TezTalks Radio - Tezos Ecosystem Podcast
TezTalks Radio - Tezos Ecosystem Podcast
113: What a Year Changed at Bosque Gracias
This week on TezTalks Radio, host Brandon Langston reconnects with Bosque Gracias, the artist collective and residency built by hand in the forests of Patagonia by Rosio and Mariano. After years offline and a chance reconnection during lockdown, Bosque found a new creative chapter through Tezos. Now, one year later, we return to see how that chapter has unfolded.
🎙️ Our guest is Mariano, co-founder of Bosque Gracias, returning to reflect on how the residency has grown over the past year and how hosting artists continues to shape both the space and his own practice.
In this episode, we explore:
What it feels like, in hindsight, to reconnect to the internet after five years offline
- How daily rhythm changes when residencies fill an entire calendar
- Moments when forest, river, and weather quietly reroute creative work
- Unexpected collaborations sparked by Bosque’s pairing wheel
- Times when things broke down and improvisation led to meaningful outcomes
- How hosting others has revived parts of Mariano’s own artistic practice
- The story of the engraver living on a mountain island and what visiting her studio reveals
- The tension between growing the residency and protecting its soul
- What Mariano hopes artists feel on their first morning at Bosque as spring begins
Today we get to reconnect with a project that has earned a special place in the Tezos art world. Bosque Gracias is an artist collective and residency based in Patagonia. And their story goes well beyond the usual art conversation. Rossio and Mariano built this place by hand. They've raised their kids there. They spent years offline before suddenly re-entering the internet during the lockdown and discovering a new creative chapter through Tezos. Last summer they spoke with Marissa and shared how all of this began. Today we get to pick up that story and see where this last year has taken them.
SPEAKER_01:Yo, super awesome. We are really proud and shy about your entering your intro. It's amazing. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Well, last time you spoke with Marissa, you mentioned what it felt like to reconnect to the internet after five years offline. One day you're in rural Patagonia with without home internet, and the next you're seeing your old Tumblr peers minting on Tezzos. When you think back on that moment now, what hit you first? The excitement or the shock?
SPEAKER_02:The excitement, yes, always excitement. And it's too much excitement that you end in a shock. Maybe that's the workflow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:When when Nico Alerce says to us, uh, yo, you need to enter Tezos and enter ops and to meet the people from our chain, uh, that was the collective of Argentina about Tezos artists. Uh, and we start to follow people on Twitter. We never use Twitter, you know, in Argentina, it's not common.
SPEAKER_02:And uh something that I think that we had from the past is that we admire people from the internet, yeah. That it's something that uh I think that it's easier to explain to others about web 3 workflow when you already have this experience about connecting with others through internet and don't fill in that barrier that we are so far ago, or oh, this is computer talking, I have to stop because I live in the mountain. Uh we we need to start working with uh more flexible things too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, we love it anyway. We we love uh communication and technology and internet.
SPEAKER_02:We love internet, we didn't have it, but we love it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, that's that's true. But I I think the most excitement I think was when we start doing scrolling, you know, scrolling artists, scrolling, and this infinite scroll of artists and art on the on the um uh screen for us was like, whoa, this is like do you remember when when we were on Tumblr and everything was like incredible, you know, like infinite scroll was for us was like uh yeah, when you can stop.
SPEAKER_02:Also, in the moment we we start working in Tesos, uh we meet both uh Teya and Object, and uh they are different, but they are in Tezos, so it's like uh sister or mother from the same father and mother, you know. They have their own spirit, but they work together in a way because the people that live inside that house is all almost of the time the same. So this opportunity that Mariana was naming about infinite scrolling things that you maybe don't expect to see, and uh object has this other part about uh meeting uh front page, a great place, uh something that motivates you that live in the middle of the moment time to say, Oh, I have to work better in how I show what I do, because these people is not just buying things or files, they really care about who we are, and I think that uh when we discovered that uh in the social media, it was totally easier to interact with others, to say, hello, we are these people. In the beginning, to to say that uh a handler is a collective, in the beginning, it was difficult because uh the people maybe they were questioning themselves. Oh, this their artworks are so different. Maybe there are two, seven, eight, ten people. Who is Bosque? How many of them they are?
