Dear Applicants:   

"Bajo el Olivo", part of Villa "CASA MIA" is a private artist retreat/residency facilitated by Juliana España Keller and her husband, Rudolf Keller who moved to Spain in January (2020) from Melbourne, Australia. 

The residency is situated on private land (2136 sqm) in the quiet annex of a mediterranean villa that houses three furnished guest rooms.  'CASA MIA' is easily accessible by car and nestled in the small community of 'Urbanizacion San Jorge'; situated on the outskirts of the pueblo (small village) of 'Alhaurín el Grande';  just (25) minutes inland from the city of Malaga and very close distance to Malaga Airport. We are also in close vicinity (about 25 minutes) to the beautiful sandy beaches of the Costa del Sol and the vibrant villages of Fuengirola, Marbella, Ojén and Mijas. 

'Bajo el Olivo' is an experimental residency space dedicated to artists who are looking for a private space to think, write and create during these exceptional times we are living on this planet. This artistic retreat is designed for artists who require a thinking space in nature and seeks participants that are seriously thinking about an ecology of care, empathy and community building while the world is earnestly searching for social political and economic change with a posthuman approach to social engagement, social and spatial practices and a forward thinking into the future with an affirmative ethical stance. 

Artists are invited to live on-site to create the initial process of an art work in a situated perspective or as field work, research or writing project. 'Bajo el Olivo' is designed to offer the resident the time off to manifest ideas while surrounded by nature. 

We provide a working desk in your private room and to benefit from the simple pleasures of living in rural Spain, we invite you to use the surrounding terrain of the villa as your studio. There are many areas to sit and contemplate and write or sketch in nature or you may feel like working on the grounds of the roofed terraces or open spaces in the field. For painters, or sculptors (in the case of weather patterns) we do have working tables, painting easels, drop-cloths, supplemental ring lighting in the working space upstairs in the gallery area on the first floor. 

We invite all independent creators, thinkers, artists, writers & researchers, to come and stay with us inclusive of non-binary, BIPOC artist folk. We are seeking material entanglements that provide collaboration, community building in the local area and we provide access to available technical resources on site.

#ResidenciesForUkraine #NoToWar #ResidenciesWithoutBorders #ResArtisForUkraine #StandWithUkraine

"Multispecies ethnography is a rubric for a more-than-human approach to ethnographic research and writing rapidly gaining discursive traction in anthropology and cognate fields. The term is deployed for work that acknowledges the interconnectedness and inseparability of humans and other life forms, and thus seeks to extend ethnography beyond the solely human realm. Multispecies investigations of social and cultural phenomena are attentive to the agency of other-than-human species, whether they are plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, or even viruses, which confound the species concept. This entails a challenge to the humanist epistemology upon which conventional ethnography is predicated, specifically its ontological distinctions between nature and culture, human and nonhuman, subject and object. Multispecies ethnography must thus be seen as a part of a larger quest in the social sciences and humanities to replace dualist ontologies by relational perspectives, to overcome anthropocentrism by pointing to the meaningful agency of nonhuman others, and to highlight the intersections between ecological relations, political economy, and cultural representations. Multispecies ethnography however, not only acknowledges that humans dwell in a world necessarily comprising other life forms but also contends that their entanglements with human lives, landscapes, and technologies must be theoretically integrated into any account of existence". Locke, Piers, and Ursula Munster. Multispecies ethnography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Juliana and Rudy Keller

BIOS

june 2023 

Dr. Juliana España Keller is a sound performance artist, educator in intermedia practices, writer and researcher who takes a lead in producing multi/trans/interdisciplinary works to a listening public. Her 'Public Kitchen' works have been exhibited in site-specific spaces globally and contribute to histories of sound performance art with an objective lens on participatory practices in feminist materialist and posthuman theory using the domestic kitchen as the focus. 

Her posthuman research into the environmental humanities explores  complex social, economic, ecological systems to amplify the present reality of climate degradation, and/or the nature culture divide. Juliana explores and amplifies the more-than-human, multi-species ethnography, communicating sonically with plant-life, understanding gut metabolism, the future of labour, climate change and agency in a posthuman world. 

Keller's work has been featured in both group and solo exhibitions around the world. Most recently in Malta with a sonic art installation in collaboration with Sound Artist, Alex Pepin. "CEREUS" is currently exhibited at Spazju Kreattiv, Museum, Valletta, as part of the "POSSIBLE WORLDS" exhibition.  "The Patch", A 360 immersive installation and trilogy of BOOK I, II, III was her last Canadian collaboration with Bonnie Baxter and Jen Rae and others at the Musee des Arts des Laurentides, St. Jerome, Quebec, Canada.

Her intra-cultural, transdisciplinary projects have been presented to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in Hobart, Tasmania, CRISAP/Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan, Abbotsford Convent and the Make It Up Club in Melbourne, Australia amongst many other site-specific places. A 'PUBLIC KITCHEN' took place at UMA (El Contenedor), University of Malaga in May (2022) and was repeated this year at "Rancho Rate" in the mountains, north of Malaga, in the village of Villanueva del Rosario. 

Juliana completed her practice-led PhD Doctoral research at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Both Rudy and Juliana hold Canadian and Swiss nationalities. Juliana was born in London, England. 

In the upcoming Winter semester (January 2024) at Concordia University in Montreal, QC, Juliana will begin teaching a masters seminar on "Deep Listening Practices" as part of the Studio Arts program. Juliana lives and works between Montreal and Malaga but feels at home as a "Mile-Ender" as well as an "Andaluza"; something she values as a true Canadian.. 

Juliana will also teach "Painting" in the Undergraduate Program and a studio course in  "Performative Arts Practices" using Eco-Somatic practices in Intermedia & Electronic Arts. Lastly, she will hold a lecture seminar in "Artistic Praxis and Language" with an emphasis on New Materialism and Posthumanism. 

Rudy Keller is a retiree of Swiss origin. These days he can be found walking on the surrounding hills of Alhaurin El Grande, Mijas and Tolox area with "Suzie" and our Spanish mastin "Skye", our dogs. He would love to introduce you to the various 'rutas' or walking trails in the area but you have to get up early to join him!

Juliana and Rudy are fluent in English, Spanish, German and French. Juliana is a home cook and bakes artisanal sourdough bread with stone-milled flour from the local mill. 

There are (13) olive trees on the land amongst apricot, nectarine, guava, kiwi, passionfruit, bananas, papaya, kumquat, lime, lemon, orange, limequat, nispero, avocado, lychee and hazelnut that are all flourishing. 

Juliana and Rudy grow many vegetables in their landscaped garden and there are many areas on the land that can be used as performative sites or quiet areas, just to think, write, work and create.....

Submissions

THE OPEN CALL FOR RESIDENCY STAYS.          The OPEN CALL for 2023 is still accepting applications for the spring of 2024. We are also listed on the Res Artis website. 

Please note that the rates for 2024 are posted on this website and have been adjusted because of the raising costs inflicted by the crippling energy crisis and soaring inflation caused by the war in Ukraine. We are trying hard to keep our costs low and not to charge residents exuberant rates. 

Please go to the drop-down menu above to view the webpage: CLICK HERE TO APPLY. You can then download the documents on the APPLICATION FORMS & GUIDELINES CRITERIA webpage.

Location - Alhaurín el Grande

Click here for interesting historical and demographic information about the typical picturesque Andalusian pueblo in the foothills of the Sierra Nieves mountains of Malaga and surrounding mountainous villages of Ronda, Cordoba, Granada and beyond. Figure below: CASA MIA from above, Urbanizacíon San Jorge, Alhaurín el Grande, Andalucia.