
Trina Acacia
Sumatra, Indonesia and Bali
The Hidden Pulse: Moving, Becoming, Transforming
This dance project explores minerals as the foundation of life, linking Bali’s oceanic minerals & Taleggio Valley’s rocks. Through sensory research, site-specific & scientific insights, it examines mineral transformation & interconnection. Outcomes: a live performance & research documentation.
Trina Acacia, a dancer, diver, and ocean-artist, explores the bond between body & nature, especially the ocean. At her lowest, battling illness & grief, she found healing in the ocean. Through Surya Laluna, she leads artistic research, beach cleanups & ocean education, merging art with conservation.
Sumatra, Indonesia and Bali
The Hidden Pulse: Moving, Becoming, Transforming
This dance project explores minerals as the foundation of life, linking Bali’s oceanic minerals & Taleggio Valley’s rocks. Through sensory research, site-specific & scientific insights, it examines mineral transformation & interconnection. Outcomes: a live performance & research documentation.
Trina Acacia, a dancer, diver, and ocean-artist, explores the bond between body & nature, especially the ocean. At her lowest, battling illness & grief, she found healing in the ocean. Through Surya Laluna, she leads artistic research, beach cleanups & ocean education, merging art with conservation.
Il polso nascosto: muoversi, diventare, trasformarsi
Questo progetto di danza esplora i minerali come fondamento della vita, collegando i minerali oceanici di Bali e le rocce della Valle Taleggio. Attraverso la ricerca sensoriale, il sito specifico e le intuizioni scientifiche, esamina la trasformazione e l'interconnessione dei minerali. Risultati: una performance dal vivo e una documentazione di ricerca.
Trina Acacia, danzatrice, subacquea e artista oceanica, esplora il legame tra corpo e natura, in particolare l'oceano. Nel suo momento più basso, quando lottava contro la malattia e il dolore, ha trovato la guarigione nell'oceano. Attraverso Surya Laluna, conduce ricerche artistiche, pulizie delle spiagge ed educazione oceanica, fondendo arte e conservazione.

Shengqi Kong
France - China
Crystalline Dialogues: Sculpting Tales of Cheese and Stone
The project explores the intersection of artisanal cheese-making and geology in the Val Taleggio. Using local stone and cheese-inspired textures, this site-specific installation invites community engagement, celebrating the valley’s cultural heritage and natural processes.
Shengqi Kong is a multidisciplinary artist whose work intersects sculpture, sound, and cultural narratives. Her practice explores place-responsive art and environmental themes, often using reclaimed materials.
France - China
Crystalline Dialogues: Sculpting Tales of Cheese and Stone
The project explores the intersection of artisanal cheese-making and geology in the Val Taleggio. Using local stone and cheese-inspired textures, this site-specific installation invites community engagement, celebrating the valley’s cultural heritage and natural processes.
Shengqi Kong is a multidisciplinary artist whose work intersects sculpture, sound, and cultural narratives. Her practice explores place-responsive art and environmental themes, often using reclaimed materials.
Dialoghi cristallini: Racconti di scultura di formaggio e pietra
Il progetto esplora l'intersezione tra la produzione di formaggio artigianale e la geologia della Val Taleggio. Utilizzando pietre locali e texture ispirate al formaggio, questa installazione site-specific invita all'impegno della comunità, celebrando il patrimonio culturale e i processi naturali della valle.
Shengqi Kong è un'artista multidisciplinare il cui lavoro interseca scultura, suono e narrazioni culturali. La sua pratica esplora l'arte sensibile al luogo e i temi ambientali, spesso utilizzando materiali di recupero.

Maria Beatriz Alves Meira,
Brazil
Minerals as agents of life
Research into how minerals present in the soil of the Taleggio Valley foster biodiversity, promoting interspecies life. Designing a tapestry that evokes the entanglement of these multiple forms.
Beá Meira is a Brazilian artist. She has worked as an art teacher in elementary school and university courses. She is a participant in the collective exhibition Paisagens Mineradas and the exhibition A Carne de Gaia, currently on display in Brazil.
Brazil
Minerals as agents of life
Research into how minerals present in the soil of the Taleggio Valley foster biodiversity, promoting interspecies life. Designing a tapestry that evokes the entanglement of these multiple forms.
Beá Meira is a Brazilian artist. She has worked as an art teacher in elementary school and university courses. She is a participant in the collective exhibition Paisagens Mineradas and the exhibition A Carne de Gaia, currently on display in Brazil.
Minerali come agenti di vita
Ricerca su come i minerali presenti nel suolo della Val Taleggio favoriscano la biodiversità, favorendo la vita interspecie. Progettazione di un arazzo che evoca l'intreccio di queste molteplici forme.
Beá Meira è un'artista brasiliana. Ha lavorato come insegnante d'arte in corsi di scuola elementare e universitari. Partecipa alla mostra collettiva "Paisagens Mineradas" e alla mostra "A Carne de Gaia", attualmente in corso in Brasile.

