From Henry Byrne

01 Nov - 30 Nov 2016

I was booked to stay in Trelex for the month of November. Prier to my residency I had been working towards commissioned portraits and (primarily) ‘selling’ exhibitions. So I was looking forward to some headspace and time to try out my newer ideas by testing old ones. 

Trelex is a beautiful place set 3 miles north of Lac Lamen. The village is perched north of the roman town of Nyon in which a major highway passes connecting Geneva with the rest of Switzerland. The program is situated in a beautiful House with a large garden and Nina’s wonderful family. The studio is on the top floor of the three story house. From there looking north the forests rises to the foothills of the Alpes. It’s very quite in the house and  the village is very still. I had been anxious about the lack of activity and distraction However I found that the still ness enabled my to hear my ideas clearer and for the better ones to be louder. 

I drove from London which was great to have a car there tho Nina offers her car to residence to get around. It enabled more flexibility as I enjoyed going of in to the mountain for hours. I'd split the month up as follows; The first two weeks working on the portraits brought from the UK and the final two weeks working towards a show. Having no distractions enabled my productivity shot up. I painted so quickly and confidently. The big difference compared to my studio in the uk was from 6 pm onwards (this is the time I normally stop painting in London). In Trelex there are no social requirements/options so I continued to paint getting immersed in the work. It reminded me of when I was younger, when I first discovered art and how it relived me from the cronic ‘boredom’ of feeling unfulfilled. Portrait commissions can some times feel methodical the repetitive. The lack of distraction focused the mind and brought back fun and excitement of creating things. 

After completing my allotted paintings I begun playing with my light boxes (out side of portraits I create light boxes that mimic the atmospheres of significant areas) I wanted to make a piece of work that was sight specific. I had hoped/ expected mist over the lake and valley but it never fully transpired. The nights were drawing in quickly and the sun sets where getting slower and slower. Rich colours oranges and violets would transform the landscape highlighted by the residual mist of the lake. This was cemented on a train back from Nyon to Trelex at 5.15pm just as the sun was setting. The sky was violet and pink but there was a thin strip of yellow between the sky and the foothills.  As the train moved up the mountain I saw dog walkers standing still looking at the sun setting. Looking away from the view I noticed on the train all the Swiss staring at the sun set. I thought they must have seen it a thousand times but were still struck by it. In tern I was struck by there similar expression of carm and wonder. They were united in there expression and as a group. I wanted to show the thing that provoked this communal wonder. I then new what I wanted to make my work around this. 

Installation.

Using a LED strip light I started to rap pre bought coloured filters. I started combining different filters to tailor the different colours of the horizon. I wanted to make the strip of light that was so stunning between the clouds and the hills.

In the studios there are dividing walls. I thought it would be fun to use them as a light box to recreate the horizon. I experimented with a cardboard box getting the shape and colours right.  I took one of the panel off the dividing wall and set up the light inside. I did not want the source of the light to be seen and this would conseal the strip light. 

I then traced and cut the skyline into the board and screwed it back to the wall. Paper would be put over the cut horizon, to allow the light to be defused. The work was realised when Nina thought the reflection in the mirrow would mimic the sky line. This in my opinion became the work. The reflected strip of light in the glass mimicking the mountains it was inspired by. 

I cannot recommend the residency enough. Nina’s inputs was so useful It really reminded me that there are no rules and anything is possible it art. As the residency is run by artists for artists it realises the importance of time and personal development. Thank you very much for the most enlightening experience. 


Henry Byrne website

100 Artists

As Hugo Yoshikawa arrives on the 17th of August 2016, Trelex welcomes its 100th Artist in Residence.  To celebrate we have mapped out all 100 artists, showing roughly where everyone has arrived from.  I’m honored to have welcomed so many artists from all these many places into both my studio at Trelex and the rainforest of Peru at Trelex Amazonas.  Hover or click on the dots for information on each artist.  [full screen]

From Ujan Dutta

03.06.2016 - 23.06.2016

My stay at Trélex has been a wonderfully enriching experience. It served as a lovely change of scene for me, as my personal work was getting interrupted by my day to day professional activities.

