The multimedia creator Fred Chemama, supported throughout 2024 by Transcultures and the European Pepinieres of Creation, has been selected to participate in this multidisciplinary residency alongside four other international artists: Laura Burns, Annie Graham, Diane Zillmer, and Elizabeth Guerrero.
These five selected artists were invited to submit initial project proposals aimed at exploring ecological thinking, with the goal of expanding the concept of personal, cultural, and political identity to encompass a bioregional ecological identity. The residency will be hosted by Art-Panorama, a venue dedicated to artistic creation located in Tarifa, committed to promoting art and culture by providing an ideal setting for reflection and artistic expression.
The Strait of Gibraltar Area
The Strait of Gibraltar, with its natural boundaries, political borders, pathways, thresholds, and gateways, is the maritime channel connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, between the African and European continents. It is a vital passageway for the migration of sailors and birds, maritime trade, travel, and transport. Symbolically, it serves as a gateway between two continents and two seas.
As a bioregion, the Strait of Gibraltar area encompasses not only the waterway itself but also the surrounding land areas and coasts of southern Spain, northern Morocco, and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. This residency takes place on the Iberian side of the Strait (a residency on the southern side is planned for 2025–2026) and aims to explore the natural history of the region by studying its ecosystems and watersheds.
By addressing questions related to pathways and borders between nation-states, the residency proposes to examine these issues from the perspective of natural ecosystems.
Gestures Toward a Culture of Bioregions
Challenging anthropocentric values, the residency will feature sessions guided by local ornithologists, geologists, and ecologists to deepen knowledge about the region’s flora, fauna, bird migration patterns, marine species, tectonic plates, and cultural history. These explorations aim to inspire artists to conceive, create, or organize artistic projects that foster collaborations based on regional biogeographic models.
Vías y Umbrales en el Estrecho de Gibraltar
The “Paths and Thresholds in the Strait of Gibraltar” project is an artistic residency that explores the natural, cultural, and intangible heritage of the bioregion of the Strait of Gibraltar. Its primary objective is to challenge anthropocentric perspectives and foster ecological reflection, thereby expanding the notions of personal and political identity toward an ecological-bioregional identity.
Contexte et approche
- Bioregion:
The Strait of Gibraltar includes the maritime passage as well as the terrestrial and coastal zones of southern Spain, Gibraltar, northern Morocco, and Ceuta. This territory plays a crucial ecological role as a biological bridge between Africa and Europe. - Ecological and Cultural Goals:
The residents will explore local ecosystems, bird migrations, marine fauna, tectonic plates, and human history while developing artistic projects integrated into regional biogeographic models.
Program Objectives
- Raise awareness of the interconnectedness of humans, nature, and culture.
- Promote ecological and intercultural initiatives based on local biogeographic patterns.
- Inspire innovative artistic actions for sustainable environmental management.
The project also implements qualitative and quantitative indicators to evaluate its ecological, cultural, and social impact.
Diane Zilmer
Born in East Germany, Diane Zillmer is an artist who combines humanistic approaches, integrating social structures, inner states, and external contexts into her audiovisual works. Her many years of involvement in social projects and her understanding of different cultures are reflected in her creations. She has been featured in media outlets such as Casa Asia, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Womex, El País, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and Kaput Magazine, among others.
In 2019, she founded the Miller-Zillmer Foundation to support audiovisual and sociocultural projects. Diane lives and works between Berlin (Germany), London (United Kingdom), and Tarifa (Spain).
Annie Graham
Inspired by the beaches of Portugal, Annie Graham incorporates waste into her artworks, exploring the material properties and meaning of plastic debris. She focuses on creating layered surfaces activated by transparency, reflectivity, and fragmentation. Her works move between collage, textile, and painting, forming new hybrid forms. By using symbols and decorative elements while playing with light, Annie revisits the historical use of these visual languages in religion and spirituality. She seeks to transform and elevate materials to question notions of value in our consumerist culture.
Annie holds a BFA in Textile Design from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as an interior textile designer for over 15 years. She has lived in Baleal, Portugal, since 2013, where she regularly works and exhibits. Recently, she showcased her work at the Museu da Renda de Bilros in Peniche and participated in the PADA Studios residency in Barreiro, Portugal.
Laura Burns
Laura Burns is a queer artist, dancer, and facilitator committed to reconstituting embodied knowledge and collaborating with the land and its material and spiritual capacities.
Her work spans performance, textiles, singing, installations, and guiding groups in nature. She explores how emerging land-based knowledge can give rise to abolitionist futures.
Laura has worked across galleries, theaters, community contexts, rivers, and ancestral connections.
Fred Chemama
Fred Chemama is a photographer, though he rarely takes photographs. This rarity stems from a visceral need to infuse meaning into the act of photography, which he often perceives as devoid of significance.
He creates performances whose location and timing are yet to be discovered in life. Each image thus becomes the result of a triple encounter, improbable at first glance, which may occur during exploratory travels or at an unexpected turn in the road.
Photography then transforms into the trace of an extraordinary, strange, and almost mystical conjunction—a symbolic action that drives him to surpass himself and integrate poetic expression into his daily life.
Elizabeth Guerrero
Elizabeth Guerrero (born in 1988) is a self-taught transdisciplinary artist, sociologist, and semiotician by training, living between Mexico City and Amsterdam. Her work focuses on site-specific and community-oriented artistic and sound projects.
She has explored a wide range of topics, including agroecology, food systems, biodiversity in Mexico, soundscapes, sonic ethnography, identity, and the sociocultural values of the North and Baltic Seas.
Her interests lie at the intersection of oral narratives, meaning-making, intangible heritage, and memory connected to sound and storytelling. Elizabeth is a member of the Cocina Colaboratorio Collective, an art and science initiative based in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Mexico City, as well as the Stratenmakers Audio Collectief in Amsterdam.
Colectivo La Espiral Arte y Cultura Contemporánea
The Colectivo La Espiral Arte y Cultura Contemporánea has been fostering cultural exchanges for over a decade by building bridges that promote understanding, knowledge, and mutual recognition among the diverse cultures of the Western Mediterranean basin. Through artistic practice and its impact on the social imagination, the collective has been organizing annual transcultural and interdisciplinary gatherings since 2009 in northern Morocco (Cromlech of M’Zora) and Spain (Valencia). These encounters, centered on coexistence and in-situ creation, explore migratory realities between the African and European continents via the Strait of Gibraltar, as well as their social implications. These projects have been supported by organizations such as the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana, the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish Embassy in Morocco, Casa Mediterránea, the Fundación Balearia, among others.
Karmit Even-Zur, an artist based in Vejer de la Frontera (Cádiz) and a member of Colectivo La Espiral, initiated and manages this residency. Her artistic practice focuses on the dynamic interactions between humans and the non-human world. With extensive experience in residency management, artist mentorship, and group facilitation, she provides strong support across all these areas.
Informations
- 09.11 > 08.12.2024
- Art Panorama, Facinas
- Plaza de la Paz, 5, 11391 Facinas, Cádiz, Espagne
- art-panorama.art – earth-speaks.net
Production
- The residency is managed and coordinated by Karmit Even-Zur and Colectivo La Espiral ACC.
- With the support of Culture Moves Europe Goethe Institute, Transcultures, and the European Pepinieres of Creation, in collaboration with local organizations and groups.
