Individual residencies / Andorra
JOHANNES CHRISTOPHER GÉRARD
From Monday, 6 October 2025 to Monday, 3 November 2025
Bio
Johannes Christopher has been working across different disciplines such as video, sound, photography, performance, land art installation and engraving since the 1980s.
His artistic vision is influenced by Eastern philosophical concepts such as Zen, Buddhism and Ma, and is complemented by his lived experiences. Some of the recurring themes of his artistic practice are dialogues between humans and urban and social environments, identity, limits, time and solitude, as well as mental disorders and issues around sexuality and gender.
He has engaged in exhibitions, festivals and collaborative art projects the world over and runs art classes and workshops at different educational institutions. He recently presented the projects Ābološana and Pedvale in Latvia, ¿Qué quiere mostrarme la ciudad?(What Does the City Want to Show Me?), No Lugar (No Place) in Ecuador and Autistic Interiors in the Netherlands.
Project
Empty Time – In Situ Project
In Andorra, he will develop an in situ project on emptiness, time and silence, based on the social, rural and cultural context of La Massana and working with materials that can be found in the local area. The project is inspired by the philosophical concepts of Ma and Zen, which the artist discovered during his long stays in the Far East.
Ma describes the space and time that exists between things, an intentional distance left between actions or the empty space between objects. It is not simply a void or absence of content but is perceived as a conscious space with its own meaning that allows the other parts of the composition to be given value. This is a vision that differs from the conceptions adopted in the West of empty space and nothingness.
Move and the way will open
My work project during the residency was dealing with the concepts of empty times – empty spaces and is based on the philosophical thoughts and ideas of Ma and Zen, which originate from the Far East.
Originally, it was planned as a solo project including only one Social Sculpture workshop. Due to my mental health issues, I perceive and experience the world differently. I therefore generally approach projects without expectations, as this would, in my case, limit my mind and prevent me from gaining new experiences and insights. This means that I often discover opportunities directly at the residency location itself that were not available or visible during the initial planning and concept development phase.
The opportunities that arose shortly before the start of my stay allowed me to collaborate with three local artists simultaneously. Furthermore, instead of just one social sculpture workshop, an additional land art workshop and an artist talk were also conducted.
With each artist, I worked on a different project: An audiovisual (sound/video) project "Circadian Silence" in collaboration with the scientist and visual artist Nathalie Launay. The two other collaboration projects were a visualized poem (video poem) "El pes i el buit del temps" in collaboration with the poet Fabiola Sofia Masegosa.
The third project was a performance created in collaboration with visual artist Emma Regada, which explored the concepts of empty/full, using water as the main medium.
In addition to the collaborative projects with the three artists and the workshops, I regularly visited my favorite cafes in La Massana. There, I not only continued working on my projects, but also observed the social and urban environment from the perspective of a lone wolf. I took the time for walks and to visit museums and exhibitions, including the Comic Museum in La Massana, the Museu Casa Rull in Sispony (La Massana), and the Casa d'Areny-Plandolit in Ordino, to learn more about these two very different families who once lived in these houses, about their lifestyles and their status in their time and society. I also had the opportunity to visit the LandArt25 Biennial in Sant Julià de Lòria.
I am very grateful to Faber Andorra for the residency opportunities and to Sandra Colell for her efficient support and assistance, which made the realization of important parts of the project possible. I will cherish this short stay. Not only because of what I accomplished, but also because of the impressive landscape, the culture, and the atmosphere of the towns and villages.