Up until now I only just begun to compile a body of work, following my first exhibition, in 2012 and was failing miserably at it. My visit has inspired me to rekindle my enthusiasm for wanting to build an entirely new body of work.

Chandra

A setting such as Trélex inspires you to try new things, experiment and most importantly have fun. Up until now, my work focused on mainly Hindu mythology, and a study of some of the main characters of the mythological structure. This formed the basis of my first exhibition. Since then, I've been trying to expand my own universe of characters, places, and creatures. I have been trying to build a series of paintings, based on the association of each Hindu god to a 'Vahana' or an animal usually as a vehicle to his/her respective god. This concept gave me the opportunity to experiment with lots of new characters and themes, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. My work at the Trélex residency however allowed to me to further build my roster of unique mythological figures.

Garuda

I worked on a panoramic illustration depicting an iconic scene from the 'Ramayana'. Ram, along with an army of apes and monkeys builds a bridge made out of floating rocks between the south-eastern coast of India and 'Lanka', to rescue his bride, Sita, who is being held captive by the demon-king Raavana. I wanted to make this illustration a long-format horizontal panorama, something I hadn't fully tried before. I enjoyed adding an unreal scale to an already unbelievable scene, as I love detailing in my work.

Moon

Trélex has been an amazing place to work in. I have loved every bit of it. Nina's studio space has a great character and feeling to it, which really gives you a great opportunity to really focus on your work. I enjoyed travelling around Switzerland as well. Getting around is really easy and efficient. The Residency is very well located, just a few minutes away from the picturesque Nyon, and between Lausanne and Geneva, which are always fun to visit. Nina and Abi have been lovely hosts. My only regret is that I didn't spend more time learning new art mediums from them. I would be lying if I said that what I actually miss most is Nina's dog, by far one of the most adorable living creatures I've ever seen. 

I highly recommend the residency to any creative person, aspiring or otherwise, to visit the Trélex residency. I will treasure every minute of my experience, and look forward to going back as soon as I can. 

From Seçil Erel

24.08.2015 - 20.09.2015 

It was raining heavily when we arrived to Geneva and to the house in Trelex. That was unusual for a  summer day... Then the rain stopped. We went out to the garden, smelled the grass and fresh air and  we saw the amazing house. It looked magical... That was very nice.  My friend Kerem Ozan Bayraktar, who is an artist and past resident, told me about Trelex Art  Residency, and I met Nina Rodin when she visited Contemporary Istanbul last year.

I hesitated about doing the residency because I have a little girl and she was almost 4 years at that  time. But Nina understood and motivated me, because she has 3 lovely children herself. The  residency was a very important experience for us. We left our normal lives and artistic practice, we  began living and working together. I recommend this experience to all artists.

Also, I am lucky because I knew the other resident artist Gizem Unlu. She is very lovely, calm, understanding young and talented artist. She helped us when we needed something. Switzerland has extremely beautiful nature. I loved Nyon. It is very close to Trelex and amazing little town near Leman Lac, across the Apls, at the foot of La Cura mountains. We swam in the clean but cold Leman Lac, or Geneva Lake, and enjoyed walking around. We visited museums, galleries, cafes and shops in Geneva; Lausanne, and Yvoire (in France).

I collected maps, because I am influenced by them in my work, but had never used them directly before. I painted maps with watercolor and pens.

In my work, I like to begin with a fictional infrastructure and let my pieces take shape through a production process directed by the natural, random flow of painting; hence questioning the precision and overlooked aspects of architecture and existence in the relationship between painting, life, space and time. 

I create new spaces and suggests new architectural systems by overlapping layers that eventually become spatializedy. 

My paintings seek to outgrow the boundaries of canvases, walls, ceilings and sometimes floors.  I decided to set up a studio installation in my area during my residency.  

I was in the empty big walls and studio. I prepared many different projects samples on the installation.  I collected many things, such as maps, and used them in the installation. For example, I found plants  and leaves on the street - I liked them, picked them up and used them in the installation. They are still living in the my Istanbul studio.

Nina organized an open studio and an exhibition before the residency finished. 

After that we went for a trip other cities in Switzerland (Lausanne, Neuchatel, Bern, Zurich, Basel) in a  week.  

