Past Residents

Spain

Past Resident
2026: Espacio Valverde

Artist

Juan Zamora

Through a synthesis of science, technology, and art, Juan Zamora examines the intricate relationships between plants and their environments, engaging with the philosophical implications of plant intelligence and capacities. By positioning plants, air, and other non-human entities as active participants, Zamora encourages us to contemplate the ethical dimensions of our treatment of non-human life, prompting a reconsideration of our role within the tapestry of existence, illustrating the resilience and adaptability of life forms that have flourished for millions of years.

Juan Zamora has exhibited work at Helsinki Biennial, Finland; Matsu Biennial, Taiwan; and Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador; among others.

The site-specific immersive installation that challenges visitors to confront human-centred narratives that have traditionally dominated our understanding of consciousness. Zamora’s research of bioluminescence – the ability of certain organisms to emit light – has culminated in the development of a bioluminescent fluid in collaboration with the Institute of Health Carlos III in Madrid, Spain. The fluid is produced by combining organic phosphorus and protein extracts from luminescent phytoplankton. The artist collects dead leaves, some of which he decellularizes before injecting them with the bioluminescent fluid and encasing them in eco-resin derived from plant-based monomers and polymers, thereby ensuring no adverse effects on the surrounding environment. The luminous vegetal perspective enhances our appreciation of the natural world and raises profound questions regarding consciousness and the interconnectedness of life. Air is another significant component of the installation in Vallisaari’s Alexander Battery. Zamora collected air samples from around the island, which he cultured in suspended petri dishes containing microorganisms that will continue to grow throughout the duration of the biennial. Accompanying these discs are drawings and watercolours executed in bioluminescent fluid depicting plants, fauna, and other non-human agents. The production is supported in part by a grant from Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), a state agency; Catapulta. A Launchpad for Contemporary Spanish Art and Embassy of Spain in Finland.

Juan Zamora, To embody an island, 2025, plants, bioluminescent liquid, UV-light, air samples in petri dishes, drawing and watercolors on canvas, dimensions variable.

“The Dream Pavilion” reflects Matsu's nature and history through dreams. The work uses a local building as a canvas, applying fishing nets, mirrorred film in sunset hues, and wall paintings as interventions on space, setting up a place where people can dream together with the ocean, and where the ocean can rest at ease with the people.

Juan Zamora, The dream pavilion, 2025, pink nets, red painting and old Chinese temples remains, dimensions variable.

A video of the sunrise of both cities, Madrid and Osaka, happening at the same time.

Juan Zamora, 八, 2025, site specific video installation, 2 min. Spanish Pavilion at The Osaka International Expo 2025, Japan.

“Transplant” is a work based on an experiment conducted by a team of biologists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in which they successfully transplanted cardiovascular heart cells into decellularized spinach leaves, the artwork “Transplant” consists in culturing Zamora’s heart cells in vegetable tissue in order to exhibit the results as a living artwork at the exhibition.

Juan Zamora, Transplant, 2021-2022, decellularized leaf with heart tissue in a petridish, dimensions variable.

Series of hyperrealistic drawings of extinct flora.

Juan Zamora, Every missing flower, 2025, drawing on old paper, dimensions variable.

Residents from Spain

Bianca Argimón

Spain, France

La Fondation pour l'Art Contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon

2024

Martinka Bobrikova & Oscar de Carmen

Norway, Slovakia, Spain

Oslo Kommune Internasjonalt

2022

Martinka Bobrikova & Oscar de Carmen

Norway, Slovakia, Spain

Oslo Kommune Internasjonalt

2022

Donate

Austria

Past Resident
2026: Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport Republic of Austria

Artist

Bernd Oppl

Bernd Oppl’s works, whether in the form of models, photographs, sound installations, or moving image works as projections and on displays, deal with the uncertainty of perception in a world where the visible and audible are always material and virtual at the same time. He situates the world mostly in an uncanny intermediate space. Present and absent, tangible and ephemeral, external and internalized, both all-encompassing and radically confined.

Bernd Oppl has exhibited work at Georgia Museum of Art, Greece; Greater Taipei Biennial, Taiwan; and Kunstraum Dornbirn, Austria, among others.

Events & Exhibitions

Artists at Work: Bernd Oppl in Conversation with Mara Mills

April 21, 2026, 6:30–7:30pm

2026 Spring Open Studios

April 17–April 18, 2026

Artists at Work: Film Screening with Jade Kallio, Bernd Oppl, Marie-Andrée Pellerin, and Gaspar Willmann

January 27, 2026, 6:00–7:30pm

Meander: In a room with grey floor and white walls, there is a sound sculpture in which a Reel-To-Reel Tape Machine is integrated into a trapezoidal prism structure. Gravity causes the tape, emerging from the machine, to flow along a slanted incline into a bottle-shaped, flat, and luminous container made of Plexiglas. Within this form, the tape winds and gathers in meandering loops. In this way, a kind of drawing is created from the tape itself.

Bernd Oppl, Meander, 2025, MDF, metal, electronics, speaker, LED light, NAGRA tape, machine and electronics, 19¹¹/₁₆ × 43⁵/₁₆ × 8⁷/₈ in. (50.04 × 109.98 × 22.61 cm).

Hidden Rooms: In a large former industrial and manufacturing hall, now used as an art space, there is a black wooden structure which reminds one on a shed. It is made of black painted beams and boards; the skeletal structure is only partially enclosed by walls, with some areas open. Small black boxes are mounted on the walls, both inside and outside, each with the possibility to look inside of them. In the center of the structure stands a man, whose gaze is directed at a video inside the structure. On the screen, an abstract image with white shape is visible, resembling the room structure in which the man stands. In the center of the structure, there is also a trapezoidal object.

