https://www.constancevanberckel.com/sopra-sotto

SOPRA SOTTO, San Gimignano (2026)

26/08/2026

(4/4) The beautiful forest of the ITC truly immersed us in nature and inspired us to slow down.

We slept in wooden cabins under the trees, and were surrounded by wonderful gardens, a meditation garden and contemplation labyrinth, and many sacred statues.

We came across lots of wildlife, from bats to butterflies, dragonflies, foxes, and even hearing owls at night.

It was sunny and warm, so almost everything happened outdoors. We had many walks in the ITC woods, barefoot most of the time, had our workshops in the grass, and spent much of the week simply being outside, including all meals from breakfast to dinner.

We also explored the peaceful surroundings, spent a hot day at the lake, and visited Naarden Vesting, where we walked around and had ice cream.

The combination of nature, warm weather and stillness made it feel like time slowed down, giving us the space to really arrive in the week.

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This August we had our residency at the ITC-Naarden themed: ‘Bridging Inner/Outer Worlds - Speaking to the Unseen through Colour, Shape and Symbol’.

Link in bio for our upcoming residencies!

26/08/2026

(3/4) We spent the week diving into esoteric knowledge, learning about theosophy and exploring its influence on artists and artistic practices throughout history.

The Theosophy Center and its library became an important part of this, giving us space to discover, read and follow our curiosity. We explored thought forms, astrology, chakras, cosmologies and the connections between mysticism, art, history and science.

On our final day, we visited the ITC used and regular bookshops, each leaving with a fantastic stack of old and new books to continue diving into after the residency.

A week of following our curiosity, exploring different ways of knowing, and finding connections between the unseen, art, society, history and ourselves.

•

This August we had our residency at the ITC-Naarden themed: ‘Bridging Inner/Outer Worlds - Speaking to the Unseen through Colour, Shape and Symbol’.

Link in bio for our upcoming residencies!

26/08/2026

(2/4) Communal living was a big part of the ‘Bridging Worlds’ residency. We slowly created a shared rhythm and sense of togetherness throughout the week.

We slept in wooden cabins on the Theosophy Center (ITC) grounds, some sharing cabins, and started our mornings in silence, followed by check-ins where we aligned our moods and intentions for the day.

We had most meals together, preparing dinners in the kitchen with its open feeling that somehow felt like we were cooking outside. In the evenings we ate together under the trees and skies, to share food, conversations, ideas, laughs and stories.

There was also space to be together without a set programme: to go on walks, meditate, share books, read, play music, dance, art experiments, rest or simply hang out.

What made it particularly special was the still and serene energy of the ITC, a 100+ year old spiritual research center, which allowed for true presence and togetherness.

•

This August we had our residency at the ITC-Naarden themed: ‘Bridging Inner/Outer Worlds - Speaking to the Unseen through Colour, Shape and Symbol’.

Link in bio for our upcoming residencies!

26/08/2026

(1/4) Throughout the week, we explored the theme ‘Bridging Inner/Outer Worlds - Speaking to the Unseen through Colour, Shape and Symbol’.

We did this through workshops led by residents as well as by some guest collaborators, each opening up a different way of connecting the unseen and visual language.

\/ ision. Questt led us through a calming Yoga Nidra meditation accompanied by sound bowls, followed by a visualization drawing exercise to translate the experience onto paper.

Rieteke Oud visited us at the residency to talk to us about astrology, history, culture and its connections to the planets. We then created our own visual cosmologies of past, present and future.
Micaela Piñeroo ‘s workshop explored what we carry with us and what we leave behind. We translated these intentions into symbols and one-colour compositions onto large bedsheets, which stayed at our camp throughout the week as decorative and protective elements.

Daniela Vegas took us to the ITC library, where we each shared about the esoteric books we were drawn to, and found ourselves talking about Tao, ta**ra, the occult in art. Daniela also initiated a special dinner where we indulged our 5 senses, cooking up an amazing meal at a decorated table, and eating blindfolded and with our hands.

Jurriaan Wesselink brought ritual and rite of passage to the residency, beginning with a silent walk through the nearby cemetery and ending with a ceremony where we reflected on what we wanted to let ‘die’ and leave behind.

AndSella Molenaarr joined us on our last day, to lead us through a future visualization workshop, using meditation and drawing to explore where we are now, where we want to go, and what that future could look and feel like.

Across the week, we worked through drawing, painting, sound, meditation, movement, ritual, reading and conversation, finding different ways to give tape into the connection between the unseen and creative expression.

•

This August we had our residency at theITC-Naardenn themed: ‘Bridging Inner/Outer Worlds - Speaking to the Unseen through Colour, Shape and Symbol’.

Link in bio for our upcoming residencies!

01/08/2026

Daniela Vegas will be one of the residents at this months ‘Bridging Worlds’ residency at the Theosophy Center!

Daniela Vegas is an art director and visual designer working across storytelling, editorial, sound design, and motion, shaped by years working with purpose-driven clients across LATAM, Europe, and the US. Through research and intuition, she designs visual systems built on a meaningful story.

This process led her to a more conscious understanding of design as a tool for social and ecological responsibility. Reading into friendly design, Permaculture, Papanek, and Taoism deepened her curiosity about cycles and interconnection, threads that resonate deeply with Theosophy’s own inquiry into the seen and unseen.

She arrives at the residency looking for a place to simply be and make, without a client brief in sight, inviting the group to bridge their inner perception with the tangible, physical world of ITC Naarden.

$Sofia Kaloterakis is joining us as a resident at the ITC Naarden this month for the ‘Bridging Worlds’ residency!\/ ision...$

01/08/2026

Sofia Kaloterakis is joining us as a resident at the ITC Naarden this month for the ‘Bridging Worlds’ residency!

