ELISA: Espacio Llano para la Imaginación, los Saberes y las Artes (spain)

Joaquín's Project

Introduction

Context

Originally, Joaquín’s project was conceived as a collaborative initiative inspired by his Festival Paisaje, aiming to connect rural communities with international artists through workshops and participatory programs. Like Festival Paisaje, it sought to foster cultural exchange, but Joaquín later reoriented the project toward creating a dedicated space, ELISA, for artistic research, residencies, and local engagement.

During the timeframe of the project and beyond his curatorial and artistic work, he was preparing for a major life change - purchasing a former bakery in a small village of 400 inhabitants in Cuenca. This space, named ELISA after his grandmother, was to become both his home and a center for creation, research, and residencies in a rural environment.

The mentorship began with one initial session, with further meetings planned months apart to allow time for reflection and development between each step. This decision to stretch the sessions over time reflected Joaquín’s need to think deeply about the sustainable and practical aspects of his new project.

Collaborative Project

At the heart of Joaquín’s vision lies ELISA — “Espacio Llano para la Imaginación, los Saberes y las Artes” (Flat Space for Imagination, Knowledge, and Art). The project aims to transform a disused rural building into a dynamic place for artistic residencies and research, rooted in local knowledge and open to international collaboration.

Joaquín also shared with Natacha his plans to develop a curatorial program connecting artists, curators, and rural spaces, exploring how circular economies and shared resources can sustain cultural practice outside urban centers. Another long-term goal he envisioned was a journey through South America - across Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay - to visit similar creative spaces and learn about their methodologies for community-based art and sustainability.

This global perspective is intertwined with the local: ELISA is conceived as a meeting point between personal history, place-based creation, and collective exchange.

Leading Questions

How to generate complicity and a cultural and artistic exchange between international landscapes, making it sustainable?
How to create long-term links that do not remain anecdotal projects, but that really generate a territorial impact?
How to share resources and reinforce our narratives, to face political incompetence?

Natacha Melo had conversations with Joaquin.

In their first session, Natacha offered both encouragement and practical reflection. She affirmed Joaquín’s choice to take time between sessions, recognizing that a project involving relocation, infrastructure, and community engagement required long-term thinking. She noted that the sustainability of such initiatives is a common challenge, but also highlighted the importance of building strong networks with other independent spaces, particularly those in South America with similar values and structures.

The mentorship discussion also touched on the balance between creation and management - between building a physical home and nurturing an artistic ecosystem. Natacha emphasized the need to approach both aspects organically, allowing the project to grow from lived experience rather than rush toward institutional formality.

Her response reflected trust in Joaquín’s process and in the slow rhythms of rural cultural work: “It’s necessary to take time to travel, to experience, to understand. This is how the project will become embodied.”

Outcomes

How did the mentorship process support or inspire you in developing your project or professional growth?

The conversations with Natacha have helped me to organize and articulate my thinking around how to develop a cultural management and mediation project that I am currently organizing. Given Natacha’s extensive experience and knowledge in this field, her guidance and support have been immensely valuable to me.

What were the three most valuable pieces of advice or guidance you received from your mentor?

Natacha suggested that I coordinate an online gathering with other curators and/or cultural spaces, addressing my concerns about how to imagine new circular economies and ways of supporting one another and sharing resources. She also introduced me to several Latin American methodologies for cultural management and generously shared her own contacts and network with me.

Which concrete steps have you taken – or plan to take – to bring your proposed project to life?

My work plans are as follows. First, I will organize the online gatherings I mentioned earlier, which will consist of a curatorial program bringing together several cultural managers, artists, and creative spaces to discuss key issues related to sustaining rural spaces for artistic creation and residencies. In parallel, I am beginning to develop a long-term project: the foundation of a rural space for artistic research, creation, and residencies in my home region of Castilla-La Mancha. The mentorship helped

What is one valuable piece of advice or insight you would like to share with a wider global community of festival leaders?

One of the most valuable lessons for me has been to cultivate an aqueous, expansive perspective — one that moves fluidly between the micro and the macro, the local and the international, the inside and the outside, personal desire and collective struggle.

Further Questions for Festival Leaders

Rural Engagement & Context-Specific Programming
- How can festivals integrate deeply with local communities, particularly in rural or underrepresented areas?
- What strategies allow artists and audiences to co-create meaningful cultural experiences in a small-town context?
Sustainability & Resource Sharing
- How can festivals and residencies build circular economies among artists, communities, and institutions?
- What methods exist for sharing resources, knowledge, and infrastructures to ensure sustainability in small-scale projects?
International Exchange & Knowledge Transfer
- How can cross-border travel and partnerships inform local practice and strengthen cultural programming?
- How can festivals learn from other rural or non-urban contexts to adapt methodologies and approaches?
Time & Pace of Development
- How can festivals and creative spaces embrace slower, reflective processes rather than rushing to immediate outcomes?
- What benefits emerge when festival makers allow long-term incubation for projects, residencies, and collaborations?

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