When we came back Istanbul from Trelex Art Residency, I felt calm and ready for new projects. It was  very good experience for my art discipline.

www.secilerel.com

A typical Trelex project

I just wanted to add a quick note about a recent event at Trelex that was really very very special to me. Early last week, I a book arrived from Holland and landed on my kitchen table. This would in and of itself have been celebrated with a long cup of coffee and some hours of reading in a hammock but this was a very very special book. It had been conceived by Michiel Shepers at the other Trelex Residency, deep in the Peruvian Amazon, around notes, sketches and watercolours made there while on a month long residency and then been finished with a lot of consideration in Leiden over the following 7-8 months.

As if that wasn't enough, when I contacted Michiel Schepers to thank him and to suggest that he come to Trelex and work on turning the book into an artist book edition, he announced he would swing by for a night a few days later as he was on his way to a trip round the alps.

So I had an opportunity to put to good use all I had learnt last summer on the Trelex Book Art Summer retreat as I passed on knowledge I have been given by other residents to Michiel and taught him so basic Adobe Indesign. We worked hard for a good 24 hours together (Michiel far longer hours than me!), discussed every detail of the text, font, layout, line spacing, captions, dedication, cover design, image/text arrangement, title, exchanged a ton of ideas (some completely tangential to the actual book) and got the book into pdf format to be enjoyed online for now:

Secil Erel and Gizem Ünlü - presently residents at Trelex - joined in the discussion and helped resolve points Michiel and I were in disagreement over. It was a real treat to be at the centre of so much given and received and feeling the international network of artists continue to grow around the residencies.

The next step will be to find a printer who can turn this book and some of the book projects that have taken shape here in Trelex into printed volumes in small runs (100-200 volumes) without compromising on quality or breaking the bank. Does anyone know such a printer in Switzerland or in the UK?

Hopefully this will inspire other to take a chance on an Artist without any application forms (the creative equivalent of putting the cart in front of the horses). More often than not this produces something of value that surprises both the host and the artist in equal measure - something that couldn't have been planned for without considerable anxiety on both sides of the equation.

Brainstorming for the Arts, Gender Parity and Education

Recently, Caroline Watson, the brains behind the notion of a Global Arts Agenda came for a return visit to the Trelex Residency - this time with her husband and two wonderful accomplices: Fanny Ollivier and Richard Sobey. They turned the studio into a boardroom and think tank. Ideas, plans, strategies and debate whirled around for three intense days.

Fanny, Caroline and Richard plotting away.

The concept is to establish an international body (perhaps under the aegis of the United Nations) to 'enable business and government to use the arts in human development'; to be a forum for discussions on best practice; to lend international support to fledging efforts in countries where the arts are undervalued... etc. Unesco does a lot through its World Heritage programme but the emphasis is on historical patrimony rather than living breathing happening sort of Art that provides the real fibre of a living culture. And as artist we all know that when it comes to Art, most politicians don't know what they are doing and could benefit a lot from a code of best practice as to how to connect policy with people, artists, creative innovation and solutions based on a thriving arts culture.

The view from the corner of the studio where I was working

I was of course listening in intently and trying to speak a bit for the visual artist whose work may be neither hobby, business, therapy, educational or social project or particularly altruistic in any way but which tends often to be sidelined in funding, residencies and support for the arts which is becoming increasingly focussed on end products. Yet defining the output ahead of the creative process is like putting cart in front of the horses: it chokes creativity rather than giving it free rein.

Unusual creative process using post-its and numbers.

My husband, the philosopher David Rodin asked some pertinent questions on how the Council would define itself and its objectives so as not to become prescriptive, restrictive or biased towards western cultural values.

And Professor Jem Bendell shared a lot of insights on the inner workings of the United Nation agencies: how best to collaborate and innovate with the existing platforms. Would there be scope for an inter-agency meeting of elements working on aspects of the Arts already? Before we new it, we were planning for 80,000 sqm of industrial land belonging to the city of Geneva and diverging somewhat on making the arts scene there explode into something worth moving for.

So hopefully there will be more meetings ahead. I hope to meet the Maire of Geneva again with Jem, to learn about Swiss funding for the Arts with Fanny Ollivier and brainstorm the growth of the Trelex Model with the Amazing Richard Sobey in the near future.

