Silence Awareness Existence Program Priyanka Pulijal Los Angeles, USA Painting, Drawing, Installation www "My work builds imagined realms where mythology and lived experience intersect." I am a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in painting and research-led visual inquiry. My ongoing series LOKAS draws from Vedic cosmology and metaphysical frameworks to examine how unseen systems (spiritual, psychological, and mythological) shape identity and lived experience. Using large-scale acrylic paintings, I build imagined realms that function as portals rather than representations. Each work explores a specific “Loka,” or world, operating between the symbolic and the emotional. My process is iterative and accumulative, using repetition, layering, and fragmentation to allow forms and meanings to shift over time. Research plays a central role in my practice, but intuition guides execution. I am interested in the tension between structure and surrender, devotion and desire, ancient cosmologies and contemporary consciousness. Working in series allows me to treat painting as a sustained inquiry rather than a singular gesture. Through this work, I aim to create immersive visual spaces that invite viewers to reflect on their own position within larger, often invisible systems. Shiza Saqib Karachi, Pakistan Drawing, Embroidery, Painting www "Movement and meditation through art-making." In my work, I explore the synergy between self-exploration and the creative process, weaving together my Eastern roots, Sufi literature, and experience as a yoga teacher. My work is an extension of my daily practices of presence and persistence. The breath, the stillness of meditation, and the rhythm of long-distance running inform the cadence of my creative process. I create through intuition, a felt sense that flows through me and takes form on the canvas. Central to my practice is the pursuit of a flow state through intuitive movement and repetition. I allow my pen to guide my hand, and I follow the energy of the lines and the movement of the colours as I create. My process is both meditative and investigative, exploring how slowness and somatic awareness shape the act of making. These works invite pause, offering a visual rhythm that harmonises with the viewer’s tempo of stillness and motion. Ultimately, my work serves as an offering against the cult of speed, inviting us back to the one thing we know to be true - the present moment

April Anna Liatkouskaya Minsk, Belarus Drawing, Painting, Poetry www "The river flows within you." I am an artist, a poet and an explorer, considering life itself as the greatest of art forms. After several years of working as a UX designer, discovering and creating interaction patterns between a human and a machine, I have come back to what matters most to me: interactions between humans, between the world outside of one's own mind and the one within. In the age when the digital has become the default, how can we come back to the present, the real, the physical? To smell, to touch, to see, to breathe - those are the experiences we are taking for granted, but they are the most real and raw points of connection with the world, the perception of it. Not through the screen, but through the skin. Not with the eyes, but with the heart. Through my creative practice I hope to tap into my intuition, attempt to transcend the boundaries placed on my mind and to come back to the core within. Megan Peck Shub New York, USA Fiction www I am a writer, critic, and a producer who has won Emmy and Peabody awards for my work on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the HBO satire series. Currently based in Seoul, Korea, I am working on a novel. Shi Jun Gui Shen Zhen, China Video, installation , photography www "Sometimes we forget we are nature itself" Gui Shijun holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University. She currently lives and works in Shenzhen. Her artistic practice spans the boundaries of art, ecology, and sensory experience. Through immersive art practices, she engages with nature, inviting the audience to re-examine ecosystems and living organisms through active participation. Her works emphasize "ecological perception" and "bodily interaction", where she engages in direct contact with forests, plants, and natural environments, fostering a dialogue with nature. In her works, the relationship between humans and nature is transformed into a deep, experiential exchange. Gui’s practice encompasses video, installation, performance, and experience design. Her works have been exhibited at major events such as the Hong Kong Sculpture Biennale, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Design Biennale, and the Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Lies Daenen Leuven, Belgium Mixed Media, Painting, Installation www "The fragility of existence reveals the mystery of the soul" "Working at the intersection of art and ritual practice, I question the anthropocentric worldview and evoke a universe in which all life is equal and interconnected — in right relation. With delicate mixed media works on paper, paintings, installations and interactive projects, I try to bring forth this soulful