10 February - 23 February, 2025
Monte / Verità
Cultivating Alternative Realities: creative communal living for envisioning interconnected, regenerative futures
This residency took place in Cairo Montenotte, in Liguria, Italy. The theme was inspired by the pioneering early 20th-century artist commune called Monte Verità. An interdisciplinary group of residents was invited for an immersive communal living experience, where we reimagined the historic utopian experiment as a modern living laboratory and embodied, creative think tank, connecting with ourselves, our community, and nature.
The residency was co-hosted by Juliette Westerink and brought together the following residents: Giulia Menicucci, Sarah Mestmacher, Sarah van Eijk, Siobhan Bell, Suzette Bousema, Carlyn Westerink, and Nastia Svarevska, each contributing their unique perspective to the experience.
* More information about the residents below
Looking back at our two-week gathering in the mountains of Liguria for the interdisciplinary residency Monte Verità: Cultivating a New Reality, we recall an experience of creative exploration, deep connection, and communal living. Inspired by the pioneering 20th-century art commune of the same name, the residency was organized by SOPRA SOTTO, led by Constance van Berckel and Juliette Westerink, and generously hosted in Cairo Montenotte at Il Gattopardo, the home of Martin de Koning and Annelies Pauw.
At first, none of us were familiar with the area, but we quickly made it our home—embracing the misty skies, seizing the occasional sunny days for long hikes, and immersing ourselves in the rhythm of the landscape. The residency became a living laboratory for co-creation, where we practiced simplicity and slowness to reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. We questioned the status quo, imagining a future inspired by regenerative practices, synergetic systems, and a profound sense of interconnectedness.
The residency program was co-created by its residents, with each person leading a workshop that reflected their knowledge, perspectives, and interests. We danced in bird flocking formations, slowed down to experience somatic movement in nature, observed tiny symbiotic ecosystems, wrote collective poetry, harmonized our voices in song, explored self-portraiture through photography, and joined in deep sharing rituals with yoga nidra. Juliette guided Active Hope workshops and critical dialogues, while outdoor nature drawing invited us to zoom in on the smallest details of our surroundings. Inspired by SOPRA SOTTO’s philosophy—"as above, so below"—we experimented with shifting perspectives, sometimes zooming out to see Earth as part of the vast cosmos, and other times looking through magnifying glasses at the intricate beauty of lichens and leaves. These moments expanded our awareness, deepening our appreciation for the synergy of ecosystems beyond the limits of our human experience.
Our days were filled with tender moments of togetherness—cooking nourishing meals in the large communal kitchen, watching Lazzaro Felice, gathering around bonfires to share songs, stories, jokes, and deep conversations. We embraced playfulness, rolling down grassy hills, harvesting clay to sculpt puppets, dressing up for a pirate-themed dinner, celebrating love with a Valentine’s feast, and embodying more-than-human beings in masks. Beyond our human connections, we bonded with the wild cats roaming the property and with Giulia’s dog, Sam, who quickly became our beloved tenth resident. Local encounters also enriched our time—Claudio, a friendly neighbor, welcomed us with wood-fired pizza at the start of the residency, and on our final night, we danced together at La Perla, a retro dance hall.
Among the many workshops, Nastia led a collective poetry writing session around the idea of homeing—not as a fixed noun, but as a verb, an ongoing process of finding and creating home.
Together, we wove our thoughts and experiences into a shared poem: The breezy smell The touch of sea Blue Pizza on a random Thursday A warm blanket Home knots itself into a nest an entangled place of diverse materialities and moods I pull it over my head and read the lines of the weaving The wisdom of water and strong yet soft women; home is a sea I delight to swim in Home is trust in perpetual unraveling Space in my belly and my breath filling it so I can land and nest there Being held by my future and holding my past Home is where tears are welcomed without questions Space between bodies I take my time to unravel it Mmmmm! We will become homes once again Grandmother’s nest I keep returning Home to myself “haaaaa…” long sigh out Home moves with me inside me losing sense of time […..] I am at peace with where I am and where I came from and where I’m going Not me but us together not alone Malleable yet stable Mud with tiny stones I trace my path on my palm Dishes Forced slow walking Where all is allowed where all can be homely serenity When you can leave and be back
THEME AND BACKGROUND INFO
At the dawn of the 20th century, the artist community of Monte Verità was established on a hill near Ascona, Switzerland, amidst the woods and hills overlooking Lake Maggiore. The problems of that era mirror those of today: globalization, brutal capitalism, the rise of fascism, wars and political unrest, the rise of global communication, and a society where a few grow extremely wealthy while the majority remain poor.
