Curated by Jennifer Lewandowska

“At the height of midsummer our creative powers are at their most dynamic, our potential is boundless. I invite the artists to connect with their inner fire, harnessing this expansive energy, allowing the power of the sun to spark a new vitality. Through meditation and somatic movement, we will open our hearts and set intentions with the new moon in June, that we will honour together under the full moon of the Summer Solstice. Standing in the fields at Le Moulin des Ribes we see clearly that everything is alive, awake, aware. By listening to the messages of plants, we expand our conscious awareness and connect deeply with all life. Nurtured by the moon and resourced by the Sun, our energy flows outward. We are Fixed Constant Blazing.”
Jennifer Lewandowska, 2024

Società delle Api and Silvia Fiorucci present Fixed Constant Blazing, curated by artist Jennifer Lewandowska. A week-long artists’ residency and retreat with a focus on energy alignment and intention setting through a series of daily individual and group practices, meditations, rituals and workshops, held in the lush garden landscape at Le Moulin des Ribes, culminating in a live programme of events in honour of the Summer Solstice. 

Lewandowska continues her research, integrating holistic approaches in art and ecology. Her work explores the intersections of somatic practices and spiritual wellbeing, focusing on how spending time in nature can help ground and regulate emotions, investigating what we can learn from plants about resilience and using these insights to inform human experiences. She has invited artists Simon Bayliss, Fabienne Hess, Sophie Milner, Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome, musician Euan Hinshelwood and yoga teacher Elise Carter to join her at Le Moulin des Ribes, to gather at midsummer, to tune into the subtle realms and the abundance of the garden, to connect with the energy and sensuality of the season, and to take time to explore the positive effects of holistic practices on their creativity. 

During the residency they will engage with the energy of the five chakras that constitute the physical body, each corresponding to one of the five elements. Each artist will contribute uniquely, co-creating a support system to honour and enhance their intentions. Connecting artists with holistic practices, chakra meditation and the garden, in an experiment to elevate the collective creativity to a higher frequency.

Lewandowska will present her latest film ‘Fixed Constant Blazing’ captured in the gardens of Le Moulin des Ribes in springtime this year connecting with the subtle energy of plants. She will perform a new spoken word meditation accompanied by Euan Hinshelwood on saxophone and loop pedals, creating an immersive and transformative experience, centred on the Solar-Plexus Chakra and the element of Fire. Simon Bayliss brings his extensive knowledge of clay and slipware decorating techniques, connecting with the Root Chakra, associated with the element of Earth. He will make a set of new ceramic works tapping in to the rich history of pottery in the South of France. Sophie Milner will focus on creating a new series of drawings and writings, inspired by her wanderings in the lush gardens and hidden glades in Grasse. She will channel creative energy from the Sacral Chakra, connecting us to the element of Water. Fabienne Hess will work with the energy of the Heart Chakra and the element of Air, as she spends time in nature, unravelling new silk works, tender and ethereal textile pieces that inspire conversations around the interconnectivity of all beings. Choreographer and dancer Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome will immerse herself in the landscape exploring bodies as vibration and bodies as sound, creating a ritualistic performance in the Ether, uniting us with the Throat Chakra. Lewandowska has invited yoga and movement teacher Elise Carter to collaborate and amplify her vision with a series of daily practices throughout the week. A new ceramic text piece by artist Samuel Levack has been commissioned for the garden.

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Jennifer Lewandowska, born in Devon, lives and works in London and Somerset, UK. An artist and curator, her expanded practice explores the intricate connections between the natural world and human existence, informed by her self-practice connecting with the subtle realms through yoga and somatic movement, and an increased awareness of the positive effects holistic practices have on our daily lives and wellbeing. Her work includes film, food, installation, music, performance and photography and may take the form of a ritual or an offering. She co-founded French Riviera in 2011, in Bethnal Green, east London, an artist-run gallery with Samuel Levack, where they cultivated a strong sense of community, connecting artists and audiences for over twelve years. She has shown widely in exhibitions, festivals, performances and screenings in the UK, Europe, and the USA. 

Simon Bayliss is a potter based in St Ives, Cornwall, UK. With a background in painting and dance music production, he works mainly in slipware ceramics, with occasional forays into poetry and performance. Bayliss is an Associate Lecturer in BA Fine Art at Falmouth University, and was raised in Andros, Bahamas, then East Devon, UK, and has been living in Cornwall most of his adult life.

Fabienne Hess, born in Uster, Switzerland, lives and works in London. Her work reflects on the instability of images and on how dependent they are on their context, just as the threads of a weave are reliant on each other.  Being partially unravelled, her textiles reveal the tender, collective forces that hold a fabric together. They are gossamer works, yet enduring. They respond to their surroundings by blending in and by bringing to light what is otherwise invisible, such as the softest of air currents. Undoing is central to her practice, be that the pattern of a weave or the organisation of an archive. She undoes in order to expose an underlying structure.

Sophie Milner is a London based artist and writer. Her current body of paintings explores the ways in which domestic space can be imbued with psychological animation. The figures within invite us to question their situational agency, paused momentarily on the cusp of their participation in the scenes they inhabit. In 2023 she completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway. Her writing draws upon the traditions of prose poetry and the lyric essay. Subjects of investigation include the psychologies of art making and viewing, aesthetics and selfhood.

Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome is a London based artist, choreographer and dancer, of English-Chilean descent, creating immersive performance and workshops. Through dance, voice and somatic practice she explores diverse experiences of collective and embodied power. Collaboration is key within process and performance works, crafting ecologies of liveness, care, play and access. Fernanda creates performance that shifts perspectives, rippling between internal and external human and more than human space-time. Her work with ritual and divinatory practices reorients by harnessing innate intuition, gut feelings, and imaginative potential.

Elise Carter is a yoga and movement teacher, trained in Vinyasa, Yin, Pregnancy Yoga & Embodied Flow. She has a degree in English Literature, an MA in Film and a background in dance. Connecting to our creativity and connecting back to nature and the seasons is an important part of Elise’s work, especially in workshop and retreat settings where meditation and movement are practiced alongside writing, drawing, painting and collage to help access the creative parts of ourselves. The concept that movement, creativity and nature are medicine is at the core of Elise’s teaching and the experiences she creates.

Euan Hinshelwood is a musician and performer from London. He has released three studio albums with the band Younghusband, and has toured and recorded with artists such as Cate Le Bon, Devendra Bandhart, Wilco, Meilyr Jones, H. Hawkline, Wesley Gonzalez and Emmy The Great. He runs Vacant TV recording studios in Greenwich, London.