Residency reflections: five artist in residence stories

While our residency programme operates in close collaboration with an international network of partners, the framework offers a high degree of autonomy, allowing artists to shape their own residency experience in relation to their artistic goals. We’re pleased to share these reflections from five previous artists in residence to provide insight into the possibilities of the programme.

‚This research is always unfolding‘ – Mati Jhurry

Mati Jhurry is an artist from Mauritius whose performance-oriented practice explores the postcolonial realities of her home island and the tension between exoticism and the exotified. Her work critically engages with desire, escapism and aspirational culture.  

Between January and March 2025, Mati was an artist in residence at Kaserne Basel. During this time, she travelled widely around Switzerland visiting ski resorts and health retreats to deepen her research into the mechanics and aesthetics of luxury experiences. 

Reflecting on her residency, Mati explains: ‚My research involves examining how care provided by the hospitality industry is entwined with systems of class. It was fascinating to witness Switzerland’s historical role in monetised care—wellness retreats, cure homes (the Kurhaus)—and how these traditions paved the way for contemporary spas and luxury treatments. Being on site, meeting people, asking questions, and experiencing the cultural and physical landscapes inevitably enriches the knowledge one can gather and embody.‘  

She notes that while the dedicated time and space residencies provide for reflecting, researching and making art can feel ‘somewhat escapist’, they are also invaluable for an artist working with the limitations of island life. ‚I dedicate much of my time to witnessing, experiencing, and immersing myself in art shows, exhibitions, performances, and talks I don’t regularly have access to,‘ she explains. ‚What feels truly impactful is proximity to art, a dynamic scene, and—most importantly—the enriching in-person exchanges: meeting individuals, developing dialogue, bouncing ideas, being stimulated, and feeling inspired.‘ 

The residency also enabled Mati to expand her practice. To conclude her time in Basel, she presented her research in a lecture performance that intertwined hospitality, labour, performativity and art. She says that this new format allowed her to ‚weave a narrative that drew from personal experiences—childhoods spent in exotic resorts, navigating service jobs, and the systematic endorsement of escapist narratives—alongside newly acquired insights into Swiss hospitality industries. It became a patchwork through which I could present my practice, my process-based works, and future projects‘. 

Tomas Baumgartner – tracing Joss paper rituals in China

Tomas Baumgartner, based in Zurich, works primarily with sculptural and installative approaches. He had the opportunity to visit six Chinese cities (Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, Nantong, Chongqing, Fujian) from early March to the end of May 2025. Within the context of his research, he was able to engage intensively with the extensive history of production and ritual burning of Joss paper objects, tracing how this practice transformed over long periods and how it can be situated in the contemporary context. Alongside this thematic research, he collected an extensive body of photographic material which he is currently selecting, editing, and compiling into a publication. 

After arriving in China, Tomas got in touch with people both inside and outside the local art scene, which helped him gain an understanding of his new surroundings. These encounters set off a chain reaction leading to new contacts and eventually bringing him to various unexpected places. He also found the role of a ‘coach’ — someone with specialised knowledge and networks around a core residency theme — to be especially valuable. 

The residency programme enabled him to live and work outside his habitual everyday structures for an extended period of time. This state of close observation and reorientation opened new perspectives on his previous practice and led to unexpected working methods. 

‚Letting the city shape me from within‘ – Lux Valladolid

The work of Argentinian visual artist Lux Valladolid revolves around the human experience in relation to new technologies, focusing on internet trends and culture. Her projects explore the integration of physical and digital realms, creepypastas, and gaming concepts like NPC through performances, artificial intelligence, video and photography. 

For her residency ‘are you an NPC?’ conducted at Atelier Mondial in Basel, she looked into the world of NPCs, non-playable characters from videogames – the ones in the background who simply repeat preset behaviours, without agency or deviation. This ongoing performance research starts from the NPC’s archetype. Embodying this character, Lux explores ways of inhabiting public and institutional space through presences that do not demand attention, yet silently and deliberately alter the environment, thus investigating the friction between the visible and the unnoticed. 

An early stage of the residency consisted of absorbing the local context, ‘letting the city shape me from within,’ as Lux recalls. ‘That process of dislocation, of being “out of place” became central and it reaffirmed that context is the very core of my practice.’ Connecting with local arts professionals, she also perfected her work and technique, as well as broadened her network. 

During her stay (from March to May 2025), the artist also got the chance to perform at local galleries and festivals, such as the ACT Basel Performance Festival der Schweizer Kunsthochschulen. ‘Creating became inevitable. As I immersed myself in the context and allowed my research to unfold through daily experience, new ideas and materials began to emerge organically,’ she said. ‘The opportunity to perform in such a context pushed me to develop a large-scale project in all its dimensions. It became a turning point in how I approach production, artistically, structurally, and relationally.’ 

Serafin Aebli – exploring the intricate world of Carnatic talas

Serafin Aebli is a composer and sound artist known for his interdisciplinary approach to music and sound. His work often transcends traditional boundaries, as he collaborates not only with musicians but also with artists from fields such as dance, theater, and other transdisciplinary practices.  

During his residency in Bengaluru in India, Serafin engaged with Indian classical music, with a particular focus on the rhythmic structures of Carnatic talas. His experiments with polyrhythms, including the combination of Carnatic structures with unconventional Western meters, opened up new areas for exploration. His final project at the Indian Music Experience Museum, Digi Tala, saw him collaborate with live electronic music, alongside musicians Sumana Chandrashekhar and Adarsh Shinoy on percussions.  

Besides his residency in Benglauru, Serafin also travelled, performed and established connections in New Delhi and Goa. The residency experience provided an opportunity to deepen his understanding of rhythm and to examine how organic and synthetic elements could converge in sound.

Petra Serhal invokes the healing magic of plants

Petra Serhal is a Lebanese multidisciplinary artist and performer. During her residency at Kaserne Basel from April to June 2025, she explored the uses of plants and their related mythologies, benefiting her research, daily life, and well-being. Drawing on local stories of plants, from witchcraft to herbalism, she developed a performance work navigating the rebirth of land and body and re-examining experiences of loss, particularly in relation to her homeland Lebanon over the past few years. In a ritual of healing, the audience was surrounded by herbs and immersed in a multisensorial experience using various natural elements: body and face masks, scents, food, spells, massage, music, and storytelling. Petra presented the multisensory performance at Kaserne, and again at the Old Botanical Garden in Zurich as part of the programme ‚Botanical Memories: A performance series‘.