SPEAKER_01:And yeah, I think that that was the most difficult to to present to to be, you know, on the on this space about uh a community or a group or a family or just this couple. You know, it's it's like uh with neutro. When when we met neutro, uh uh I remember uh Bulls that uh he's one of the founders, he said to us, I think you you you were like 10 people, like 20 people, you know, like nobody knows anything about Bosque Gracias, and and we enter with that mystery, and and what's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:I think that we have the mystery, and we also have like 15 years of art working in the middle of the nowhere. And this context is about there's no gallery, there's no museum here, uh it's really a place apart from cities and uh uh government care in arts, you know. And so when we enter to this space to this place, we have a lot of material to show because we we never stop. It's not that we don't have internet, so oh oh now you have the goats, not internet, nothing's going to happen. We never stop creating.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, what you've gone from two residencies to a full calendar, and looking at past years specifically, what changed the most for you? Not in theory, but in your daily rhythm?
SPEAKER_02:No, no, not so much schedule, plans, schedule, more people, and and dreams and follow the dreams because when we start the uh the residency project, uh I think that uh we always want to welcome people and connect that through art. It's not like oh, I'm going to rent my homes to nowhere, to nobody. Like um, we really want to put the resources that we already had, like six houses and the river valley and all the fruits of trees and all that building that we already do, to connect with this artist, to go on about working with this. Oh, I I admire you so much on the internet. I need you to come here and to spend the time only to create with me, and I create with you. And when we understand what we need to make that sustainable, what we need to make up to make a calendar in the year so we don't stop, and it's not like, oh, I'm going to make one really good, fancy, expensive, in a time presidency. I want to make this project for years, so I have to make it fluid, I have to make it really good planned so I don't get tired, and also uh to build uh bridges and possibilities to artists that want to come because we offer all here in the residency time. I mean, the artist didn't even cook, we have incredible meals in the moment to eat, and everything is cover, so somebody has to pay that, and I am really, really, really happy to work with for that because I need to meet that artist. So all these yeah that's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Now, a lot of artists say that something in the forest or by the river ends up changing the direction of their work. Can you give us one story where nature stepped in and completely rerouted someone's project in in an experience particular or technique or anything that comes to mind where really being there really affected and changed how they started producing and creating?
SPEAKER_02:I think that uh there are um more than one, but I will go with two really good examples about an artist that was um it's an incredible uh worker of a stop motion, and he is connected with nature, it's not that he's not, but uh he was working so many times for others. And uh, in a moment when you are an artist and you have really good techniques or tools or things to work with, you work with two others because maybe you don't sell objects, for example, or tokens, and then you get tired and you don't work for your art and your desires as an artist anymore. So, one of the experiences is that uh Bosque also brings is about how can you connect with nature and understand that that landscape and that nature is you, and all you need is to go to this time in where you connect with your nature in nature, understanding that you the only thing that you have to do is make that connection. You have the dots, do something with the dots.
SPEAKER_01:It's it is not only about nature, uh, it's not only about uh, you know, like going to the mountain or going to the middle to the forest to make art, it's about community and to live together here in this house, you know, and and making everyday and art experience with others. So there is a lot of uh experiences of people, you know. There is people that uh call us to say, I'm working too much to other people in my work, you know, and I want to make something for me and for my art because I cannot connect with that, and it's like a place where you can connect every day with that you love, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Uh another good example that comes to my mind as an artist that um we didn't know him uh from before he asked to come, and he was really shy, and he says to us that maybe to share the house with others or to co-work all the day will be difficult for him. So we say, okay, we maybe we can plan that he stays in the bedroom that is only for one. Okay, we can take some time to make this schedule because we have seven days and one last day's exhibition, and these seven days are for sure a really good plan about uh workshops and jump space to work. So I I think uh we were thinking like, okay, we need spaces where they can be alone too, because maybe in a moment he will be needing this time, but since the day one he came here, I think that it's the energy of the forest because it's not never the forest is going to be one tree. He never stopped desiring to connect with others, he never stopped. It it was the the first one that in the morning he says, Oh, we should do this collab because I in the night I was thinking that maybe if I do this and you do that, we can say to him that he can do give us this and we go filming there. And for me, it was something that I really don't expect or plan, but it was the best thing to happen in a way, too.
