Inner River: A Month-Long Art Residency for Creative Wayfinding

In a world of socio-ecological crises, does art even matter? Should I be doing something "more useful" with my time? How would I know if my art is valuable?

With sincerity and playfulness alike, we packed questions like these into our bags and met in a small French town with red tile roofs and quiet sunsets. We spent a month living, exploring, and creating together in a charming, multi-storey house on the banks of the Dordogne river.

Inner River was a month-long container of contemplation, community, and creativity for 10-12 artists to dive into an individual and shared journey of discovering and creating "our voice(s)". An exploration of ancestry – where we came from through to what kinds of ancestors we wanted to become – formed the ground of this inquiry.

What we explored

The invitation was to be in a month-long conversation with ourselves, each other, and the wider world. To step out of our day-to-day routines – and try on new and mystical storytelling of our lives as artists and citizens.

Our inquiry into our creative selves took place in the realms of a thematic exploration of ancestry…

Where did we come from, and what shaped us into who we were? What were the gifts and debts of our inheritance? Who were our ancestors, and what kinds of ancestors did we want to become?

We hoped this time could be a gift to ourselves where we invited each other to…

• Step out of our usual routines and see ourselves reflected through the fresh mirrors of a new place and community
• Follow the breadcrumbs of our creative histories, wishes, and joys, to see how we had become who we were
• Think of ourselves and our art as ingredients which shaped our world, however big or small our scope
• Water each other's creative growth by generously sharing genuine curiosity and honest reflection
• Reimagine artists not just as decorators and entertainers, but as essential researchers and guides asking how we wanted to steer the world

Week-by-week flow

We spent the first 3 weeks in open exploration and inquiry into our stories of ourselves and of our world. Each week included a lightly guided structure with a shared prompt and creative activities in the evening, with lots of room for all residents to co-create the container with their own offerings, as they felt called.

• Week 1, Origin — We started by taking a look at where we came from, and what had shaped us into who we were, as artists and people. Who were our ancestors? What were the gifts and debts of our inheritance?
• Week 2, Journey — From there, we looked to the current moment in our story. Who was here? Who had we become, and who were we becoming? Where did we belong, and what were we guided by?
• Week 3, Prophecy — Lastly, we turned our gaze to the future. What was the story we were writing? What was our gift to the world? What kinds of ancestors did we want to become?
• Week 4, Offering — And in the last week, we switched gears to a focused week of making!

Daily flow

Practically, we started and ended each day with communal practices, with ample time for open exploration in between. A sample day looked like:

• 7:30-8:30am Morning practice
• 8:30-9am Breakfast
• 9-10am Collective care (cooking, cleaning, gardening, etc.)
• Open studio time
• 1-2pm Informal/self-service lunch
• Open time
• 6:30-7:30pm Family dinner
• 8-9:30pm Gather for creative activities (organized activities 2-3 evenings each week, and open time on other days)

On Sundays, we organized excursions to the Mindfulness day at Plum Village, late Thich Nhat Hanh's beautiful Zen Buddhist monastery nearby.

Practices

In our time together, we engaged in a range of creative, conscious co-living, and contemplative practices. Some of these were offered by the hosting team, and some were initiated by residents.

Some examples were:

• Creative practices: creative jams, reflections, and games; storytelling; resonance singing; 5Rhythms dance…
• Conscious Co-living practices: cleaning and cooking together; collective decision-making; sharing circles; community meetings; connection and nervous system regulation activities…
• Contemplative practices: meditation; qigong; yoga; Work That Reconnects (Joanna Macy); silent time…

A core part of the residency was also plenty of time for working on our art and simply enjoying time alone or together.

About the Life Itself Bergerac Hub

The Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Hub is a conscious co-living space for people to gather and experiment with the embodied presence and practical action needed to respond wisely and cultivate radical social change in a time of metacrisis.

At the Bergerac Praxis Hub, the experimental ground for individual and collective growth, creativity, and spiritual connection is nurtured by a light frame of shared practices, including meditating, cooking, and cleaning together. You could think of it as a kind of "secular monastery": while not adhering to a particular religion or spiritual tradition, grounded mindfulness is cultivated through practice and structure as a means of exploring new ways of relating to ourselves, each other, and the wider world.

Life Itself is a collective of people and projects dedicated to rigorous inquiry and action for an awakening society and a radically wiser, weller world.

About Bergerac

Bergerac is a small town in Southwest France, known for its old town's half-timbered buildings and the castles that dot the surrounding countryside. It has beautiful architecture, and great wine from nearby vineyards. Bergerac old town centre is 10 minutes' walk from the Hub. The Dordogne River runs a few steps in front of the hub, and July is a lovely time to go for a swim or for long riverside walks. There is a train station 20 minutes' walk from the Hub with regular trains to Bordeaux (from which run regular trains to Paris), a twice-weekly farmers' market, and a dozen boulangeries.

Bergerac has most things we need, including an art supply store and a Recyclerie (second hand shop). It's a beautifully peaceful place that leaves plenty of room for us to listen to ourselves and the world around. Though small, Bergerac can also be lively – there are bars, restaurants, and cafés in town, as well as concerts, open mic nights and dance nights.