Richard's enticing business card on my desk with my painting.

This inspiring weekend followed on directly from the Young Global Leaders summit at the headquarters of the World Economic Forum in Geneva where I once again used my privileges as a spouse to raise my voice on the importance of Arts for Art's sake, Gender parity and Education - three issues that never fail to fire me up.

Sustainable development goals notice board at the WEF
with Quality Education no.4 and Gender Parity no.5..

and no.18 added by yours truly. One day they will politely ask me to leave...

1. On the Arts front: I gatecrashed a small meeting of Young Global Leaders working in or with the Arts talking about how the Arts can have a more serious place in the World Economic Forum. It was heart warming and encouraging to see so many engaged young leaders (who have to be both leaders in the field and seriously engaged in improving the state of the world to be elected) concerned with the place given to the Arts and to hear of the steady progress made so far. Art has slowly been moved away from being something to decorate the wall between he coffee machine and the water dispenser and a source of relaxation or entertainment for forum attendees between sessions dealing with the intellectual hard core of the Forum to some tentative attempts at centre stage. Still, as the people in the room introduced themselves, the focus seemed to be firmly on art markets, art as entertainment, art as therapy (including a neuroscientist who had studied the relaxing properties of viewing art), art as vehicle for political change (documentary and fiction in the Israel/Palestine conflict), art as education tool... etc.... - in short, Art as a tool with applicable use. I bit my tongue for as long as I could but in the end, when it came to introducing myself, I said something along the lines of:

'I am Nina Rodin. I am an Artist. My Art is not a hobby, is not a business (God know I am not making a penny of it and it's costing me a fortune!), is not entertainment, is not good as decoration, will not solve political problems, does not aim to influence or teach. Some of my work stresses people and I make no apologies for that. But my art is not the soft option. I have been an astrophysicist and a neurophysiologist and written theses and published papers in both  - but I swear being an Artist is the hardest, most intellectually challenging thing I have ever done. Art is not the soft option to be indulged in my spare time. It is lonely, hard, underfunded, misunderstood. But can we please start to take it seriously?!!'

I didn't get thrown out of the room but got handshakes from a lot of people for the rest of the conference. So perhaps there is hope after all...

2. On the Gender Parity front: Years of campaigning softly (and sometimes less softly) on the sidelines about having a children's programme at such summits came to fruition. With the help of Jennifer Corriero, Lisa Neuberger and Rosy Mondardini, we put a children's programme together to run through the YGL summit - very generously and somewhat extravagantly supported by the WEF. Throughout the week, people approached me to thank us and explain what an extraordinary impact it had had on their experience and their ability to work to have their children both nearby and independently looked after. I hope this will now become a mainstay of WEF conferences and the organisation can become a leader here as well in setting a new standard for work-life integration that benefits both parent-professionals and their children. Think of the difference it would make to have similar facilities at large annual Neuroscience Conferences and at large Art fairs. And it is an extremely potent way of closing the gender gap: it makes it possible to combine professional excellence with parenting excellence. If, as in this case, the conference participants themselves contribute to the children's programme, then educational excellence for the children is seen to be complementary and not in conflict with professional excellence. I lost count of how many conference attendees told me with a palpable sense of relief that next year perhaps they would also bring their children.

My Art Theory Workshop in full swing...

Three children with an artwork of their choice explaining why
they have chosen it and what the artwork says about their individuality.

3. On the Education front: I had more interaction and discussion with the extraordinary Claire Boonstra of Operation Education, a dutch initiative looking to completely rethink children's education in the light of modern scientific evidence and studies of best practice around the world. I am particularly moved by Claire's intuitive understanding of the place of creativity in such new educational paradigm. Am hoping to become a Swiss ambassador for her organisation. But more about that soon hopefully. I leave you with links to her two ted talks: talk 1 and talk 2. Makes me cry every time. Who is with us?

Claire Boonstra: how difference from the norm is seen as failure.
Now how do you explain that as a problem to the Swiss?

Nina Rodin - August 2015, Trelex.

