets’ interest in abandoned places has a deeper layer and acts as a metaphor: she lost her brother in a sudden and tragic way. 
Janet is writing in the genre of creative non-fiction. During her artist talk she gave examples, resulting in a lively and in-depth discussion.

In November, Kevin and Sara Tolman (USA) were our house carers. In the same time, they worked on their art. Kevin made a series of collages, in which he glued snippets of newspapers, product flyers and packaging paper on cardboard and covered it with a transparent layer of paint, generally in earth colors. All works got Portuguese titles often referring to the light of the season.  
Sara made lino cuts of animals, flowers or fruits and printed them in blue on rice paper. She responded on the Azulejos: blue white tiles that are decorating walls of churches and aristocratic houses.

Helen Butler (UK, living in Portugal) was drawing with oil paint pencils. Her daily routine started with a walk, during which she wrote down words that randomly popped up in her mind: gaze, buzz, curve, familiar, free .. In her studio she was mixing colours that she felt being related to those words. But essentially her paintings are about liberty, spirit, calm and (in her own words) an inner journey of longing, surrender and love.

Mirjam Debets (Holland) is making and directing animation movies. Her first one: Diofonie, was about three people during the pandemic, finding comfort in this difficult time through music.
At OBRAS she was working on her second one: a poetic movie about hands: about craftsmanship and identity, about body language and mindset. Mirjam was working on the scenario and storyboard, but also was eager to get input from her fellow residents.

Ingrid Simons (Holland) estimated her 2024-residency as the best of all 12 residencies in the past 12 years. She made a big step in abstraction in her painting. “Intriguing, powerful and astonishing” were some of the remarks she got. Ingrid also did some performances in nature, one of them in collaboration with Sophie Tassignon (see elsewhere in this newsletter).
She also made new ceramic work, together with the master potters of Redondo: Xico Tarefa and Fransisco Rosado. And she gave two guest lectures and was participating in examinations of master students of the visual arts & design departments of Evora University (resulting in similar invitation of next year). And last but not least: she sold several of her works already during her residency.  

Seema Lyer (UK, living in Berlin) was writing several short stories. Her work is full of humour and absurdity, but in the same time contemplating on fundamental human issues, such as second thoughts on her upbringing, talking with friends about sexual desires and the line between being irritated and playing a mean trick. Two fragments show her stile:
A suitable boy - Fifty Shades of Beige on Substack 
My mum, a woman who once compared arranged marriage to finding a car in Auto Trader, also likes to chime in from time to time whenever she’s worried my womb might go stale. Her dating advice sounds like dialogue straight out of Mad Men. My personal favourites are “Don’t talk until after the wedding, then it will be too late for him to change his mind” and “Maybe you could become a secretary and marry your boss.” Ah, maternal guidance.

The Untimely Death of Edith Dubois
Edith directed her irritation towards breakfast, stabbing at her poached egg with particular venom. She chewed angrily, irritated by her constipation and the sniffling coming from the corridor. Of course whatshername had been a crier. The simple ones always are. Edith had clearly put Ethiopian Blend on the shopping list and underlined it three times. But whatshername had a mind like swiss cheese and was half as useful. No doubt she had been distracted with small talk with that acne riddled boy who didn’t know how to breathe through his nose. Edith was well within her rights to give her a dressing down.

Peter Bremer (Holland) was playing with new techniques, materials and ways of working. In his own words: “This time I liked to see my painting as meditation, so painting without thinking. Meditation and concentration met each other.
I choose to work with acrylic paint on water resistant sail tissue, with was both a challenge and fun to me: it impacted the making and correcting of a composition. I enjoyed it and am happy with the results.”

OBRAS-Holland

Paul Melis and Emma Stoneman had a two-months residency at OBRAS Holland, their projects partly overlapped.

Emma Stoneman (Australia) explored the theme of transformation, particularly within the realms of grief, trauma, and sense of place. She brought it in the context of a family history related to The Battle for Arnhem (1944) that her partner Paul Melis was simultaneously investigating (see below).
With her art work, Emma was investigating the impact of the Battle on the physical transformation of the built environment and its impact on community, connection, and sense of place. She explored the concept of post-traumatic growth and metamorphosis - the transformative journey that arises from tragedy, leading individuals and communities towards resilience, strength, and renewal.
Emma combined micro stories with reworked photographs and prints that she made in a local artists workshop. 

