Canadian Spring Residency 2026 – Open Studio

(May 2026)

On May 1st, the artists of the Canadian Spring Residency opened the doors of their studios to the public for an Open Studio conceived as a journey through practices, narratives and experimentation.

Spread throughout the different spaces of the Château de La Napoule, the parcours invited visitors to move from one universe to another: sound installations, performances, textile research, photography, writing, sculpture and material experimentations responded to one another without ever attempting to form a single narrative.

From one studio to the next, several themes nevertheless emerged throughout the evening: memory, transformation, transitional spaces, the relationship between body and landscape, and sensitive forms of presence.

Jordan Nobles : Listening to the Château’s Resonances

Following a welcome drink in the Château courtyard, the evening opened in the Gothic dining room with a presentation by composer Jordan Nobles.

In near darkness, several tablets placed throughout the room played compositions created during the residency, accompanied by images filmed at the Château. Henry Clews’ sculptures, architectural details and fragments of spaces appeared through shifting shadows and light.

Gradually, visitors were invited to pay attention differently to resonances, silences and forms emerging from the darkness.

Katia Gosselin : Light, Landscape and Sensitive Memory

From the Gothic dining room, visitors were then invited to climb in small groups to Katia Gosselin’s tower studio overlooking the sea.

Using text as the starting point of her research, the artist presented a series of videos, photographs and sound fragments produced during the residency.

Displayed across several tablets scattered throughout the space, her “video-photographs” captured the shifting reflections of light on the sea through the Château’s windows.

The installation raised questions related to landscape memory, disappearance and what the artist describes as a form of “solastalgia.”

Arjun Lal : Performance, Identity and Hybrid Figures

The visit continued with the discovery of Arjun Lal’s studio, installed in the “tower of tombs,” above the resting place of Henry and Marie Clews.

The artist presented several costumes produced during the residency and used throughout performances and explorations carried out within the Château and its surroundings.

Inspired by queer cultures, latex and certain aesthetics linked to fetishism, his work deliberately diverts the imaginaries often associated with these universes.

Cow, alien or flamingo: the figures appearing throughout his photographs and videos oscillated between humor, strangeness and performance.

Valérie Forgues : Writing, Grief and the Presence of the Absent

The evening then continued in the Château gardens with a reading by author and poet Valérie Forgues.

In front of the tower of tombs, the artist shared an excerpt from her current book project, a non-fiction text exploring grief, memory and disappearance.

After the reading, visitors who wished could descend into the Clews tombs.

On Marie Clews’ tomb, Valérie Forgues had arranged books, objects and fragments of texts that accompanied her work during the residency.

Sheilah ReStack : Interstices as Spaces of Memory

At Villa Marguerite, artist Sheilah ReStack presented a research project directly inspired by her experience of the Château and its history.

Deeply marked by the discovery of Henry and Marie Clews’ tombs, the artist began cataloguing interstices, cracks and spaces throughout the Château that refused to fully close.

These “cracks,” which she numbered and documented, became symbolic passageways for invisible or peripheral narratives.

The first of these spaces was a fireplace door in her studio that never completely shut.

Adolfo Ruiz : Reading the Forms of the Landscape

In his studio, Adolfo Ruiz presented a research project situated between abstraction and figuration.

Through watercolor, drawing, engraving and various printing techniques, the artist explored textures and motifs found within Mediterranean landscapes.

His compositions oscillated between real landscapes and imaginary cartographies.

Sketchbooks, light projections and printed series revealed a process built through the accumulation of gestures and observations.

Ry Van Der Hout : Fragments, Reflections and Recompositions

In the Château courtyard, Ry Van Der Hout presented several works created during the residency.

The artist notably works with antique mirrors recovered from the Château, which he fractures and recomposes.

Butterflies, volcanic stones and fragments of glass entered into dialogue through compositions oscillating between delicacy and tension.

In the evening light, the fountain installation revealed shifting reflections and fragmentation effects.