From Rona Shahar

01.07.2015 - 31.07.2015

Trelex Times.  It all started in late 2014. My friend Ora Ruven recommended I contact artist Nina Rodin for a free residency she's been offering in Trelex, Switzerland, saying "I know you like these things". And surely I do (Free residency! Switzerland!), so I wrote immediately and got to stay 6 weeks in the summer.
 

If you looked  at the website and read some you may think - oh, how nice. Well you have no idea how. It's my third week here,  and I am still finding out more about the possibilities of using my time here - everything, just everything, overflows or grows on trees. You just tune in and bathe yourself in calm delicious waters, ideas, beauty, serenity and inspiration.

 

I wasn't sure how much I would like Switzerland. Italy was still on my mind from my previous trip. Its northern neighbor looked much less colorful,  the architecture of old villages here mimics the mountain ranges with their pointed slopey tops. Often cloudy and rainy, much fewer people in the  streets, pricey of course. That was my first impression. But then I arrived into the micro-country of Trelex and things changed. In short, we (there usually are two artists or more at the same time) can use the residency in any way we like, there are no restrictions. There's ample materials to use in the studio itself and a zillion appetizers in the nature outside, even looking through the windows. What really started me up, strangely enough, was an innocent set of color markers left by one or more of the previous artists. The other thing was the heat wave - a long week of ever increasing temperatures, which forced me to wander away from the house into the woods, where I would sit under the heavy shade and look around me. The following works all from the same window show my progress with markers.

Rona's website and full blog post

From Marina Carvalho

Here is a really wonderful and original trip around Marina's experiences in Trelex. Photos will follow soon, especially of the first permanent sculpture in the garden....


Just click on the image above, open in full screen and use the arrows at the bottom to navigate the mind map. You don't need to install any software. Easy-peasy.

See some of Marina Carvalho's work here.

From Ilana Simons

01.06.2015 - 19.06.2015

What makes the Trelex Residency so unique is a certain special system of lawlessness and anonymity –a residency model that’s based on trust. There are no applications, no fees.

Nina calls it the Trelex Model, and is in the process of exporting this dreamscape to other locations like Peru and Pakistan.

Four years ago, Nina turned the top floor of her own home into an artists’ retreat with the desire to have likeminded makers in her space.  After art school in London, she moved with husband David (a moral philosopher) and their three kids to the Swiss town of Trelex, with the small population of about 1,400. Nina found herself in a bright studio with views of the Alps, but watching the cows and missing the productive chaos of human voices. She restructured her home off a unique ethical gamble: you might invite artists/strangers into your house and trust them, off the bold fact that they’ve traveled a long distance to show up and make things with you.

There are already many residencies available, Nina says, for artists who go to art school and build CV’s angled for a life in the art market. But there are almost no opportunities for artists without that CV— imaginative minds who work almost secretly but might find themselves especially triggered, wired, and driven by this stretch of free time in a grand space in which they are asked nothing about who they are or what they promise to produce. If someone knows herself to be invested in making art, reads through the Trelex website without much guidance from outside sources, requests an occupancy, and buys a ticket to Geneva six months in advance (which is about how quickly spots fill up), then that person is invested. And, when we arrive, we see the full gift: the huge house lined with vines, the strawberries for picking in the garden, the bikes and cars available for use, the mountainsides striped with hiking trails. The surprise of the gift is enough to set an unusual mutual generosity into motion. People generally worry about what others think of them, Nina says. If you enter someone’s house, and it’s beautiful, and she asks nothing about who you are, you have some impulse to return the spirit. Just so, her house holds the trail of past creative minds that seem to have lived there, open—pastels left behind, charcoal pencils, Japanese paper, twelve bottles of glue, chocolate in the cabinets, a bottle of wine. Nina herself offers an almost endless supply of other things for making art. Then that’s what happens: you show up and you make art.

I shared my three weeks of residency with an Indian painter named Ranadip Mukherjee. Nina met us both at the airport/train station and invited us to scour the airport supermarket for a while before driving us back to the house.

The two artists in residence at any one time sleep in the loft upstairs, which also houses the studio, made of about 700 square feet with moving walls and windows for natural light. Nina and her family live on the first two floors. There is a rather neat division: you get to know the dog, the brilliance of her kids (one has unbounded knowledge and passion for Greek myth), and some rooms in the house itself are great reading hideaways, like this veranda on the second floor where I had wine and wrote romantically.

