EMBARKING
The first artist’s residency carried out by Ses12naus — our ‘Edition 0’.
(September 2016)
Residency programme presented in Ibiza
Embarking was the first artist’s residency carried out by Ses12naus — our ‘Edition 0’. In September 2016, twelve artists from different backgrounds and disciplines arrived from across Europe — like twelve ships to Ibiza — to be influenced and inspired by the island’s local history, culture, and population, and to produce new work.
Based at a finca in the interior of the island, the residency was conceived as a space for experimentation, collaboration, and dialogue. It encouraged participants to work across disciplines and to build connections with Ibizan communities, contributing from the outset to the development of the island’s cultural fabric and laying the foundations for what would later become Ses12naus’ long-term residency programme.
The edition unfolded as a first gesture of presence: a beginning point for exchange, for learning through place, and for producing artistic responses rooted in lived experience. It marked the beginning of Ses12naus’ commitment to creating conditions for artistic research and production on the island — a “zero edition” that set the tone for all that followed.
Artists
Violeta Janeiro
EMBARKING
Violeta Janeiro is a leading name in collaborative art. An independent curator and researcher with an extensive background in contemporary art, her work has focused on different practices of collaborative art, the politics of knowledge, and alternatives in the production, reception, and dissemination of art.
She has worked with the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Spanish Consulate in Shanghai, and Summa Art Fair. She has directed the Helga de Alvear Gallery in Madrid and led various research projects.
She holds a degree in Art History from the University of Santiago de Compostela and a Master of Fine Arts from Kingston University in London.
Residency: EMBARKING
Web: violetajaneiro.com
Nora Silva
EMBARKING
Multidisciplinary artist Nora Silva defines herself as someone who makes things. On a deeper level, she can be described as an artist, independent researcher, and Spanish-Chilean writer based in London, who—after graduating in Fine Arts—travelled around Latin America working as a cook.
Her work is rooted in social awareness and invites viewers to reflect on how we respond to some of the defining issues of our time: the loss of privacy, climate change, migration policies, consumer culture, and the touristification of cities. Her practice is typically grounded in action-based performance, often supported by installations and objects that extend the gestures of her live work into physical space.
Residency: Embarking
Web: @noramutcho
Isha Bøhling
EMBARKING, THE MOVING IDEA
British-Danish artist Isha Bøhling works across painting, sculpture, sound, and curating. She composes with paint, draws with her voice, sculpts instruments, and stages performances through object and light-based installations. Her work has been presented internationally across Europe, Asia, the United States, and South America.
Recognised by both audiences and critics for her eclectic and distinctive approach, Bøhling has received multiple awards throughout her career. She was a recipient of The Freelands Foundation Award (2020), shortlisted for the East London Painting Prize (2014), and was also a finalist or shortlisted for a number of major prizes including the John Moores 23 Painting Prize (2003), Artsway Prize (2005), Red Mansions Prize (2002), and the Observer Student Prize (2002).
Residency: Embarking
Damien Poulain
EMBARKING, PRELUDIO
Damien Poulain is an artist working across design, architecture, and both built and natural environments. His practice transmutes influences from Shintoist, primitive, and heraldic symbology, alongside contemporary material and digital culture, to propose a universal visual language. Through an evolving range of formats—including textiles, painting, sculpture, and ephemeral architectural volumes—he develops glyphic systems of geometry and colour that question how humans relate to one another, to their surroundings, and to the mystery of existence.
Nomadic and deeply contextual, Poulain’s work ranges from monumental interventions to small-scale paintings produced in ongoing series linked to place and time. While public space remains his preferred canvas, his work has also been presented in solo exhibitions at Kemistry Gallery and KK Outlet in London, and at Calm and Punk Gallery and Claska in Tokyo, as well as in group exhibitions at the Museum of Graphic Design in Breda and the 21_21 Design Sight Museum in Tokyo.
Residency: Embarking
Ian Monroe
EMBARKING
New York artist and writer Ian Monroe conceptualises with sharp clarity the promise and disappointment of modernity. He first came to public attention in 2003 with a large-scale exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, and since then his artistic output and international recognition have continued to grow.
