Visual Strolls
seasonal residency
Visual Strolls is a residency space for artists who share an affinity for landscapes and wilderness, inner and outer. Foresta is changing with every season as the real forest does. In cyclical circularity it celebrates changing seasons of nature and of our lives. As snow melts away, as days grow longer, as leaves change colour, as they fly with the wind, as stillness settles in, as warmth returns, as birds cross continents — at the turn of each seasonal moment we invite a different artist to bring a new time of the year to Foresta by creating a portrait of time that later becomes part of the permanent Museum of Seasons.
Autumn 2016 Artist in Residence
Adolfo Serra
Adolfo is an illustrator and picture book maker, based in Madrid. Much of his work involves engagements with the wild aspects of inner and outer nature, such as found in his book "El bosque dentro de mí", "The forest in me" (published by Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico), selection from which you’ll find in the gallery below.
Autumn 2016 Portrait
“¿Cómo he llegado al bosque? ¿Qué quiero contar?
Yo quiero hablar de la naturaleza como algo abrumador, enorme, sencillo, brutal, bello. Los seres humanos como seres de la naturaleza.Pero también quiero hablar de la naturaleza interior. Crecer, madurar, evolucionar, cambiar. Descubrirse en otros, descubrirse en uno mismo, vernos y no vernos. El reflejo, la búsqueda, la identidad.
Hablar de la pertenencia o no a un espacio, la huida, el encuentro. Viajar, recorrer, comparar. Maravillarse con lo sencillo.Quiero hablar de que uno debe buscar su propio bosque para crecer, para encontrarse. Entender los miedos, los monstruos internos y enfrentarse a ellos... o saber si realmente hay que enfrentarse. Me gustaría transmitir que uno debe ser fiel a su propia naturaleza, sea la que sea.El bosque es el principio de muchos viajes literarios. El bosque es también el punto de partida de muchos viajes interiores.¿Necesitamos perdernos para ser más humanos? ¿Necesitamos perdernos para descubrir quiénes somos? ”
"How did I come to the forest? What story do I want to tell?
I want to talk about nature as something overwhelming, huge, simple, brutal, beautiful. About humans as creatures of nature. I also want to talk about the inner nature. Grow, mature, evolve, change. Discover yourself in others and in yourself, see and not see each other. Reflection, search, identity.
I want to talk of belonging and not belonging to a space, a flight, an encounter. Travel, wander, compare. To be amazed of simplicity. I want to talk of one’s need to seek their own forest to grow, to meet. Understand the fears, internal monsters and face them ... or know if you really have to face them. I would like to convey that one should be true to their own nature, whatever it is. Forest is the beginning of many literary journeys. Forest is also the starting point of many inner journeys. Do we need to get lost to be more human? Do we need to get lost to discover who we are?"
About Visual Strolls
Visual Strolls is not only an online gallery, an exhibition room, a portrait into the work of the invited artist. It is also a part of our long-term research, understanding arts and creativity as forces that change human states of attention in manifold ways, as forms of cognition and perception, divergent perspectives and poetry of vision, access to intuition and imagination, and empowerment for conscious creation of culture. You can read more about Art into Life research here.
Cover image: Adolfo Serra