Ranadip usually woke up earlier than I did and would quietly start his watercolors by the rising sun at the open window. I am a video artist so the trajectory of my day was more scattered: filming Nina’s daughter (an excellent actor; she has insights into American culture), or painting trees in the garden for set pieces, or doing set pieces of Freud and a collage of Nina.

I took many day trips: Geneva is a good one, for its museum of contemporary art (MAMCO), where I enjoyed the short films of one queer sexualized wonderkind whose name I’m not remembering. Another great outing is to Lausanne, for the Collection de L’Art Brut, all art done by true outsiders, most of them in mental institutions. Both places are accessible from right outside Nina’s house, via train.

I took daily bike rides into Nyon, where the food shopping is best.  I did a daily runs to Crassier, a neighboring town, for which I passed through the most beautiful white/green striped landscapes with lake far below.

I came back home to New York with little nuggets on psychology from Nina. Questions asked: How does she handle the diversity in her house--the minds that come through which annoy her with their politics, or their rudeness, or their myopia, or whatever might bug her?  Smiling wider than the rim of her coffee, Nina said, “But I love and hate everyone. There is no other way of knowing someone.” It takes balance to welcome the differences in and engage with it. Her life has taken on the task of that engagement. Then: how does she trust that she’s not opening her house to freeloaders? “I ask that anyone who comes read the website and, without much dialogue, buy a ticket across the world.  That shows someone’s commitment, doesn’t it?”

True.

---

Me: I’m Ilana Simons, an artist and psychologist who lives in NYC and was delighted to share Nina’s space for three weeks while I worked on my video about heartbreak.  See some of my videos here: https://vimeo.com/ilanasimons

From Isabel Moseley

05.05.2015 - 26.05.2015

It's 6.20pm and I’m sitting beside Nina in her van, rounding the grassy corner into Trelex. The witches hat church spire peeping between the hills at a new arrival to the village.

In the morning the clang of cowbells resounded in the mountains and the nights rain made the trees such a shade of green that they looked more alive than anything ever had.

Walking around the village it struck me that the houses looked as if they had been carved out of cake using a large bread knife. On the horizon blue clouds skimmed the mountains and seemed in danger of being snagged on the jagged peaks. A thousand leaves gently fluttered in the breeze and sitting by the open kitchen window I basked in Swiss sunlight.

In the quiet bustle of Geneva I crossed a bridge that ran over a river dashing by. During the heat of the day I visited MAMCO and was reminded of Terry Gilliam’s fantasy film Brazil – the space seemed to recall a pasts idea of what the future would be; great big turquoise doors and windows set into a sturdy industrial building encrusted with contemporary artwork – completely wonderful and the space itself was a work of art. Switzerland is the very quiddity of good design and absolutely everything is beautiful.  At lunchtime Nock circus was in town and its tents gathered in the square like a pack of scarab beetles with their great spikes looming into the blue sky.

The following week in Trelex I had begun to produce some new lino prints spurred on by the geometric architecture I had seen in Geneva. It was very difficult not to be inspired and productive when surrounded by other creative people and for three weeks I lived and breathed art. 

On a warm Tuesday morning I heaved a sigh as I waited in the airport for my flight back to Birmingham. My experience was unforgettable – I’m so happy to have met Nina and all the other residents and I look forward to returning soon…

Isabelmoseley.co.uk

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From Andrew Osta and Ninfa Cuervo

14.04.2015 - 19.05.2015

I came to the Trelex residency together with my wife for five weeks starting in early April. My first impression was that the house, the studio, the location, and the surroundings were just perfect.  It was all so welcoming and comfortable that I was able to begin creating work almost from day one.

Walks and bike rides served as the inspiration for many of the paintings I produced in Trelex. I found the European village setting charming, and going out into always gave me a sense of gratitude and well-being. While inside, I immersed myself in reading some of the art books available in the studio library. Although I’ve been painting for 10 years, I somehow felt like a student, and consciously worked on studies from nature, as well as from art books. I didn’t feel any pressure to perform or produce works, but I tried to experiment with something new every day.

