ArtLabo Retreat 2025. Credit: Kaascat
ArtLabo Retreat 2025 was a two week-long camp organised by Makery in West Brittany, France, bringing together artists, scientists, designers, performers and mentors students to explore fashion, sound, gastronomy and storytelling—from the shores near the Colonie du Phare of Île de Batz with La Gare, Centre d’art et de design, to the grounds of Château de Kerminy in Rosporden. Chrysa Chouliara, the 2025 Makery summer chronicler-in-residency, reveals her chronicle of the two weeks spent at the ArtLabo Retreat.
Since 2022 Makery welcomes in the summer a chronicler from the Rewilding Cultures project, a network of residencies and summer camps, schools, and retreats co-funded by the European Union. In 2025, through the Archipelago cooperation supported by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss fondation for culture, Makery welcomes Chrysa Chouliara, also known as KAASCAT, a member of the Swiss Mechatronic Arts Society. Chrysa Chouliara is a visual storyteller in love with science. Obsessed with alternative printing mediums, she weaves personal narratives using experimental formats—exploring memory, media, and identity. Working across media, analog and digital, she treats each subject as a playground for visual experimentation. Originally from Athens, she has been based in Switzerland since 2016 and in Luzern since 2019. Onboard log.
An island is more than a mere geographic formation—it is a metaphor, a symbol of possibility. As a fragment of land surrounded by water, the island embodies separation, self-sufficiency, resilience and reinvention. Disconnected from the mainland and its dominant systems, the island becomes a space where alternate realities can emerge—a laboratory of sorts for new values, aesthetics, and ways of living.
The Island as the Toponym of Utopia
Sometimes, an island is more than just a childhood memory. It becomes a meeting point where professionals from around the world gather to exchange ideas and forge connections. Participants in the ArtLabo Retreat 2025 include students, artists, filmmakers, fashion designers, ecosomatic practitioners, and musicians, as well as video game designers and scientists. The diversity of their skills will prove crucial during the two-week retreat, where everyone will teach each other and improvised collaborations will emerge.
There’s something special about Île de Batz—a small island of around 450 inhabitants nestled in the Atlantic. At the beginning of the 17th century, the gradual silting of the island’s eastern areas prevented the cultivation of flax and hemp, both vital for the cloth industry. Seaweed then became the island’s primary resource until the 19th century. It was used for various purposes, including as cattle feed—cows grazed on species like Palmaria palmata—as well as for soil enrichment, and in the production of glass and soap. The trade extended beyond local use, with potash (a key ingredient in glassmaking) exported to other regions.
Perhaps drawing inspiration from this history, the Artlabo Retreat is divided into different groups that are about to use the seaweed as part of their research in the island, from sound, to image, fashion, sound & media. At low tide, a rich aquatic forest is revealed as we walk among the rocks toward the sea with ethnobotanist Edouard Bal. Equipped with large yellow buckets, we learn how to harvest seaweed: only take what’s attached to the rocks—if it’s floating freely, it’s probably already decomposing. I try everything, enjoying the familiar raw taste.
Seaweeds can be broadly classified by color into three groups: brown, red, and green. Botanists refer to these as Phaeophyceae, Rhodophyceae, and Chlorophyceae, respectively. During the first week of the ArtLabo Retreat, all three types serve as sources of nourishment, raw materials for fabric-making and bioplastics, components in conductive experiments, key elements in performances, and even decorative touches throughout the camp.
The following night, as we watch Umi No Oya, we munch on seaweed delicacies. The documentary by Maya Minder and Ewen Chardronnet (chief editor of Makery) narrates the story of Kathleen Drew-Baker—the algologist whose research revolutionized nori aquaculture in Japan. The film explores her crucial discovery of the red algae life cycle, which enabled the development of modern nori farming techniques in post-war Japan. Although she had to struggle as a woman in the pre-war Western scientific world, where marrying a colleague at Manchester University prevented her from receiving a salary, Drew-Baker is now honored as a deity in the Shinto tradition in Japan, sometimes referred to as umi no oya, “mother of the sea”, without having set a foot in Japan.
Umi No Oya (2025), the trailer (subtitles at CC box):
Maya Minder is an artist based in Zurich and Paris, working at the intersection of biohacking, food culture, and speculative design. On the island together with Corina Mattner, artist, fashion designer and activist, lead a workshop where algae is transformed into fabric using glycerin. “I’m obsessed with glycerin. It’s both hydrophilic and lipophilic, making it an incredible material to work with,” Maya says as the group begins processing the collected algae. Once dried, the fabric resembles translucent leather. It’s soon transformed into unique creations, sewn together with vintage pieces. They were also supported by Violaine Buet, an experienced seaweed designer from southern Brittany.
The guiding principles of the camp are to facilitate access to one-third of students in art, design, sound and media arts, as well as postgraduate students, offering them the opportunity to learn more in the workshops in this more informal learning setting and to establish contacts and consolidate networks that will help them in their professional development.