SPEAKER_00:There is a lot of funny stories. Yes, you run that random collaboration wheel that pairs people up with pairing that shouldn't have worked on paper but became unforgettable once they started creating together.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god, good question. Yeah, I don't know if it was unexpected, but I really love the collab that happened there.
SPEAKER_01:Um yeah, you know, I I I don't remember uh a connection like that, but it's really beautiful to see the opposite, to see that that couple that you think that could be awesome, uh the spinwell selected, you know, it's like magic. That is super funny because when the couple is like that couple, they too see each other and they yes! And every everybody's clapping, you know, it's like a goal of Argentina in the World Cup, you know. Oh, that's huge, huge, and it's it's super because it's that magic about being together, about traveling. You know, if you travel, you know there is magic about traveling, to be away from your home, to be with others, to live with what you you have in your hands, what you bring, you bring your your your backpack, and uh it's that is everything, and the magic starts.
SPEAKER_00:Now, residencies never stay perfectly on script. What's one time boss get pushed back? Weather equipment, something breaking, and the group had to improvise.
SPEAKER_02:We didn't have to improvise too much, I think. I one one time we have to improvise something that um we we well we you say we don't have internet, we have been living off-grid and in this style, like how are we talking if you don't have internet?
SPEAKER_01:I'm just curious because I I am in the future now and now I have so no in that in that moment you needed to go to a neighborhouse, you know. Yeah, what's yeah, but yeah, it's it's not too much.
SPEAKER_02:So one year Mariano was going to Europe, and when he comes back, I will go to Europe, but we meet in Brazil to make a residency with Sid Computer, and when I go to Europe, he comes back to Bosque. Okay, so uh in the moment that he goes to Europe, I stay alone here with the kids and with a residency with that who was going to come. And uh Nico Alerse and Maru that already live in Bosque, they have their own house. So we work together, but they have their house, and Bosque family have our own house too. But and yeah, here comes the funny story, um it was autumn, and uh it was a moment in nature here that it's the change between summer and autumn, and that moment you never know so well if it's going to be comfortable, hot, or not. So uh when when Mariano takes the the tickets, that it was in a bit in a hurry because we need to pay the ticket uh cheap and all these Latin things we try to approach to make the things possible.
SPEAKER_00:Um we go with wisdom.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, that that residency was already planned. So when he takes the plane, it was like the second day of the residency, and it was really cold here, and we have uh wood stoves, so we have gas only to cook, but for heating the houses, it's with your body, your energy, and a lot of wood. And I think like, oh my god, they are going to live alone, and uh, who is going to take care of them? Who is going to turn the fire on? Who is going to say, hey, come on, people, yes, okay. I love computer working, but now we have to take care of the wood. So we say the best opportunity there it was that the kids and me moved to their residency house and we live together. And it was uh, and also Libertes was here in his own house. And uh Libertes is a baker from Tesla, you know, but to tell the people and to shout out to him, uh, he's from Venezuela, so uh he's Latin American, but in the moment of Latin America that it's really hot because it's near Ecuador, and it was really cold for him. So in the house where he lives, we cannot take that care about making the wood and all that because it's another home. So when he came here, the coffee was hot, the home was hot. It was like a moment where where you say, okay, the other house, well, let's go to work to the other house.
SPEAKER_01:And uh he's uh survival survivalist.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, totally, totally. And I think that the the people that came to the residency that were Moranical, Ode, Ekeco, and Libertes uh have the experience about living with the family too that any other residency has, and we didn't plan it, but it was delightful to be the mother of a bit a mother of all of them.