Forest Sketch #1 Ink on Watercolor Paper, 9x12 inches

When we arrived, the mustard fields were just beginning to turn bright yellow, and when we left, the wheat was the most gentle of greens. Some of my favourite paintings of this time captured those moments. On cold and rainy days, I did not have to go anywhere, because the house itself provided wonderful views from the windows, which I could paint from the comfort of my studio.

Nina was helpful in every way, and I know that my wife was very much encouraged by her. She came as a beginning photographer with not much direction to her work, and many doubts about it. By the time we were leaving, her photographs gained a much more unique character, and she continually surprised me with really great shots. She said she felt like an artist by the time she left, which was the goal.

For most of our stay, we were the only residents, but in the last 10 days, we got to meet 3 more artists. It was all very comfortable and the sharing of ideas and experience within the group was beneficial to everyone. I had a little show in the studio, which was not well attended because we didn’t plan or promote it very well, but I believe Nina will eventually move future shows to the first floor of the house, which will provide easy access from the street. With proper planning and advertising, there is definitely a lot of potential in Trelex for relatively well attended and successful shows. I was very fortunate because I met some great people through the English speaking church in Nyon, and they bought a number of paintings, which helped a lot with the cost of our airfare and other expenses

Overall we couldn’t have been happier and are very grateful for what Nina is doing. We are contemplating the logistics of doing a Trelex style residency in our studio in Mexico, but that project is still in its very early stages. One thing for sure, Trelex is an experience. I hope to come back some day, to catch up with what Nina is doing and to become closer friends as well. From Mexico,

Andrew Osta and Ninfa Cuervo

Note from Nina: though it may be possible to find a more permanent display place in the house in the next year or so, the emphasis at The Trelex Residency is as a place of production, artistic development and research. Though some artists have sold work at shows we have organised for open studio evenings, this is very rare even for well-attended shows advertised long in advance. Artists should not for a moment contemplate funding their stay from potential sales. Switzerland is an expensive place but such a strategy could leave you uncomfortably out of pocket. So do not budget around selling work in Switzerland.

From John Appleton

27.03.2015 - 13.04.2015

JOHN APPLETON :TRELEX RESIDENCY : A BRIEF CONVERGENCE.

I think to myself before I board the plane to Switzerland how did I manage to come, so close to lunacy, before jetting off.

The Night before I was helping the Host' and other ex residents of Trelex, with their show. Pretty Peeved an excellent high energy show, by very different and dynamic Artists.

Many events of madness , breaks ins to late night drinking with a dash to the airport with one eye closed and coffee consumed, some how in the hazy morning rush, I had landed in Switzerland.

I quick meet and greet at London at city airport I had met my comrade, for the next two weeks Eva. Picked up by our hosts partner we were whisked to the van with an adorable dog, to the charming town in Trelex.

It was like ghetto to heaven, I had dropped into a Valhalla for producing. The studio was brimming with tools for creation. An atmosphere beyond complementing an artist, of hundred years ago. Eva and I were both perplexed and amazed. London harbours an artist that mainly sees such large spaces once a week, in the heart of different gallery districts. Most of the time we spend hours wishing we were elsewhere. Instead we hunch over our desks and computers in shoe boxed studios. We had arrived in a place where cows bells and bird song reigned together, with ice cream conned horizons.

So here we were planning logistical movements for the next few weeks and getting to know each other. Within the space were our separate rooms and small kitchen, which we shared. It was a basic set up, thought out and perfect for artists perusing traditional practice. Eva had trouble with the lack of technical advancement however began use the space in a more guru like way.

I could see this was going to be a place to decompress, so I wasn't worried about creating as such, but giving myself the time to digest the last few years and carefully pull out some of the more, estranged ideas.

For me at least I started to connect with older thought's. I guess the landscape directed me there. Atmosphere, environment clearly are important to my work. I have always relied on them for subject matter. Even now as I gear up for another show, I connect with my time at Trelex. I chose now to examine, prepare and test. I limited my palette to Black and White and graphite, taking away any attachments to painting.

I should have given more time to experiment, in retrospect. However the value I have from this experience now is coming to fruition. The paintings are more structured and detailed. Collage has become a new way to process and examine.

