Residency: the Shilim Foundation
The works the Shilim Foundation promotes are experimental interactions between people, media and landscapes. These projects will feed into a discussion about the future of conservation. The first pilot works will take place at Shillim Retreat - the physical Shillim, in the Western Ghats.
WILD BY DESIGN I: THE ELEMENTS
The initial pilot projects will be conducted by the painter, Vicky Colombet, the dancers Constantin Baecher and Kaitlyn Gilliland, and the composer Erin Gee, working with sound engineer, Joel Gordon, and the architect/landscape designer photographer Linda Pollak.
Each artist will explore the landscape by crafting a new relationship between natural forces—earth, sound, climate, water—and artistic forms:
THE SITE
The site, designed by landscape designer, Margie Ruddick, is located in the Western Ghats, a UNESCO World heritage site and biodiversity hotspot, and is an example of how private land owners, with a planning team, can integrate conservation, ecological remediation and enhancement, and community engagement into the development planning and design process. Sitting in the diverse and threatened landscape of the Ghats, the retreat will bring together artists (a dancer, painter, composer, photographer, and videographer) and conservationists (ecologists, developers, policy makers, and designers) in order to address issues of private development and conservation as well as the regional issues that affect the Western Ghats. The retreat will result in site specific artworks and materials intended to guide landowners on the best conservation practices, both internationally and regionally.
THE TEAM
Denzel de Souza, Co-Founder / Margie Ruddick, Co-Founder & Co-DIrector / Martine Brody, Co-Director / Leeanne Alonso, Conservation Director / Karen de Souza, Director of the Shillim Institute