SPEAKER_01:I I have another experience. Uh one of the biggest art residencies, and one of the first, I think was the third, but was like the the most uh powerful art residency with neutral with all the artists of neutral with 17 artists, yeah, and Bosque. And Bosque was 20 people here, and the internet in that moment was three megabytes by by the by the cooperative uh internet from the from the town, you know.
SPEAKER_02:It's uh I don't know it's when somebody has to mint, we have to say, shut out the internet, I will be minting in a moment.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, everybody needed to to close the Wi-Fi to mint, or or if someone had a meeting, you know, a streaming or something like that, was like, Hey, uh at 10 a.m. I need to to a meeting, so everybody goes outside, and was really hard, but was so you know, so powerful, was so possible with the minimum. And then Sterling came to the house, and and and from that moment when Sterling came here, uh I think we we were the first uh on the town to have Starlink when uh they put a step in the country. We say this is what we need, and it's totally different right now, really, to to to offer this, you know, to offer that you can.
SPEAKER_02:take a meeting and another person too and you can meet and yes and now we we are we have internet we can play video games and stream at the same time i think that's the same world you know but it's crazy because it's the same about the the um the when when internet came here you know when internet came here to bosque and and we met the the the blockchain uh was the same sensation about uh all this happening and and we in another like in another dimension you know and and and when we get this when we get this tool we start to spread you know it's like uh yeah like the forest the the seeds you spread the seeds and everything starts blooming yeah that kind of feeling i think that the the possibility now that we have with a really good internet is that the um streaming of the workflow during the residencies are awesome and it's also awesome to to show to the artists to others that it's not difficult to make a streaming that if you don't want to show your face you cannot show your you can do it without showing your face and all the different possibilities that can happen it's uh always better to try with a friend or with somebody that you you trust and uh when the artist came to the residency maybe they know us but but when they start knowing who is going to be the partners of the residency most of them know each other because we are really connected with neutral art with computer we are communities that uh work collaboratively so we share what we have to share with pass information we try to make this connection for real uh so this this feeling about oh I really want you to come and to be creating with me in this period of time in the summer they say to another artist I will go to Bosque and you should come with me because I want to share the residency with you and this year of unresidency is coming with that energy all the residencies that's happening this summer it's uh the beginning of the artist that says oh I will go and then send to another artist I will go to Bosco in January let's go on January and they make this connection for real and it's awesome to feel that that uh I don't say too much time how big is the dream of Bosque but in a moment I start feeling that the people that came here and feel for real our vibe start uh working for that dream too even without knowing which is going to be the last part of the dream you know because every day every step we can go further is awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Well people know you as hosts but you're still full-time artists for someone who has never seen your work how would you describe what you make today yeah uh it started to be difficult by uh this uh like you need to separate uh individually who is Bosque Gracias but if if we make like a you know like a world vision about Bosque Gracias I think is uh analog to digital uh music and video and papers and things from nature connected in the moment that you want to do something and you take all that things we love to work with and something news happening happening happening happening yeah and and we a lot of evolution I see you know that is something that I really love we really love from object that you have this portfolio so so well you know you have your perfect uh curated portfolio where you can see your growing as an artist and when we we we see the the the pieces and we see like I don't know the last um the last collections when Rocio was uh showing how we experiment with uh the type machine you know the type uh yeah the type machine and uh this goes to a scanner and then she starts to scanning the type machine and then I take the the all these results and put it on ai and training and AI to to say okay let's mix this with uh I don't know ASCII or something like that some language computer language like the next level of digital so this type machine that started with a type machine and then pass to a scanner and then pass to AI this have all the evolution you can see not only the last you know the last word like oh this is the work you know this is the masterpiece no this is us experimenting and this is us you will see what we you will see on our or or portfolio or profile it's us doing doing things and maybe you like maybe not but you know something is going somewhere I think that we we we as a collective too because um we are individuals and people together so when you work with others every time all time because we are never alone in a way um you start learning also who are you in that grupal thing what is that what is that you are bringing there that make this thing special what should I do to improve this thing from him that I really love or how should I ask this to him for music should I do the music and say to him to mix whatever he thinks and then I go to the render again and all that possibilities are open for us it's not that we also we always have a workflow so we start from here always and we end in there always I think that all of the series of Bosque as the core team working it's connected with these experiments about having machines that are obsolete and to take it to take them to a digital world. So we make our uh van track in the metaverse we make uh TV things on internet we digitalize analog signals and mix them with analog music and we work really hard on test tones that it's an incredible live project