Eva's work was channelling the semiology of digital spaces. Using google maps to navigate and find where memorable events had happened in in her life. Combining this with the frustration of not being able to access them, due to being 'off the grid'. I liked this, as memory is selective. The jarring of these video works and the skittering screen, evoked ideas of trying to run in a dream, but not moving. I felt her videos were successful in activating the relationship to our own subconscious and the want, to remember.

Apart from studio time, a brief visit to Lausanne, and the Art Brut institute.

This was a first hand at understanding the brain and its powers. Interesting to say the least. Its best to see for yourself. The range of art and special exhibitions are dumbfounding. For myself, seeing these artists and their creations only fuels me. It's the visionary aspects of art making, which I have not dealt with for some time, but this does appear contorting in my paintings, every now and then. Alchemy is as strong a word as you will get, out of a high art establishment. Words like visionary scare the bejesus out of traditional scholarly types these days. Any whiff of incense is quickly edited with bleached texts and statements of enduring confusion. My point is letting go and let the madness consume your work,  maybe isn't a bad thing.

Anyway that's some of my experience at Trelex, well worth it, good for the soul. Next time I will produce a body of work and maybe get interactive, more community minded, so as to process ideas with a environment that nurtures.

www.johnappleton.co.uk

From Abi Box

12.01.2015 - 03.02.2015

Residency Garden Snowed Under

On 12 January I arrived at Geneva airport with a suitcase full of more paint than clothes to spend three weeks as an artist in residence on the Trélex Residency programme.  The residency was founded three years ago by artist Nina Rodin and takes up the top floor of the her family home in Switzerland.  Nina and I came to know one another during our BA studies together at Camberwell UAL and so I’d been keen for a while to come and spend time at the residency and work alongside each other again.

Abi in the Trelex studio making paintings

The set up is a self contained live in work space complete with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom and a large studio space with plenty of light, shelves full of books and materials and two movable walls.  I shared the studio with both Nina and fellow artist in residence Rebecca Molloy and although we did a fair amount of wall manoeuvring we chose mostly to arrange the space to be as open plan as possible.  The windows look out on to the garden which is surrounded by countryside and in the distance the mountains.  Trélex itself is located on the northwest side of Lake Geneva, in the district of Nyon, it’s a small town with a bakery, restaurant, post office and little shop - which I saw open only once in my whole time there.

Local shop

I went with the intention of getting stuff done but in reality three weeks isn’t that long and between the three of us we had a lot to say.  So our time was split generously between making work and talking about work.  Actively sharing thoughts, challenging one another on our ideas in an effort to refine what the point might be or to push a concept further.  I completely underestimated how much input I would receive simply by working in the same studio space as Nina and Becca, I was pushed even on a technical level in terms of my use of colour and painting technique, I really tried to keep an open mind and to listen properly.  Since being back I’ve missed working in company, there’s something better about being able to spread a conversation out over a longer period of time, with space to think in between comments and come back with thoughts as and when they come to you.  In the same way I also found suggestions would sink in better, you don’t forget because the conversation surrounding them is ongoing.

Painting detail, Abi Box

We also made time for adventures.  There’s so much countryside in the surrounding areas to explore, early on in the trip we took the bikes out into the forest to experiment with some installation ideas.  I had in mind an idea to light a fabric forest fire and take photographs for incorporating into my series of forest fire paintings and Becca took a can of squirty cream to use in a series of short forest graffiti video pieces.  We spent a number of afternoons going for walks and when it snowed we built a snowman in the garden with some less than conventional fixtures.

Rebecca Molloy on the way to the forest

On a few occasions we went further afield and took the 30 minute train journey to Geneva for exhibitions and sightseeing and nearer the end of our stay we hosted a open studio coffee morning where Becca threw everyone in at the deep end with the squirty cream videos.  On the last day we took the train up to St.Cergue and went snowshoeing through the woods and over the mountains and were wowed by view over Nyon and Lake Geneva. 

Snowshoeing in St.Cergue with Becca and Fanny

This is only a short summary of our time in Trélex - I did also write a diary of sorts, a little each day, which has been mostly for myself (so not to forget) but it also goes into much more detail and has links to extra bits of information etc…  12 Jan (day one)  > >




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