\/ ision. Questt ‘s practice encompasses poetry, spoken word, spirituality, and philosophy, connecting them into intentional dimensions of connection. Her work also bridges everyday holistic practices such as yoga and meditation with creative and intuitive insight.

Over the past year, Sofia has been researching the Divine Feminine alongside the mystery traditions of ancient Greece and Egypt. During the residency, she will expand her notes, to further this research while developing new writing and asemic.

These works will also explore the Theosophist idea that all sound and image, as manifested through human language, are emanations of the Akashic Records.

01/08/2026

Micaela Piñero is one of the residents during our upcoming ‘Bridging Worlds’ residency at the ITC Naarden this month!

Micaela Piñero (Buenos Aires, 1990) is an Argentine artist based in Barcelona, represented by UNA Galleria (Piacenza/Milan) and Constitución Gallery (Buenos Aires). Her practice unfolds across painting, installation, writing, metalwork, and sound.

Her work explores the potential of the image to articulate spaces of care and transformation. Drawing on a personal iconography of celestial bodies, animals, flowers, rivers, swords, portals, and hybrid beings, she constructs symbolic worlds where mythology, esoteric traditions, and contemporary experience converge. Her works engage questions of vulnerability, interdependence, and the relationships between the human and the more-than-human world.

Working with painted textiles, metal, and installation, Piñero expands the language of painting into space. Text, poetry, and sound are integral to the same conceptual fabric, forming a practice in which image, material, and language operate as inseparable elements.

Recent projects include solo exhibitions at Spazio Leonardo (Milan) and Constitución Gallery (Buenos Aires), as well as participation in Material Art Fair (Mexico City), Arte Fiera Bologna, and FORT BIENNALE 02 (Italy). During the SopraSotto Residency, she will continue her research into textile architectures, symbolic languages, and the relationship between image, perception, and forms of knowledge.

01/08/2026

Jurriaan Wesselink is joining our upcoming residency ‘Bridging Worlds’ at the Theosophy Center in Naarden this August!

Jurriaan Wesselink explores the relationship between our inner worlds and the realities we inhabit through painting, performance, and new media. His current work grows out of an ongoing attempt to reach states of transcendence. Yet each attempt inevitably brings him back to the reality of being human: to the body, to other people, and to our shared fragility and imperfection.

Originally educated in strategy and finance, Jurriaan gradually lost touch with his body and inner world. Discovering painting offered him a way to express and rediscover himself, initially through themes of sexuality and identity. Over time, making art evolved into a way of being present and of looking outward: a means of encountering other people, spaces, and systems through the body. Across his practice, he searches for ways of reconnecting what is often separated: body and mind, self and other, and the material and the spiritual.

25/07/2026

🔈OPEN CALL 🔈

Sound of Resilience: a sonic exploration of belonging, memory & collective imagination.

This October, SOPRA SOTTO invites an interdisciplinary group of creatives to a 2-week residency in the green hills of Gallura, Sardinia.

The residency explores sound as a vessel for shared human experience across generations and cultures.

Through music, voice, rhythm, vibration, silence, storytelling and listening, we explore sound as a medium for connection, remembrance, healing, resistance and collective imagination.

We welcome musicians, (sonic) artists, filmmakers, writers, performers, researchers, activists, educators, healers, and interdisciplinary practitioners working with sound in any form: from folkloric song and communal singing to experimental and electronic music, field recording, vocal practices, sound healing, and beyond.

Hosted at a remote farmhouse near the Sardinian Northwest coast, the residency offers a process-based, co-created environment centred around communal living, workshops by and for residents, creative exchange, and immersion in the island’s landscapes and traditions.

Inspired by Sardinia’s ancient practices of song and dance, the residency approaches sound as both an artistic medium and a social practice, carrying stories of identity, resilience and cultural continuity while opening space to imagine alternative futures.

DETAILS
• 4–18 October 2026 • Gallura, Sardinia
• ⁠Interdisciplinary residents • €350 – €550 per person • Shared bedroom or tent • Process-based, DIY & co-created 
🚨 Application deadline: 23 August

🌀 Link in bio for the full open call & application
Please share this within your network

Looking forward to receiving your applications!

11/05/2026

SOPRA SOTTO’s Change Makers residency in Tuscany explored communal living, creativity, and care as practices of resistance.

Inspired by ideas from Audre Lorde, Antonio Gramsci, and Joanna Macy, the residency approached art not simply as an end goal or commodity, but as a tool to question and challenge the status quo, imagine alternative futures, and communicate new ways of being through storytelling, culture, and creative practice.

Central to the residency was the belief that artists and creatives can shape culture and inspire positive societal change through ripple effect in accordance with the idea of oneness.

Care and communal living were explored as antidotes to a hyper-productive, extractivist, and individualist society, and as essential forms of resistance and collective wellbeing.

Daily life during the residency was grounded in slowness, rest, nature, creativity, shared meals, play, and togetherness

Through resident-led workshops and shared daily life, we exchanged ideas and knowledge across disciplines while imagining futures beyond capitalism, colonialism, extractivism, heteronormativity, and human-centric systems.

We often returned to questions of embodiment, reconnecting with the self and others, collective ways of being, and traditional nature-based knowledge systems.

A recurring conversation throughout the residency was that we all hold different roles in resistance: from activists and system builders to teachers, caretakers, healers, and storytellers.

The residency’s value came from the variety of experiences and perspectives that each of the residents brought into the collective learning that emerged over the residency.

SOPRA SOTTO

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