from Tesos and that also opens us a lot of uh workflows with others and that you need to be as much open as you can because the other needs space and if you take a lot of space from yourself the other don't have that space so sometimes um Mariano makes things uh that are from his own too and I also make things that having I I am cooking and I am always thinking on something that I am going to do and uh like he named in the generative type machine uh was a project that maybe start from one but in a moment of the road we always share that place in when we do something together maybe maybe if I'm working with gifts I don't use music but in a moment I am going to make an MP4 of that and I really want his bass mode there making the that I don't know how to do them you know why don't you know how to make the noise too yeah no no I I know I make chip tune with the pocket operator that it's broken but she's my friend I make music but uh it I want him sometimes because I don't know how to do the that's fair that's very fair yeah now you guys have said hosting residencies turned on a light you didn't realize had dimmed is there a recent piece that exists only because of something you absorbed from the residence I don't understand I didn't understand too so you say uh by hosting I mean you you get exposed like you said you've with uh testones you were exposed to different workflows you're you're learning all sorts of things that obviously sitting and creating by yourselves you would never be exposed to through hosting has it have you found yourselves is there anything that just purely exists because of your guests that you've made yeah for me a lot really yeah for me a lot because I individually I need this connection I need this speaking to others and to because I I can have it have a lot uh a lot of ideas but I need uh this group thing you know uh it's something my body needs um but I think the collaborations from the spinwell or the others because there is a lot of uh collab collapse uh this gives you a reading that maybe when you are in your home it's not the same you know because you poster gate and you you say okay I will see this tomorrow or I need uh to think more but when you only have seven days you know and you have that person there and you want to do something with with him uh yeah that's uh is is the the the power that you need to make the thing so so yeah for me that is the the the experiency I am a huge fan of uh working with uh things that I don't know because that pushed me to learn new things and I really I study a lot of careers but I only end one and I was always searching for the the uh the teacher I don't know how to say the word that I want to say in Spanish in espanholes maestro that one that uh turns a light inside of you it's not that they teach you something or to do something it's about how this enthusiasm that you have doing that makes a fire wood inside of me it's not a little light and uh I think that the art presidency brings that as a possibility to us because uh here we don't have too much uh digital artists in the Patagonian field and when we start connecting them it's awesome to meet them because they live here and we can connect but for example we learn how to make codings or we improve how to connect different TV sets thanks to other artists that came or it's not all only about the collab that we can do with something that you know and something that I know it's about how you workflow turn me a light a really powerful light to start coding not by coding coding for real every character it's like it's the the the the feeling of the onboarding you know what you you when you onboard some someone uh it is because you need that energy you you can you can watch youtube you can ask the ai but you need that human being uh aside of you to tell you how to do the things and to onboard you to something so that feeling is something that is happening all the time on the art residency with the workflow of every artist you've talked about wanting longer sessions and bringing in artists from farther away what's one thing that could make that leap possible a lot of money yeah and time yeah I don't know if it is a lot really I don't know if it is a lot but time we need time you know because these days that we share is not enough really yeah we we make everything you know and everybody goes from here super happy that is something that we love more and uh and um but I think with something like that that uh like international or or I don't know or paying someone to come here you know to pay uh we need more time and that is a lot of food and that is that is a lot of services and things that uh we need to cover you know this is a paying art residency uh that is something that we feel that is different because I don't know too much about uh how other art residencies make it but uh yeah we know that uh some art residencies they they have supported uh by governments and and this is something that we made with the artists it's itself we always say it art residences are organized by the art residents because when they start wishing come here uh then we start to produce together you know it's like uh to invite others or to or to uh uh yeah or to make impossible you know we we have everything we have the tools and we have uh uh the way to do it but it is uh uh yeah it's beautiful to see that it's collaborative too you know the production right now for example sorry right now for example uh we have uh like a program for those that came here uh to the art residency one time two times and now they can visit us as a photographer or or as a community manager for saying in in a way you know uh some people that can record what we are doing on the art residency and this is something special for those that came here um and also we start uh taking the experience of past editions and for example for this role that Mariano was naming we uh hired a photographer that is from here she's an incredible photographer but she never entered to work full on Tesos she we talked to him we onboard her she mint but she's not working every day on Tesos you know and it's the different profile so uh for these editions of summer we have uh um money to make a support to the residency so we decide instead of making one really good big residency that maybe the artist can have the opportunity of come with and paying because we get the money from somewhere for example one time happened with Thesos Commons or it could happen that somebody bigger than one people collecting one NFT want to support us.
