Mas Palou: Art Residency
El Pla del Penedès
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
26 February - 8 March 2026
"The residency, at least for me, wasn’t about artistic breakthroughs or anything that could be easily framed in career terms. What I took from it was less tangible, but more lasting: a sense of honesty, openness, and warmth."
I arrived in the Catalan countryside from the busyness of daily studio life in Kuala Lumpur not knowing what to expect. What stays with me most from this one-month residency are the conversations. Our cohort came from entirely different disciplines—classical music, poetry, architecture, product design, and photography.
On paper, there was little to tie us together, but in practice, I felt genuine connections rooted in a shared openness. No one carried that exhausting, pompous certainty often encountered in the contemporary art world. We were all in our thirties, circling the same personal questions: uncertainty, doubt, the desire for space, and the negotiation between creative freedom and financial stability.
The days were quietly focused, spent painting while others sang, drew, or typed behind closed doors. In the evenings, over shared meals and by the fireplace, deeper stories surfaced. Given the brevity of the stay, the works produced here are immediate impressions: of the landscape’s beauty, and the quiet undercurrent of tension from a war unfolding not far away, touching some of us directly.
Ultimately, these pieces do not document a commercial milestone, but rather a rare period of collective honesty—and a steady glow of gratitude for a space where an artist does not have to feel alone in their uncertainties.
The images shared here represent a mix of completed works and documentation of the experience. The film photographs are by Aylin Emanetoğlu.
