HelloWe’re Eyal and Tomer, the founders of SILBOS, a non-profit cultural association based in Spain, and we’re working on an experiment: a rural studio retreat designed for artists, researchers, and creative adventurers seeking space to explore and practice in solitude and in wilderness.
BackgroundSilbos began from our own search, inspired by the age-old tradition of hermits: withdrawing from the world to find what could never emerge in the tumult of society. We (like pretty much everyone these days…) felt a need to step away from the energy-consuming vortex of capitalized society and the attention economy, and instead make space for another type of noise: one that occurs when you let a landscape shape the perception of your reality. It started from our fascination with the ancient sense of “contemplation”—not only as in dwelling on the object of awareness, but a defined piece of land—templum—set apart for a ceremonial act of attentive observation, reflection, and transformation.
ProcessOur search for stillness in the Iberian Peninsula led us to a land deep in the Ports de Beseit Natural Park, on the juncture between Catalunya and Aragon (3 hours drive from Barcelona). There, the terrain is wild and raw. It’s a place where you feel the forces nature at work: the rugged mountains and dark pine woods aren’t only scenery—they demand your attention, and you feel yourself constantly tested by the silence. The land is surrounded by gurgling rivers who twist between the cliffs, carving tolls (as they’re called in Xapurriau, the local variety of Catalan) or pozas (in Spanish)—crystal clear pools hidden in the rocks. It is criss-crossed by estrets (in Xapurriau) or barrancos (in Spanish)—ravines hewn into the valleys, sounding their gales with the rustle of juncars/juncales, the humid reedlands. And this is just a snippet of this place’s modes of being, with its multitude of species, plants, people, legends, and oddities: we’re learning from and about them every day, and often we’re caught totally unprepared…
LocationThe project is possible thanks to a generous partnership through which we received a 16-hectare rural estate in an area called Barrancos, on the old dirt road between Beceite and Arnes. In it, there’s a little abandoned masia—a stone farmhouse that bears the historical name Mas de Cocoti. It has an old olive and almond plantation, and mostly pine and oak forest. It’s remote and off the grid, disconnected from networks, and the plan is for Silbos to be fully self-sustainable. Our vision is to renovate the house and build a refugio, with a studio designed for the bare essentials: shelter, tools, and whatever the surroundings bring.
For whomSilbos is for artists, composers, writers, filmmakers, researchers, and anyone who, like us, wants to experience what happens when you strip away everything but the work and the land, to swim in the confluence zone between rigorous practice and radical presence, where, hopefully, we may strip away ourselves in the process, giving rise to something else. As we see it, you come to Silbos to dive deeper into something; because the forest, crickets, clouds, and rock faces have more to tell you than the usual creative networks or the pressing deadlines, because you seek to escape in order to confront what's outside, what’s more than human. You come to let the landscape affect, challenge, and change your practice.