SPEAKER_02:So we save that money to make a projection for the next year and what's going to happen. So this year we are going to receive this artist that came came from another edition that is not a community manager role it's a vision that you already have been in this experience and also they can tell the story from a sensitive part from a real and human nature connected with what's happening every day and it's a role in production because we know every day what's going to happen and I need you awake about what's going to happen and you already work with me. So you know when I say awake what is awake and that workflow makes everything fluent and also it's a possibility because all the artists that came to Bosque want to come back and not all of them have the opportunities there are a lot of artists that already came to or for example oh this is the third presidency she came so she has been here once a year she's like a sister of Bosque one of the trees of here is her so this opportunity also helps this artist to come and support this role that it's really important to cover because it's the one that shows what is happening that make the meaning of what we are minting. It's not something minor it's really important that they understand who are talking to and they know who are the the family in Tesos they know who are the collectors because I already said these people collect and they know who are the artists that are really supporting and interacting and that's really important and to work with others with this confident for us is huge. It's like nowhere to understand how valuable valioso in espanol is to to work with others that already understand you because there are a lot of things that I don't have to say. Yeah we look each other and we understand and we only have seven days so that's the workflow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah I wanted to say that you know it's it is part of the team someone that came to their presidency it is part of the team or it is part of the production too yeah it's trust trustable you know it's it's blockchain too it's like an attitude of blockchain that's why blockchain uh was super important for us because uh it's like the model that makes this uh possible what's one thing that people always bring to the residency that they absolutely do not need too many clothes yes uh sometimes a bit of anxiety yeah or time you know people people forget time when they come here is like you forget the time and you enjoy the moment yeah and and the things of the city because when you came here you you don't have the things of the city really you you cannot go to a place to buy something forget it.
SPEAKER_02:There is an opportunity don't say this like this because he's not going to come he will be afraid but I say it's it's
SPEAKER_01:We have an example. One of the first art residences, a beatmaker came here, and uh and he was a really you know a really city person. Uh he always goes out from the house. That's in it's an attitude that is different from rural areas to cities. That in rural areas you are always in your house, in your home, and on the city you are always out because yeah, you only go to sleep. And uh he was always out and buying uh like candies, something to eat, you know, sugar. And here is not possible. And and he started to eat fruits uh from the trees, you know, the cherries, and every day was like he was always on the tree up there eating cherries, and was like, uh, I feel that I don't need any more the candies, you know. It's simple, but it's an example of something changing on you.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Mariano Rossio, this has been a great conversation. Hearing how the residency has grown, how the land really shapes the work, and how each group brings something new to Bosque gives us a great picture of what you're building there. Thank you for taking the time to share everything that's been happening this past year. I'm looking forward to the next season and to seeing the work that comes out of it. For anyone listening who wants to keep up with what Bosque is doing, follow the residency announcements and the collections that come from each session. Mariano, Rossio, thank you again for joining us today.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you, Blanc. It's a pleasure to see you.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, it's a really good uh moment to speak with you in a present way to have this meeting. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Appreciate you both. Thanks again.