universe. In my work with trees and other natural beings, I like to invite viewers and participants to experience a renewed, empathic, relationship with nature. This relationship is meant to function as a foundation for personal and collective healing — for and with each other, and the earth." Nicholas Bustos New York, USA Music, Neuroscience, Video www Hi, I’m Nico. I’m a neuroscientist based in Brooklyn, NY, whose work sits at the intersection of reward learning, cognition, and translational psychiatry. My research focuses on developing biomarkers and precision medicine approaches to better understand the computational underpinnings of human experience — the internal cogs and pulleys that orchestrate behavior, emotion, and consciousness. Drawn to the immediate power of sound to shape mood and sculpt brain states, I find myself equally at home in a jazz club, a techno set, or a forest full of birdsong. I’m an avid cyclist and hiker, and an experimental cook. At Arteles, I will develop audiovisual works that render the emergent behavior of neural networks visible, translating the hidden architecture of the mind into sensory experience. Sakurako Oidaira Japan Drawing www My work primarily focuses on line drawings. I’m interested in the boundaries between sound, letters, patterns, and images. I’m fascinated by the inclusiveness of the act of drawing lines itself, as it connects to the activities of nature and living things. While it's difficult to definitively classify my line drawings as automatism, I believe I started in that direction, at least initially. The process by which playful lines, initially without meaning, gradually acquire characteristics and transform into words or landscapes is incredibly beautiful to me. It's like a journey without a predetermined destination. This aesthetic sense is directly linked to the energy of life. For an artist, immersing oneself in lines is a means that holds the potential to freely move between the invisible and the visible. I believe that for both the viewer and the artist who has regained objectivity, it allows for the rediscovery of small discoveries, the possibility of freedom, and connections to everything.

Stefan Gebhard Koblenz, Germany Performance; Education; Subjectivation Research www "To me, art is a rehearsal space for futures worth fighting for." I am an artist, educator, and researcher at the intersection of aesthetic and political practice. In my artistic research, I am primarily interested in how predictions of the future have a performative effect, that is, how they bring about those very futures they claim to be merely describing, primarily through framing effects. On this basis, I use my art and my facilitation practice to encourage people to envision plural futures worth living for and fighting for. In my more classical academic research, i investigated how the subject position '(Teaching) Artist' as a cooperation partner is performed in school contexts, and what potential such collaborations hold. Tamara Jan Blazevic Croatia / Norway Multimedia Drawing, Digital World-Building, Speculative Narrative www "Bridging ancient wisdom and digital realms to inspire a global shift toward creativity and peace." I am a multimedia artist and writer whose practice is a lifelong exploration of consciousness, inner peace, and the interconnectedness of all beings. Deeply inspired by Vedic culture and the resonance of ancient wisdom, I seek to bridge these timeless foundations with contemporary creative evolution. My work is a call for a global shift—moving away from conflict and towards a primary maxim of creativity, mutual respect, and harmony with nature. My artistic foundation is rooted in the line; it is my primary expressive tool, manifesting through modular compositions and traditional two-dimensional surfaces. However, my current trajectory is evolving toward conceptual and digital realms. I am drawn to the limitless potential of digital environments and immersive world-building, where I can transcend material constraints and explore the boundless nature of the mind. For me, art is a meditative process of transformation—an invitation to reveal the hidden dimensions of our existence and foster a deeper harmony within the universe. Manuela Pecorari UK / Italy Performance making, Research, Video www My practice encompasses multiple disciplines, from the exploration of the body through somatic practices, to paper with line and colour, to the tactile surface of textile. From the core of the inner dialogue to the relationship with the world. The work has its roots in theatre-making practice but has found nourishment in multiple soil: art history, feminist thinking, Yoga tradition, performance studies, spiritual ecology, post-humanist theory. I am interested of themes of memory, interaction, the marks left from our bodies, on our bodies, on others. The mediation between a here-now and an elsewhere-elsewhen. Home and family, found and born within. I believe my investigation on the meaning as a creature on this Earth can be boiled down to the search for the secret third thing: something that is generated when two entities enter in conversation. See the list of all the Arteles residents here