casArte El Hierro

Bimbache openART

Bimbache openART / Asociación Bimbache P.O.C.S. is a registered non-profit and non-government organization dedicated to sustainable ecological, technological and socio-cultural development. Members and associates include leading artists, scientists, thinkers, representatives of different spiritual traditions, politicians, organizations of disabled persons and regular people around the world.

Laboratory of human sustainability:

Once a year Bimbache openART creates a festival in El Hierro. Artists from different places come, live and work together with people from the island. The purpose is to connect professionals, community-based artists, students and regular people in a live-and-learn experience so as to investigate sustainable possibilities of music and arts as a vehicle for social activism and civic engagement.

The annual BIMBACHE openART summer laboratory and global academy offers open spaces, interdisciplinary round tables (tagoror), workshops and courses designed not only to improve technical skills but also to increase our understanding of the human being. The intention is to illuminate various ways in which artists and others can define and support their own course of creative activism and shape their own personal strategies for progressive social change.

Residency:

casArte El Hierro, the Zero Meridian Art Space, is a sanctuary for artists and thinkers to question and expand personal boundaries of perception. The residency program provides a place to connect with like-minded practitioners of other disciplines and cultures as well as with El Hierro’s sustainable way of living, its community and the art of nature. The hosts provide a space where people can reconnect and come into action to work together for the biosphere, humanity and peace.

The residency program is open to people of all ages and backgrounds, and the hosts welcome all those who are looking for space and time to explore new forms of interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration. Or who simply seek to expand their own creative inclinations.

casArte's vision is:

• to create an environment and offer the facilities conducive to creative work, integrated with the natural surroundings and community, a place to experience new perspectives and acquire new references.
• to promote international collaboration and networking, to bring together people from all walks of life to share and promote El Hierro’s ecological way of living as well as its rich natural and historic heritage, and to further its development as a beacon for ecological and cultural sustainability.
• to provide and nurture a safe place where representatives of all disciplines and cultures can leave their customary comfort zone and encounter each other as a source of mutual inspiration.
• to preserve the local artistic heritage, to restore the old while developing new skills, practices and traditions of community self-reliance.
• to embrace and emphasize the experimental, the unsure, the insecure, the undefined and unexpected states of creativity.

Residencies at casArte are self-directed. casArte offers no formal calendar or program. Residents must take it upon themselves to decide the level of their productivity and participation. casArte invites and encourages residents to present the work done during the residency at the annual Bimbache openART festival.

casArte is collaborating with universities and other institutions connected to art, sustainability and science. The organization recently signed a convenium with the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Castilla-La Mancha and strive to collaborate with other institutions to give students and teachers worldwide the opportunity to benefit from the unique qualities of our beautiful island of El Hierro. Applicants who are interested in this collaboration should feel free to contact the casArte staff.

While casArte does not insist on a final exhibition at the end of one’s stay, the hosts do ask that participants present a small talk about their work and practice. For those who are not involved in the arts this is not mandatory. Other events or exhibitions may be organized by the residents – in harmony with the wishes of the other guests of course – to which the organizational aid of casArte and other local organizations is available. Participants are also invited and encouraged to leave a video presentation/testimonial on casArte blog.

• 3 bedrooms:1x 2 individual beds; 1x double bed; 1x single bed
• 1x sofa in the bodega / gallery
• 2 work /living rooms
• 1 kitchen with eating area
• 2 bathrooms
• various outdoor spaces and terraces

Groups up to 6 persons are welcome. Partners and family are welcome under the condition that everyone will somehow be involved - discuss this in advance with the hosts.

The space can be used for music, painting, sculpture, writing, research, retreat/meditation. It is not big enough for performing arts such as dance but the surrounding nature can provide for that and a larger space for yoga, dance etc. can be provided at El Sitio in La Frontera upon request.

Wi-fi and basic painting materials are available, everything else that is needed must be brought by the residents.

casArte is located in the heart of El Golfo, the one-of-a-kind natural marvel between Mt. Malpaso and the Atlantic on the island El Hierro. The Art Space in the tiny village of Los Llanillos, part of the municipality of La Frontera, is an initiative of the independent non-profit association Bimbache P.O.C.S., creators of El Hierro’s renowned and collaborative openART festivals.

The island of El Hierro, base for the BIMBACHE openART project, has been UNESCO world biosphere reserve since the year 2000.