Monte Verità attracted thinkers, anarchists, philosophers, theosophists, writers, and artists from around the world in response to bourgeois conformism and dominant ideologies, and represented a reaction to the negative impacts of modernity, like industrialization, urbanization, individualism, exploitation, social divides, repression, and militarism. Rejecting these degenerated systems, Monte Verità explored themes that remain relevant today, creating a laboratory for a counter-culture and alternative lifestyles, experimenting with radical freedom and utopian living. Its residents proclaimed a holistic, sustainable way of life, and a return to the intricate simplicity of nature and its slower rhythms. Their ideas of liberation extended to every facet of life: nudism over restrictive clothing, vegetarian diets over tobacco and alcohol, open-air dancing over societal constraints, and the poet over rulers and hierarchy. It merged Eastern and Western mystical philosophies, connecting mind, body, and soul, and was linked to Theosophy, a movement blending spirituality, science, and philosophy, which influenced artists like Hilma af Klint, Piet Mondrian, Klee, and Kandinsky. This unique place hosted important freethinkers, like anarcho-communist theorist Pëtr Kropotkin, Dadaist Hugo Ball, Isadora Duncan, Hermann Hesse, Carl Jung, Mary Wigman, Krishnamurti, Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, and artists Paul Klee and Hans Arp. The lasting significance of Monte Verità was highlighted in 1978 when curator Harald Szeemann dedicated a traveling European exhibition to its legacy, titled “Monte Verità: The Breasts of Truth.” The upcoming art residency reimagines this historic utopian experiment as a modern living laboratory and embodied think tank delving into today's disconnection from self community and nature. Monte / Verità presents a container for immersive, communal living for an interdisciplinary group of artists, thinkers, educators, community-builders, healers, and activists, where art is approached as a potential catalyst for cultural shifts and meaningful societal transformation. The experience is process-based, holistic and trans-disciplinary, where collective exploration and growth is prioritized over individualistic practice. Creative expression is applied to heal, connect and communicate, focusing on experiment, play, collaboration, and co-creation. Participants combine artistic inquiry—traditionally intellectual and philosophical in nature—with embodied inherent wisdom. A deep reverence for nature and its role as an active collaborator is central, with a focus on living in harmony with its cycles and rhythms, and regenerative power. Simplicity, slowness, conscious presence, and a ritualistic take on daily life ground the residency’s values of oneness and the interconnectedness of all life. Transparency, vulnerability and trust are key values practiced during the residency. Furthermore, art is used as a tool to question the status quo, rethink conventional systems, and challenge hegemonic, patriarchal structures such as capitalism, sexism, imperialism, and racism. It encourages participants to dismantle norms and imagine other models rooted in sustainability, synergy and service to the whole. Artists take the role of visionary, alchemist, and culture-shaper to inspire change by reframing and creating new cultural myths, narratives and identities. The aim is to inspire foundations for alternative paradigms beyond anthropocentric systems, toward a more symbiotic, interconnected and optimistic future. This residency is a ceremony of shared experience and communal living, centered on process, experimentation and co-creation. Daily programming will include morning check-ins at 10am, offering space for participants to share how they’re feeling and their creative intentions for the day, fostering transparency and trust. Collective cooking and communal dinners are encouraged to serve as intentional moments for togetherness, reflection and connection, while breakfast and lunch are flexible and optional. Creative exchange and collaboration is at the heart of the residency, with residents invited to lead workshops and learn from each other’s practice and perspectives. There will be free time for personal processing, research, or creation; however, residents are encouraged to remain present with the residency experience, focusing on the collective journey rather than external projects. Occasional excursions will further enrich the program, offering opportunities to explore and connect with the surrounding environment and culture. Although the focus of the residency is on the process rather than on creating a final product, it will culminate in an open event to share the creative journey, potentially with interactive elements to engage the local community. Slow living is central to the residency, encouraging a mindful, harmonious way of being with oneself, others, and nature by honoring the rhythm of its seasons and cycles. Rest is embraced as a form of resistance to the capitalist push for constant productivity and busy-ness.
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