ELAINE GRAINGER REFLECTS ON HER RESIDENCY AT CASA WABI IN PUERTO ESCONDIDO, MEXICO.
While out walking, I was listening to The Mater Podcast, featuring Mexican artist Bosco Sodi and curator Alberto Ríos de la Rosa discussing Fundación Casa Wabi (casawabi.org). I was captivated by the commitment and energy that Sodi and his team pour into this non-profit organisation. In 2014, after successfully commissioning the Japanese architect Tadao Ando to build a residency site on the pacific coast near Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca, Mexico, Casa Wabi was opened.
Casa Wabi runs six residencies a year, hosting six artists at a time for five-week periods. It also runs a mobile community library, and community film and clay workshops. It has a large gallery space that hosts Mexican and international artists. Its mission is to support artists through residencies and develop relationships between contemporary art and local communities in three locations: Puerto Escondido, Mexico City, and Tokyo.
I went about researching how to get onto the residency programme. Residencies at Casa Wabi Puerto Escondido are through invitation only, except for one international open call per year. The Casa Wabi X ArtReview Magazine Prize offers three international artists a funded residency for five weeks.
For the application, you have to propose a community project and submit a portfolio of work. I proposed a project that reflects a shared human impulse to align with the stars, and to live in rhythm with the natural world. This was an outline to be further developed onsite. I researched the area and its natural landscape and studied the indigenous communities of Oaxaca. The more I researched, the more I wanted this residency, but wanting and getting are two different things. So, when I won this highly competitive prize, I knew that the stars were aligned and this would have a significant and lasting impact on me and my practice.
Since graduating with an MA from NCAD in 2018, I have undertaken multiple residencies in different parts of the world. My journey started with the RDS Awards, leading to a three-month residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in 2019. This was followed by PADA in Portugal in 2021, SIMS in Iceland in 2022, SaikoNeon in Japan in 2024, and PINK in Manchester last year. My practice thrives on residencies. Navigating somewhere new creates an alertness in me, and I seem to absorb so much more sensory information. It gives me time away from a busy family life and allows me to fully connect with my surroundings.
Although quite used to residencies, nothing prepared me for Casa Wabi. Situated on the beachfront of the Pacific Ocean, the thunderous sounds were constant and surprisingly comforting. The residency has six independent cabins, and the main house is an open-air communal area where we gathered to eat and connect. We had three meals a day, made by an amazing team of local women. We ate communally and the staff sat down for lunch with us daily. We had large individual studios that sheltered us from the sun but kept us linked to the land and the wildlife. The residency is part of an area that has become internationally known for its architectural pavilions and public artworks. There are daily tours for visitors to experience. I accessed these on my daily walks, sought refuge from the sun in them, and got inspired by them.
My routine started each morning with a run and swim, and then a chat over breakfast with the other residents. After that, I walked the grounds, mapping my movements, gathering sensory information, and making preparations for the community project. My days and weeks held onto this routine and as my connections with the place grew, a site-specific project formed, as well as the community project. The projects overlapped in parts and reached a point of completion on the last week of the residency. The community project took place over two days, when a group of seven participants took turns to perform short, silent walks on the land, mapping movements, observing in-between spaces, creating physical maps together, and forming an artwork, now held in the Casa Wabi Collection.
Casa Wabi seemed like a dream at times; I feel like it is fading and building in tandem. It is a place to nurture and be nurtured, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have started this conversation with Casa Wabi and Mexico.
Elaine Grainger is an artist based in Dublin.
elainegraingerart.com