It’s already midweek when the group heads out once again with Edouard Bal—this time to forage for edible wild plants. That night, we enjoyed one of the most exciting dinners of the week, as the freshly harvested greens were transformed into a gastronomic delight by Edouard Bal and the food design group, involving “cuisinerd” Julie Tunas and artist/designer Lorie Bayen El Kaïm who are collaborating in a long term residency and artistic project on cooking methods and eating habits with La Gare, Centre d’art et de design. This highlight of the week was introduced by a lovely conference-performance by Korean student Seungje Han freshly graduated from the Master design in transition at EESAB art school in Brest.
I swim twice a day, even when it’s cold or raining, which is not surprising in Brittany. It’s the end of the week, and while the rest of Europe has been baking under a heatwave, here the temperature has been bearable, even pleasant, and the Brittany coast is welcoming an Atlantic depression just as we’re frantically preparing for the ArtLabo Retreat open day.
The evening—the sun sets late here—is filled with shows, talks, presentations, and an exhibition about the Colonie du Phare. We move from place to place, following the events as they unfold.
Ryu Oyama ,invited by the Archipelago program, blends sound with a contemporary take on the tea ceremony, using a siphon to create espuma—a technique borrowed from modern and molecular gastronomy that introduces a delicate, foamy texture. The tea, transformed into foam, is offered hand-to-hand with the assistance of Pôm Bouvier B. It’s a strange, intimate sensation—receiving tea in the form of espuma, resting weightlessly in your palm—a gift of some sort.
Forest Frequencies
Just a day later, the landscape shifts from blue to green. With my shoes still full of sand, I lay down on the grass in front of Kerminy Castle in Rosporden, in the beautiful Cornouaille region of Brittany. A friendly orange cat is perusing the estate until it finally disappears into the thick forest surrounding it.
Kerminy is a self-managed space for experimentation, research, and creation, formed in 2020 by the artistic duo (n)— Dominique Leroy and Marina Pirot. Described as a “lieu d’agriculture en arts,” it occupies a former 14th-century seigneury, complete with a chapel, washhouse, outbuildings, and woods, nestled within a 12.5-hectare estate on the edge of a vast forest. It’s here that the ArtLabo Retreat shifts its focus to sound.
And it’s not hard to imagine why—even the greenhouse is filled with sound installations nestled among gigantic tomato plants.
Dominique Leroy is a sound artist who creates installations, exhibitions, and sound trails designed to help us listen to a place. His practice is often collaborative and rooted in the use of recycled or repurposed technical devices for sound capture and diffusion—what he calls experimental landscape instrument making.
Marina Pirot, for her part, is an artist working at the intersection of dance and ecosomatic practices. Her work explores the relationship between the body and the environment, focusing on the collection and transmission of gestural knowledge.
Kerminy is not far from the sea. Dr. Tony Robinet gives us a tour of the local marine station, and later we visit the museum (see the report by Lyndsey Walsh). As a sculptor, I’m fascinated by the taxidermy room. The skin of each fish is carefully removed and placed over a styrofoam replica. The room is filled with countless specimens in a mesmerizing array of patterns and colors.
This week, everyone is preparing for Fluxon, the castle’s annual sound and art residency and event. Daily mechatronic workshops by Marc Dusseiller, transdisciplinary workshopologist from the SGMK (Swiss Mechatronic Art Society) and the Hackteria International Society stretch into the night, interwoven with spontaneous conversations that spark even at the breakfast table.
“What’s the difference between sound and music?”
“Sound is everywhere. Music is what you do with that sound,” replies Pôm without a moment’s hesitation. Pôm Bouvier B. was drawn to music and sound from a young age but spent many years navigating across various artistic disciplines. A literal twist of fate—a leg injury—led her to create sound for a performance, reigniting her connection with music. Since then, her practice has been centered on sound for more than a decade. In musical improvisation, she found everything she had been searching for—a space where all her diverse talents could converge. “Improvisation makes me feel alive. It’s like all the skills I picked up along my journey finally find their right use.”
The experimental noise artist Jena Jang adds another layer to the dense sonic landscape. Most of their instruments are DIY, soldered into household Tupperware, producing sounds that are anything but domestic. Their music unfolds like a journey into the subconscious—heavy soundscapes pierced by intricate harmonics that ripple through the chaos.
Departing: From Green to Grey
I left the day after the festival by train. On my way to Paris, I can’t stop thinking about the people I met over the past three weeks and the ideas and projects we exchanged.
They say no man is an island, but artists and scientists often work in isolation, diving deep into their respective practices. Retreats like this one function like water—quietly connecting even the most remote.
Read also the report of Lyndsey Walsh on ArtLabo Retreat 2025.
Find out more on Rewilding Cultures and Feral Labs Network in Makery.