This summer, ArtMill hosted its Creative Assembly at the ArtMill Center for Regenerative Arts as part of the European programme Transformative Territories. The gathering unfolded in two parts, combining focused work sessions with a public celebration of artistic and ecological practices.

The Creative Assembly at ArtMill embodied the mission of Transformative Territories: to explore how artistic practice can create conditions for ecological and social transformation. From ancestral weaving and constellation practices to cob-building and collective dreaming, this Creative Assembly wove together diverse practices and perspectives, reminding us that thriving futures emerge through cohabitation, imagination, and resilience.

Part I – Inter-Species Refuge and Transdisciplinary Exchange

On 15 & 16 August, participants of the Inter-Species Refuge project convened for two days of site-based exploration, engaging with transformative artistic practices and the broader research questions guiding Transformative Territories.

Gabriela Benish-Kalná, ArtDialog’s director, opened the Assembly with an update on the two-year programme. She presented the site analysis, agroforestry study, and design of the newly planted food forest, while outlining methodologies central to ArtDialog’s mission—Holding Space, Ethical Relationality, and community organising in artistic practices.

Patrick Degeorges, member of the programme’s Scientific Committee, guided participants through a Constellation practice on-site. The group worked with one of ArtDialog’s research questions: How can we support the birch trees in their transition through climate change? Discussions highlighted the importance of creating movement and resilience, aligning with upcoming tree-planting events and the planned introduction of beehives in spring.

Artist-in-residence lwrds duniam shared their practice of Ancestral Weaving and presented Khipucamayoc: weaver of arboreal entanglements. This large-scale, site-specific project drew on traditional Andean weaving techniques, entwining Khipu installations directly into trees and landscapes. Participants were invited to join in the weaving process, learning about indigenous histories and their connection to the Inter-Species Refuge.

On 16 August, the group engaged with ISR SF, an interactive piece by Gilles Yann and Anjan Salzer. Built over the past year with contributions from more than a hundred visitors, the work gathers drawings, writings, and questions around ArtMill’s central inquiry: How can transformative artistic practice act as a bridge between the ecological and the social to impact cultural understanding of interspecies cohabitation?

This question guided the Transdisciplinary Roundtable, where participants shared reflections:

• “Hope-based communication must be practised over apocalyptic scenarios to show what it is to thrive.” — Natália Benish-Kalná
• “Art can capture the immediate moment of this long ecological transformation.” — Jan Fabián
• “The artist works across disciplines to foster resilience, hold space, and amplify the needs of both humans and more-than-humans.” — Gabriela Benish-Kalná
• “Art is showing rather than speaking—it is embodied and transcends language.” — Al Godwin
• “We create an artistic experience of relatability, a starting point for communication.” — Kaitlin Wallace
• “Our work is to remind people that nature has never been separate, and that we live in the home of more-than-human inhabitants.” — lwrds duniam

These conversations touched on resilience, robustness, and collective emergence, emphasising how art can generate shared experiences between humans and non-humans. At ArtMill, this cohabitation becomes tangible and necessary.

Part II – Open Mill Day and Exhibitions

The second part of the Assembly opened to the wider public during Open Mill Day on 23 August. Visitors explored two exhibitions, permaculture gardens, studios, and the historic 500-year-old flour mill.

The Inter-Species Refuge exhibition, curated by Gabriela Benish-Kalná, showcased open-air works developed through the Assembly and residencies by artists and researchers including lwrds duniam, Yeva Kupchenko, Anjan Salzer, Fuad Alymani, Gilles Yann, Natália Benish-Kalná, Františka Tulingerová, Václav Mach, and Jakub Tulinger.

As part of the day, Václav Mach led a workshop on ancient cob-building techniques, launching KlimaHouse 2050; a project that will construct a greenhouse replicating the region’s predicted climate in 2050, as a platform for future transdisciplinary work on adaptation.

The exhibition Little Utopias, curated by Barbara Benish, celebrated the 20th anniversary of ArtMill. Centred on Cláudio Bueno’s collaborative film Freedom Zero, which explores justice, freedom, and abolition through the voices of children in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, the exhibition drew inspiration from researcher-in-residence Julia Ramírez Blanco’s work on utopian histories and rural philosophies. It also presented artworks from students of ArtMill’s first-ever summer camp, who imagined hopeful futures through collective dreaming.

To mark this milestone, ArtMill’s permanent collection was opened to the public, featuring works by Czech and international artists such as Vladimír Kokolia, Kim Abeles, Aleš Veselý, Jeffrey Vallance, Marnie Weber, Jindřich Štreit, Veronika Šrek Bromová, Erika Bornová, Lewis Watts, and many others.

Pictures credit : © ArtMil

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