Sinem
Dişli
Istanbul, Turkey
Mineral Narratives: Tracing Deep Time in the Taleggio Valley
This project uses chromatography to reveal the Taleggio Valley’s hidden mineral traces. The final output includes a mineralogical map, chromatographic prints, and site-specific installations that visualize the Valley’s deep-time transformations, bridging science and art.
Sinem Dişli is a visual artist working with photography, mix-media, and installation. Her practice explores material transformation, deep time, and ecology.
Istanbul, Turkey
Mineral Narratives: Tracing Deep Time in the Taleggio Valley
This project uses chromatography to reveal the Taleggio Valley’s hidden mineral traces. The final output includes a mineralogical map, chromatographic prints, and site-specific installations that visualize the Valley’s deep-time transformations, bridging science and art.
Sinem Dişli is a visual artist working with photography, mix-media, and installation. Her practice explores material transformation, deep time, and ecology.
Narrazioni minerali: Tracciare il tempo profondo della Valle Taleggio
Questo progetto utilizza la cromatografia per rivelare le tracce minerali nascoste della Valle Taleggio. Il risultato finale comprende una mappa mineralogica, stampe cromatografiche e installazioni site-specific che visualizzano le trasformazioni del tempo profondo della Valle, collegando scienza e arte.
Sinem Dişli è un'artista visiva che lavora con la fotografia, il mix-media e l'installazione. La sua pratica esplora la trasformazione materiale, il tempo profondo e l'ecologia.

Emma Dotti
Milano, Italy
Soft matter, hard time
This project explores limestone’s role in Val Taleggio’s ecosystem and culture, investigating its geological memory. Textiles will be layered with limestone concretions, creating “garments” that embody interspecies connections, highlighting the transformation that landscape imprints on bodies.
Emma Dotti, Milan-based artist, graduated from Brera Art Academy and studied in Germany. She explores relationships among communities, habitats, and bodies through installations, sculptures, videos and performances.
Milano, Italy
Soft matter, hard time
This project explores limestone’s role in Val Taleggio’s ecosystem and culture, investigating its geological memory. Textiles will be layered with limestone concretions, creating “garments” that embody interspecies connections, highlighting the transformation that landscape imprints on bodies.
Emma Dotti, Milan-based artist, graduated from Brera Art Academy and studied in Germany. She explores relationships among communities, habitats, and bodies through installations, sculptures, videos and performances.
Soft matter, hard time
Il progetto esplora il ruolo del calcare nell'ecosistema e nella cultura della Val Taleggio, indagando la sua memoria geologica. I tessuti saranno stratificati con concrezioni calcaree, creando abiti, pelli e mute testimoni di connessioni interspecie che evidenziano la trasformazione che il paesaggio imprime sui corpi.
Emma Dotti, artista milanese, si è diplomata all'Accademia di Brera e ha studiato in Germania. Esplora le relazioni tra comunità, habitat e corpi attraverso installazioni, sculture, video e performance.

Leisa Loan
Massachusetts, USA
Pietra Viva: Censorship, Extraction, and Sculptural Poetics in Taleggio Valley
The project aims to replicate in writing the physical act of sculpture—removal as a creative process. Combining censored translations of the poet Antonia Pozzi and stone samples from the landscape, I intend to interrogate the violence of the extraction process through sculpture and corresponding poems.
Leisa Loan is a poet, translator, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. She is pursuing a PhD in Critical Poetics at the University of Houston where she teaches poetry and serves as the Digital Editor for Gulf Coast Journal.
Massachusetts, USA
Pietra Viva: Censorship, Extraction, and Sculptural Poetics in Taleggio Valley
The project aims to replicate in writing the physical act of sculpture—removal as a creative process. Combining censored translations of the poet Antonia Pozzi and stone samples from the landscape, I intend to interrogate the violence of the extraction process through sculpture and corresponding poems.
Leisa Loan is a poet, translator, and educator from Boston, Massachusetts. She is pursuing a PhD in Critical Poetics at the University of Houston where she teaches poetry and serves as the Digital Editor for Gulf Coast Journal.
Pietra Viva: Censura, estrazione e poetica scultorea in Val Taleggio
Il progetto mira a replicare per iscritto l'atto fisico della rimozione della scultura come processo creativo. Combinando traduzioni censurate della poetessa Antonia Pozzi e campioni di pietra del paesaggio, intendo interrogare la violenza del processo di estrazione attraverso la scultura e le poesie corrispondenti.
Leisa Loan è una poetessa, traduttrice ed educatrice di Boston, Massachusetts. Sta conseguendo un dottorato di ricerca in Critical Poetics presso l'Università di Houston, dove insegna poesia e ricopre il ruolo di Digital Editor per il Gulf Coast Journal.
2025 Alt Residents
Maru Garcia, Artist / California, USA - Lichens: Rock LickersJames Blair, Anthropologist / California,USA - Boomerang extractivism
Anna Berrino, Artist / Florence, Italy - Hybrid residency
2025 Visitors
Robin Nanney, NAHR Fellow 2015NAH_Worskhop June

Frank Schellace NAHR California Fall
California / USA
Varietal Ash: Exploring the intersection of society fire and bees
The project recontextualizes the object of a beekeeper's smoker, conventionally used to disrupt communication. Untethered from its traditional function, the smoker can be explored as a musical instrument, telling the stories of human-fire interactions. Against the backdrop of ashes from plants vital to bee ecology and traditional fire regimes, this project ignites experimentation in storytelling.
Frank Schellace is an experimental sound artist, science educator and beekeeper. His work processes memory through sensory performance, matching frequencies to experience. He is the founder of Traveling Hive, a 501c3 project that seeks to provide diversity in nature-education through art and connection.
California / USA
Varietal Ash: Exploring the intersection of society fire and bees
The project recontextualizes the object of a beekeeper's smoker, conventionally used to disrupt communication. Untethered from its traditional function, the smoker can be explored as a musical instrument, telling the stories of human-fire interactions. Against the backdrop of ashes from plants vital to bee ecology and traditional fire regimes, this project ignites experimentation in storytelling.
Frank Schellace is an experimental sound artist, science educator and beekeeper. His work processes memory through sensory performance, matching frequencies to experience. He is the founder of Traveling Hive, a 501c3 project that seeks to provide diversity in nature-education through art and connection.