Bernd Oppl, Hidden Rooms, 2019, wood, steel, PVC, aluminium, mirror, glass, video camera, electric motors, HD videoprojection and speakers, 472 × 189 × 197 in. (1198.88 × 480.06 × 500.38 cm).

I looked around the internet: A black box protrudes from a wall. Through an opening in the box, a miniature room can be seen, containing three computer workstations. On the three desktop screens, screensaver animations of passing stars are running. The workstations are placed on a table, and are semi partitioned. Chairs are positioned in front of the workstations. To the right of the table, there is a vending machine.

Bernd Oppl, I looked around the Internet, 2019, nylon, MDF, LCD display, GIF animation, single-board computer, various electronics, 17¹¹/₁₆ × 13¹³/₁₆ × 19¹¹/₁₆ in. (44.96 × 35.05 × 50.04 cm).

No Future: In a forest clearing, a room consisting of two walls and a concrete floor is visible. One wall has a closed door with a clock above it that has no face or hands, only a mirrored surface. On the other wall, an empty poster frame is mounted. In front of this wall stands a bench with five gray plastic aluminum seats. The arrangement resembles a waiting room but feels out of place in the middle of the forest. A camera in a weatherproof box is positioned in front of the room, aimed directly at it.

Bernd Oppl, No Future, 2020, concrete, steel, PVC, aluminium, acrylic glass, glass and video camera, 118¹/₈ × 157¹/₂ × 141¹¹/₁₆ in. (299.97 × 400.05 × 359.92 cm).

Substanzaufnahmen: Several MDF boxes, three brown and one black, housing architectural models are mounted onto a three-dimensional metal structure and connected by cables. Some of the boxes containing the architectural models show black stains on their exterior surfaces. A monitor is also installed within the structure, positioned centrally at eye level between the boxes, displaying a still image from a video. The still image shows a white room with skylights and three doors. From the doors, a black liquid flows and collects in the center of the room.

Bernd Oppl, Substanzaufnahmen, 2017, MDF, various electronics, monitor HD Video Loop (10min 16/9), 35³/₈ × 66⁷/₈ × 35³/₈ in. (89.92 × 169.93 × 89.92 cm).

Residents from Austria

Robert Gabris

Austria, Slovakia

Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport Republic of Austria

Studio #218

Michaela Payer and Martin Gabriel

Austria

Federal Ministry of Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport Republic of Austria

Studio #212

Elisabeth Molin

Denmark, United Kingdom, Austria

Danish Arts Foundation

2026

Donate

Denmark

Past Resident
2026: Danish Arts Foundation

Artist

Tore Hallas

Tore Hallas works across themes of fatness and queerness, both as intertwined identities, alongside religious ontologies and intention, mental health, and photographic and cinematographic reflection as both subject and method. His practice primarily engages video, photography, and text, and extends into teaching. Undercurrents throughout his work include economic, structural, and interpersonal forms of oppression; personal narrative; and the intersectional nature of violence and positionality. Travel also figures prominently, understood both as physical displacement and as symbolic quest, as does the relationship between the world and the othered body and mind.

Tore Hallas has exhibited work at KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Germany; Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Denmark; and ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark, among others.

Events & Exhibitions

Artists at Work: Tore Hallas in Conversation with Evan Garza

May 12, 2026, 6:30–7:30pm

2026 Spring Open Studios

April 17–April 18, 2026

‘…Closer to God…’ is both an explicit and intimate visual study of the discourses that determine which bodies are deemed desirable and worthy of admiration in a sexualised economy. In a stylised tablaeu, lit like renaissance paintings, the camera examines bodies frozen in embrace and desire. Poetically disseminating knowledge about the discrimination of fat people as it relates to career and financial opportunities The interweaving of explicit intimate imagery and scientific research reveals discourses judging which bodies are deemed worthy of sexualization and the financial consequences that follows.

Tore Hallas, YOU ARE CLOSER TO GOD WHEN YOU DO NOT INDULGE, 2024, video, 22 min.

‘And going after strange flesh’ is a fragment from a passage in the Bible that describes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah surrendering to fornication and, according to some accounts, possibly homosexual relations. Tore Hallas takes this reading of the passage as the premise for his two-screen film piece that explores questions of shame in relation to male homosexuality and fatness. Working with simplified imagery in the style of contemporary portraiture and the travelogue, Hallas scrutinises the intersection of male howmosexuality, race and fatness. In a heteronormative culture, both homosexuality and fatness are stigmatised, and the latter is equally stigmatised in mainstream gay culture. Hallas sets out on his search for an understanding of this particular shaming in the context of the religiously loaded location of the ancient city of Sodom. The footage on one screen presents what resembles a study of the sexualised representations of fat gay men and the men who desire them, while on the other we see a road movie-like search for what is said to be the ruins of Sodom. Images and soundtrack fetishize and deconstruct both the body and the landscape, as well as their readings and markings through feelings of shame. The title refers to homosexual sexual desire or desire for otherness, which, in the context of the scripture, can be seen as a desire for the divine and has also been interpreted as lust for angelic figures. Hallas approaches these myths, claims and uncertainties about religious meaning and historical events as storytelling tools, detourning them towards the personal and sexualised struggles of the ideological everyday.

Tore Hallas, AND GOING AFTER STRANGE FLESH (THEIR GOD IS THEIR BELLY, AND THEY GLORY IN THEIR SHAME, WITH MINDS SET ON EARTHLY THINGS), 2019, video, 13 min.