PRELUDIO
An exhibition addendum serving as a prologue of all that was yet to come
(July – September 2022)
Exhibition presented at La Carpintería, Ibiza
Presented in the summer of 2022 at La Carpintería, Preludio took the form of an exhibition addendum — a prologue that gathered the spirit of Ses12naus’ first two editions while outlining a basis for future research. Curated by Fernando Gomez de la Cuesta, the exhibition looked back at key projects developed through the residency programme and offered a working framework for continuing exploration into shared, heterogeneous, and cumulative creativity: a model of artistic production rooted in collaboration, where tradition, innovation, experimentation, and local knowledge merged.
The selection brought together works developed through close dialogue between artists and the island context. Pieces such as Loca People (What The Fk)** by Damien Poulain and El conflicto es otro (The conflict lies elsewhere) by Ana Laura Aláez — both produced in collaboration with local craftspeople — were presented alongside Hotel Utopia, a critical reflection on avant-garde island architecture by Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil. The exhibition also featured Santiago Ydáñez’s pictorial exploration of the island’s fauna, traditions, and culture, as well as Pou des Lleó, a landscape- and nature-inspired musical composition by Zeltia Montes.
Other contributions broadened the exhibition’s interpretive terrain: Karen Paulina Biswell’s photographic series examined Ibiza through an ancestral and mystical lens, while Nihat Karatasli approached the Mediterranean as both natural sphere and humanist territory. Jesús de Miguel traced the historical itinerary of symbols, following their evolution from cave paintings to contemporary emoticons.
The exhibition concluded with a performance by Juan Gómez Alemán, which crystallised the memory of all artists who had participated in the programme’s first two editions. Preludio’s constellation of works ultimately underlined the importance of residency initiatives grounded in presence, mobility, making, and physical contact, particularly in a moment when these essential conditions of human and artistic exchange were increasingly fragile.
Artists
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
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
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
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
Santiago Ydáñez
PRELUDIO
A Fine Arts graduate from the University of Granada, Ydáñez has given workshops along with Juán Genovés and Mitsuo Miura, among others. He has received important distinctions and is one of Spain’s most internationally renowned painters. He has been awarded scholarships by the Ministry of Culture’s Colegio de España in Paris (2001), the Marcelino Botín Foundation (1998), the Academia de España in Rome (2016) and the 33rd BMW Painting Prize (2018).
He has held exhibitions at the CAC (Málaga), Villa di Livia (Rome), Whitebox Art Center (Beijing), Museo Lázaro Galdiano (Madrid), Dillon Gallery (New York), CAAM (Gran Canaria), Invaliden1 (Berlin), Fundación Chirivella Soriano (Valencia), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), Antigua Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús (Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia), Gallery SE (Bergen, Norway), Goethe Institut, Instituto Cervantes (Stockholm), Fundación Canaria para el Desarrollo de la Pintura (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), GE Galería (Monterrey, Mexico), among others. His work is present in the collections of the Fundación Botín (Santander), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), DKV, CAC (Málaga), Museo Sofía Ímber (Venezuela), Diputación de Jaén, ABC (Madrid), CGAC (Santiago de Compostela).
Residency: The Moving Idea
Web: www.santiagoydanez.com / @ydanezydanezydanez
Nihat Karatasli
THE MOVING IDEA, PRELUDIO
Nihat Karatasli (1988–2021) was an interdisciplinary artist whose videos, animations, sculptures, performances, and installations explored the interconnections between humans, nature, and technology.
A lecturer, columnist, and teacher, Karatasli was also co-founder of the Hüzün Archive, supported by Koç University (Istanbul). His work was featured in group exhibitions in Istanbul, Seoul, and Los Angeles, and he held an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
He participated in several film festivals, including the 7th Mammoth Lakes Film Festival in California, Soy Meta in Shanghai, the 37th Kasseler Film Festival, and Stand Firm, Stand Here at Ohklahomo, Chicago.
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
Ana Laura Aláez
THE MOVING IDEA, PRELUDIO
Winner of the Basque Government’s Gure Artea Award in 2013, Ana Laura Aláez is recognised for her artistic career and contribution to contemporary art. Alongside her visual work, she has also engaged in space design and writing. Since 2000—coinciding with her project Dance & Disco at Espacio 1 of the Reina Sofía Museum—she has collaborated with other electronic music creators. She has extensive teaching experience through courses, lectures, and workshops, and lives and works in Palma de Mallorca.
Residency: The Moving Idea; Preludio
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