Paul Melis (Australia) was working on an essay with the diary of his Great Aunt as a starting point. She documented meticulously the tumultuous period of Operation Market Garden / The Battle for Arnhem (1944). This diary offers a poignant first-hand account of the events, emotions, and hardships endured by his family amidst the backdrop of wartime occupation in the Netherlands.
Paul was uncovering and exploring the intricate connections between personal narratives and historical contexts, particularly examining the profound impact of Operation Market Garden / The Battle for Arnhem and contemplated on the family's sense of place and belonging. Paul’s grandfather emigrated to Australia in search for a better life, but carried with him an intergenerational wartime trauma and a feeling of displacement. This burden is still sensed in later generations, even after 80 years.  
Paul visited historical places and joined to 80th commemoration of the Battle, but also visited places that relate to his family and interviewed people who still had memories of his family at wartime.
In more general terms, Paul’s essay investigates intersections between personal memory, historical trauma and cultural identity. 

Vincent Kortmann (Holland) was working in OBRAS-Holland. He gave the ultimate finishing touch of his new novel: Vlees en Bloed (´Flesh and blood´). He also worked on it during a residency at OBRAS Portugal in 2023.
Vincent’s publisher: Atlas Contact, advised him to read the whole novel aloud. He didn't want to put his family through that, and found OBRAS-Holland the perfect seclusion to do this job.
The novel has been published on 28 August. It got great reviews (for the Dutch readers: four stars in NRC!). 

The story is surprising, funny and above all deeply moving.
After a relationship break-up, Viktor Nordmann returns to live with his father Leo. While Viktor tries to do everything right, everything threatens to slip away from him. Who is actually the father here and who is the son? What is a good man – and how do you become one?
When Viktor Nordmann's mother dies, his father Leo does two things: he starts making sausage and he arranges a Girlfriend Experience. But Viktor seems to lose everything: first his girlfriend Mischa and his hope for a child, and then his house. He moves in with his father, but there, he gets lost in a series of unfortunate decisions. Then Leo gets a stroke.

In July, author and literary scholar Margreet den Buurman was working at OBRAS Holland on a monograph about Barbara van Houten (1862- 1950), a painter who often spent the summer in a mansion 50 meters from the OBRAS residence. Although with no doubt she was a great landscape painter, she always lived in the shadow of her nephew and famous painter of sea scapes: Hendrik Willem Mesdag, and of her father, an important politician and statesman: Samuel van Houten.
The essay has now been published on 'Accolade digitaal' of the MdNL. And the manuscript for a book has been accepted by the publisher. A beautiful result!
More info on Margreet and her project is on www.writersheart.nl 

In OBRAS Holland, León Biezeman continued working on Wouter op zoek naar woorden ('Wouter in search of words') and nearly finished it. It is a novel for dyslectic children. Leon wrote a teaser for us:
Where Wouter initially sees strange stripes in the newspaper and strange spots on the menu when he is sitting on a terrace with his grandmother, he slowly but surely begins to realize that he has lost all the words. Street names have disappeared from the signs, in shop windows he sees the pictures and prices of advertised goods, but words are missing. When Wouter goes on a train ride with his grandparents, grandpa asks him which platform they need for the train. Wouter panics when he only sees times and platform numbers, no place names. Fortunately, grandma, takes her reading glasses. Everything is fine again... for now....

Also Good To Know:

In the past seven years Wilma Geldof came nearly every year to work on her novels. One of them: Het meisje met de vlechtjes (The girl with the braids) is highly successful. The book just got its fifth edition in Dutch, is translated into eight languages, got five awards and will be made into a movie. At this moment the film locations are being selected.

During her residency in 2023, Fien Veldman (Holland) was working on an essay about stone. It will soon be published in Tirade.  We are very eager to read it, in the first place because Fien is a highly gifted and successful writer, but also because in this essay Luis and Holly (a friend and a resident) are featuring.

Kevin Tolman (USA) had a great solo exhibition in Nüart Gallery in Santa Fe (Los Angeles, USA). Silhouettes of antas (prehistoric graves), snips of Portuguese flyers and titles in Portuguese hint to his sources of inspiration. Seven times, Kevin was resident at OBRAS-Portugal and he will return in November.  

Mónica de Miranda (Portugal) got the incredible honour to curate and participate in the Portuguese representation of the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition includes videos, sound scapes and installations that reflect on the relationship between nature, ecology and politics. The project connects practice, theory and education. The exhibition space as a place of experimentation and reflection. 
  
Since 2010, Mónica had six residencies and produced several of her projects at OBRAS. In August she had a short retreat at OBRAS to recover from Venice and to prepare her participation in the biennale of Dubai.

Some more news about OBRAS
 
The annual report on the OBRAS activities in 2023 is now available on request.

In 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. See this page for more info.