ARTIST RESIDENCY: SOUND OF SILENCE

As I am launching a residency program on my olive farm in Portugal, I am looking for a pioneer—a visual artist, architect, writer, stage photographer, performance artist, musician, landscape designer, guerrilla gardener, or spiritual worker—to kick-start this long format program with me. As the very first resident, you will also have the opportunity to help co-design the future of this residency. This is an invitation, not an obligation, to leave your mark on how this space evolves!

• 📅 April - June 2026
• 🎨 While you have all the freedom to create your own art, ritual, or performance, you will do so in the solitude of this vast space. Much like a silent retreat; most of the time you will only have the plants and animals to talk to or listen to, especially during the periods when we are not on the farm. Neighbors are nearby within visual and walking distance, so you will not be completely isolated.
• 🏡 Your will have a 55m² loft-style side building with its own kitchen & bathroom, and a 12m2 studio, both with incredible views. The farm is semi-off-grid but well connected & with great Wi-Fi. Features ancient olive trees, a pool, a pergola, shady arcades and absolute quiet. When i am on the farm, I’d love to share some meals and show you the ins and outs of the farm and the region, but when I am away, you must be comfortable with solitude and the quiet meditation of nature to inspire your work.
• 🤝 This is an unpaid residency with free lodging but self-catered. As part of the residency and in exchange for the free logding, you will handle light caretaking when I am away, such as feeding the resident cat 🐈, basic pool maintenance 🏊‍♂️, and keeping an eye on the property.
• 🎉 We will conclude the residency with an event of your choice hosted in the main building: an exhibition, reading, or intimate concert to showcase your work - both IRL and online - and officially launch the program.

LOGISTICS

Because we are 6 km from Elvas, this is not walking distance to town. You ideally need your own car (though if you are the perfect fit and don't have one, I may be able to provide one).

APPLICATIONS

Please send a DM or send and an email to info@shermin.net—with a infos about your practice (portfolio/Instagram…), what you’d like to work/mediate on while you are here, and also confirmation of your availability for April–June and wether or not you have a car.

ABOUT THE SPACE

In 2021, I stumbled upon a magnificent piece of land that had been neglected for decades: a 20-hectare abandoned olive grove in Portugal that was more jungle than farm. You could not distinguish one tree from the other, the land was so overgrown that the road had vanished and I had to leave my car at the gate and trek 150 meters through the brush just to reach the house. After five years of clearing the wild, rehabilitating the buildings, and with the help of many other people, we have been able to transition this abandoned land and its building to a retreat where rustic charm meets modern comfort including organic olive farming. This also marked my transition from a city person to a farmer, and it taught me the perverse economics of traditional agriculture: the hidden costs of protecting nature in an economic system that devalues it. While rehabilitating this space, i also finished the third edition of my book Token Economy. Now, after a decade in crypto , i am shifting gears and changing direction—back to my art roots—reimagining the olive tree, not just as a crop, but as a nexus of ecology, economy, and art.

Rumi wrote "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

I found that rehabilitating the land was, in many ways, a process of removing those barriers. Out of the quietness of this work, the old has fallen away so the new can emerge. I have named this place Labirinto Eclético—an "Eclectic Labyrinth"—to honor the complex, winding path life can take and the wonderful hidden corners and spaces on this property, and I am dedicating a portion of the estate to an Artist-in-Residency program. This is an experiment in land stewardship, where art meets earth, exploring how we can rethink our relationship with nature and the economy through a creative lens. April 2026 marks our official kickoff, where our first residents will not just get a place to enjoy the silence for the creations, but also be the first to co-create the very soul of this program.

PICS