Mantas Lesauskas practice as a designer and researcher often revolves around stone, memory, and nonhuman material agencies. In Lanzarote, he aims to work directly with volcanic ash, experimenting with geopolymer concretes and composites, while also engaging in sensorial ethnographic field walks to attune to the island’s geology. This process will include visiting local volcanic rock carvers, learning from traditional craft, and developing a series of objects and vessels that embody Lanzarote’s volcanic identity. Casting with local ash is, for him, a way of reactivating the island’s geology as designed matter — a contemporary “artificial stone” that parallels ancient traditions of volcanic pozzolana in Roman concrete.

Alongside the material practice, he wants to situate this research in a broader cultural and ecological context. Food, gardens, and hospitality will form part of this exploration, understood not only as human culture but as more-than-human gatherings where geology, plants, and species meet.

In this sense, he also wishes to revisit the legacy of César Manrique, whose work embodied a unique dialogue between architecture and volcanic landscapes. Finally, his research will be tied to a reflection on the Devil as a cultural figure. In Lithuanian folklore, the Devil is bound to stones and everyday life, often entangled with money and trickery. In Lanzarote, this resonates with volcanic fire and the island’s transformation under tourism and capitalist economies. Following Donna Haraway’s notion of the Capitalocene, he will explore how money and exploitation are today’s devils, and how volcanic matter might help him imagine alternatives beyond them. Through material experimentation, field research, and design-making, he hopes to contribute to the residency by opening a dialogue between geology, culture, and myth — and by making pieces that embody this entanglement.

Goda Marija Gasiūnaitė is an artist and historian whose practice explores culinary traditions, gardening, and feminine histories. Through interdisciplinary research and creative work, she traces how everyday practices of care, nourishment, and cultivation shape cultural memory and alternative narratives of history. She holds bath a BA and an MA in Cultural History and Anthropology from Vilnius University.

Goda Marija Gasiūnaitė will carry out material and anthropological research on volcanic matter. Her practice as a designer and researcher often revolves around stone, memory, and nonhuman material agencies. In Lanzarote, she aims to work directly with volcanic ash, experimenting with geopolymer concretes and composites, while also engaging in sensorial ethnographic field walks to attune to the island’s geology. This process will include visiting local volcanic rock carvers, learning from traditional craft, and developing a series of objects and vessels that embody Lanzarote’s volcanic identity. Casting with local ash is, for her, a way of reactivating the island’s geology as designed matter — a contemporary “artificial stone” that parallels ancient traditions of volcanic pozzolana in Roman concrete. Alongside the material practice, she wants to situate this research in a broader cultural and ecological context. Food, gardens, and hospitality will form part of this exploration, understood not only as human culture but as more-than-human gatherings where geology, plants, and species meet. In this sense, she also wishes to revisit the legacy of César Manrique, whose work embodied a unique dialogue between architecture and volcanic landscapes. Finally, her research will be tied to a reflection on the Devil as a cultural figure. In Lithuanian folklore, the Devil is bound to stones and everyday life, often entangled with money and trickery. In Lanzarote, this resonates with volcanic fire and the island’s transformation under tourism and capitalist economies. Following Donna Haraway’s notion of the Capitalocene, she will explore how money and exploitation are today’s devils, and how volcanic matter might help her imagine alternatives beyond them. Through material experimentation, field research, and design-making, she hopes to contribute to the residency by opening a dialogue between geology, culture, and myth — and by making pieces that embody this entanglement.

Joanna Cohn is a multidisciplinary artist working across print, painting and installation.

Jo recently won the Nasdaq Art Prize, The Landmark Art Prize, The Graduate Art Prize, Intaglio Printmakers Prize, GBS Fine Art Prize, Rosemary Simmons Lithography Award and her work was selected for the Clifford Chance Printmaking in London show, the V&A Illustration Awards, RCA Hyundai Awards for Excellence in Creativity and Sustainability and RA Summer Exhibition amongst other accolades.

She is the current recipient of the prestigious Tim and Belinda Mara Award at Hampstead School of Art 2025, and is visiting artist at Buckinghamshire New University. Her work is currently on display at The Russell Cotes Gallery, Bournemouth as a finalist for the Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize 2025, and at The New Arts Exchange in Nottingham as a selected artist in the 2025 Open.

Jo graduated from The RCA in 2024, where she was awarded an MA in Print supported by The Leverhulme Trust and studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins where she graduated with Distinction in 2023, supported by The Equity Charitable Trust.

My project explores the fusion of physical and digital elements to create a multimedia experience. I will incorporate textile components alongside 3D and mixed reality technologies, drawing inspiration from Lanzarote's unique landscapes, structures, and natural features to develop a dynamic work that bridges the digital and physical worlds.

I would like to work on my series “I coloured it for you”. In this series I make drawings using oval and circular stencils and a protractor. When the outlined drawing is complete, I carefully color them in with coloured pencil. I like to see them as these children colouring pages that I make for myself. Sometimes I leave months in between drawing the lines and colouring them in. So that I can forget the drawing before I colour it in and almost forget that it was me who made the line-drawing.

Each drawing is constructed using a set of rules and steps I set for myself. I find it difficult to create something from nothing and these rules provide a structure where I can let my intuition flow. Because of the systematic and playful process, these drawings are a form of introspective order for me.

Though I’ve already created many pieces in this series over the past year, I feel like it’s just the beginning. The rules I set up for myself evolve as the series progresses, making the possibilities feel endless. Currently, the drawings feature simple shapes and symbols like stars and hearts, but what if I introduce more complex forms? Will the drawings retain their impact? Or, what if I focus more on the texture of the coloured pencils to shape the image itself? These questions, and many more, I would like to explore at the residency.

Jesús Vacas (Seville, 1977) is a Spanish artist and designer. He holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Seville and furthered his studies in Madrid, where his exposure to the world of fashion would decisively shape his career. He currently divides his time between Galicia and Madrid, combining his work as a menswear designer with his passion for oil painting.

His work focuses on the male figure, blending the rigor of classical training with a contemporary perspective influenced by fashion. Intimate and direct, his paintings o er a pause from the fast pace of the digital world, inviting us to rediscover the simple beauty of being human.