Day 1 Drawing back the curtains of my chalet window I blink at the luminous white landscape in front of me. Whilst delighted at the beauty of the scene (worthy of even the most ostentatious Christmas card) my plans to […]

Our next artist in this residency programme is Rona Smith, a London-based sculptor and installation artist. We are very pleased to have Rona on this residency. She has just completed a window commission for Lumen United Reformed Church in Bloomsbury. […]

Recently I’ve been working on the rushes I made at the sites of the camps – particularly Argeles. Being totally absorbed by editing on the computer and the creative process seems so far removed from walking and recording at the […]

My final days in the Pyrenees were spent finishing my installation. In my original communication with Jonathan and Helen I had discussed many different ideas that might convince them and me to take on this project. The idea that got […]

Thursday Jonathan and I drove to Toulouse. I’d completed photographing the tree on Wednesday evening and had stacks of refrigerated slide film ready for processing. After a somewhat difficult and tedious first encounter with the printers we waited for several […]

The weather became less predictable as the week went on with rain forecast and delayed finally reaching us on Friday night through Saturday. The performance was set to be compromised and I started to wonder whether anyone would even make […]

I have been painting today. It’s funny that initially I attempted to recreate the images of my paintings in video and now I am basing my paintings on the stills of the videos. It is also strange how my videos […]

Yesterday evening I found out that a short clip of one of my Rivesaltes videos has been included by the Frieze Foundation for their film “Road Movie” and will be shown on Channel 4 tomorrow (Thursday 16th October) during the […]

By Peter Watkins – Artist-in-Residence When driving the 660 miles, the twelve-and-a-half hours, and what seems like, and almost is, the entire length of France, its incredible how you see. (Tyres ceaselessly rolling over toll-standard tarmac, service stations, watchful mullets, […]

My first weekend has been spent exploring. Jonathan his son and I drove to a nearby former holding camp where thousands were sent to Auschwitz pre-ww2; this place has been the source of much inspiration for Jonathan in recent years. […]

My videos have been well received, especially in the UK. In France the Memorial Commission are interested in a screening in the camp, but it is difficult to pin them down to a date. The most recent project in which […]

Our third artist is Stefan Rohner, a Swiss sculptor and installation artist. He will probably be bringing a friend, Bruno Steiger, who is also a sculptor. Stefan's idea is to work with shadows, recreating the shadow on the ground from […]

Originally a military base, this camp in Rivesaltes (near Perpignan) has a really dark history. It has been used to hide people away, those whom society has rejected. The Spanish fleeing Franco’s regime were put there. Then Jews, along with […]

Examining those things we usually overlook.

We have also been contacted by a documentary film maker, Tamara Erde, who is interested in filming a sculptor, which is an exciting idea. Her showreel is great. She is going to come and work with one of the artists […]

After placing an advert in AN, I waited eagerly for the responses. We are offering a residency in the French Pyrenees with the aim of creating land art using found and local materials. We thought that it would be interesting […]

We have had some great applications. Going through them has been a lot of work but worth it, there are some real gems. So far we have invited Rona Smith, a sculptor and installation artist and Peter Watkins, a photographer. […]