His work is held in numerous private collections, as well as major international institutions including the Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Denmark), the Saint Louis Art Museum (USA), the Hamburger Bahnhof (Germany), and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (Spain).
As a writer, Monroe has published articles in The Guardian, Art Review, and the specialised publication Collage, contributing critical reflections on contemporary art and visual culture.
Residency: Embarking
Jesús de Miguel
EMBARKING, PRELUDIO
Visual and multimedia artist Jesús de Miguel lives on the island and therefore knows Ibiza intimately. A graduate in Fine Arts from the University of Salamanca, he has studied the anthropology and creative processes of art, animation, and 3D design.
His practice is particularly rooted in painting, through which he explores a wide range of approaches — from purely pictorial languages to more technologically driven forms of artistic expression. The visual poetry of his work moves through an ocean of abstractions, where the defined becomes less clear-cut, and forms dissolve and merge until they are reborn with a life of their own, extending beyond the limits of what is expected.
Residency: Embarking
Juan Gómez Alemán
EMBARKING, PRELUDIO
Juan Gómez Alemán is an artist and cultural manager. He is the founder and director of La Juan Gallery, the first gallery in Spain dedicated to the living arts. The gallery’s practice centres on overhauling clichés associated with performance art, while building networks between artists and audiences through its programming and projects.
He has collaborated with institutions such as the Instituto Cervantes, Central Saint Martins (London), Teatros del Canal (Madrid), Cidade da Cultura (Santiago de Compostela), and Matadero (Madrid), among others.
Residency: Embarking
Zeltia Montes
EMBARKING, PRELUDIO
The name Zeltia Montes is closely linked to music and cinema. A Galician composer specialising in film soundtracks, she began composing at the early age of 9.
She studied piano and music theory at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and specialised in modern music. She also trained at Berklee College of Music in Boston and composed her first soundtrack in 2008 for the film Pradolongo, by Ignacio Vilar.
Her awards include the Jerry Goldsmith Award, the Mestre Mateo Award, the Gold Medal for excellence at the Park City Film Music Festival, and the Goya for best original score for the film El buen patrón.
Residency: Embarking
Web: @zeltiamontes
Mauricio Freyre
EMBARKING
Mauricio Freyre is a Peruvian researcher, audiovisual artist and filmmaker with a background in architecture. Interested in how film and architecture overlap, his projects seek out the interfaces of celluloid and architecture, with special emphasis on the margins, blind spots and dark areas.
A recipient of the Premio Nacional de Cine Experimental in Peru and the Matadero Production Grant in Madrid, his films and installations have featured in the programmes and exhibitions of the Valdivia International Film Festival, Les Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, l’Alternativa, TENT Rotterdam, Nederlands Film Festival and Fundación Telefónica Lima, among others.
Residency: Embarking
Karen Paulina Biswell
EMBARKING, PRELUDIO
Karen Paulina Biswell is the daughter of Colombian parents who emigrated to Paris to escape the extreme political repression of the early 1990s. Her diverse body of work, which continually defies definition, focuses on themes such as morality, vulnerability, and human fate. Motivated by a profound interest in the extreme states and depths of the human mind and experience, Biswell examines lesser-known aspects of contemporary life and the invisible and challenging elements of society today.
She has held exhibitions at Espacio 23 Miami, Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Perez Collection; the Momenta Biennale de l’Image in Montreal; and the A4 Art Museum in Chengdu, China. Her work features in public and institutional collections including the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (France), Museo del Banco de la República (Colombia), Pérez Art Museum Miami / Colección Jorge M. Pérez, and Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles (France).
Residency: Embarking
Web: @karenpaulinabiswell
Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil
EMBARKING, PRELUDIO
Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil construct and deconstruct spaces. Extensive training and experience afford them an absolute mastery of volume with which to recreate a universe that seems completely illogical at first sight.
Martine Feipel studied visual arts at the Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg, the University of the Arts in Berlin, and Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, where she obtained her MA in Fine Art. Jean Bechameil has worked since 1990 as a freelance sculptor, producing many of Lars von Trier’s play and film sets, including Antichrist, Manderlay, and Dogville.
Based in Luxembourg, the couple have collaborated together since 2008.
Residency: Embarking; The Moving Idea