“Silbo:
El sonido que se hace con la boca, o el que de algún pájaro. También es el ruido que hace el ayre.”

“Whistle:
The sound made with the mouth, or that which is made by some bird. It is also the sound made by the air.”

Original dictionary entry for "Silbo" found in Sebastián de Covarrubias' Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (1611), the first comprehensive Spanish dictionary.

Hello

We’re Eyal and Tomer, the founders of SILBOS, a non-profit cultural association based in Spain, and we’re working on an experiment: a rural studio retreat designed for artists, researchers, and creative adventurers seeking space to explore and practice in solitude and in wilderness.

Background

Silbos began from our own search, inspired by the age-old tradition of hermits: withdrawing from the world to find what could never emerge in the tumult of society. We (like pretty much everyone these days…) felt a need to step away from the energy-consuming vortex of capitalized society and the attention economy, and instead make space for another type of noise: one that occurs when you let a landscape shape the perception of your reality. It started from our fascination with the ancient sense of “contemplation”—not only as in dwelling on the object of awareness, but a defined piece of land—templum—set apart for a ceremonial act of attentive observation, reflection, and transformation.

Process

Our search for stillness in the Iberian Peninsula led us to a land deep in the Ports de Beseit Natural Park, on the juncture between Catalunya and Aragon (3 hours drive from Barcelona). There, the terrain is wild and raw. It’s a place where you feel the forces nature at work: the rugged mountains and dark pine woods aren’t only scenery—they demand your attention, and you feel yourself constantly tested by the silence. The land is surrounded by gurgling rivers who twist between the cliffs, carving tolls (as they’re called in Xapurriau, the local variety of Catalan) or pozas (in Spanish)—crystal clear pools hidden in the rocks. It is criss-crossed by estrets (in Xapurriau) or barrancos (in Spanish)—ravines hewn into the valleys, sounding their gales with the rustle of juncars/juncales, the humid reedlands. And this is just a snippet of this place’s modes of being, with its multitude of species, plants, people, legends, and oddities: we’re learning from and about them every day, and often we’re caught totally unprepared…

Location

The project is possible thanks to a generous partnership through which we received a 16-hectare rural estate in an area called Barrancos, on the old dirt road between Beceite and Arnes. In it, there’s a little abandoned masia—a stone farmhouse that bears the historical name Mas de Cocoti. It has an old olive and almond plantation, and mostly pine and oak forest. It’s remote and off the grid, disconnected from networks, and the plan is for Silbos to be fully self-sustainable. Our vision is to renovate the house and build a refugio, with a studio designed for the bare essentials: shelter, tools, and whatever the surroundings bring.

For whom

Silbos is for artists, composers, writers, filmmakers, researchers, and anyone who, like us, wants to experience what happens when you strip away everything but the work and the land, to swim in the confluence zone between rigorous practice and radical presence, where, hopefully, we may strip away ourselves in the process, giving rise to something else. As we see it, you come to Silbos to dive deeper into something; because the forest, crickets, clouds, and rock faces have more to tell you than the usual creative networks or the pressing deadlines, because you seek to escape in order to confront what's outside, what’s more than human. You come to let the landscape affect, challenge, and change your practice.

Join us

We are at the very first moment of this project’s life. All of these directions are open, waiting to take shape. We’re building it step by step, in the land’s own unexpected schedules. And we’re looking for companions! If any of these ideas resonate with you, please get involved:

Sign up for our mailing list:

STAY CONNECTED

Receive updates on the project’s evolution and new developments.

Join the association:

BECOME A MEMBER

Help shape our direction from within and take part in collective decisions.

Support the project:

SUPPORT

Donations help us build the essential off-grid facilities, develop programs, and invite artists to explore new approaches to radical creation in the rural environment.

Contact

silbos.es@gmail.com

Reach out directly if you want to collaborate, visit, work with us, or learn more.

About us:

Eyal Lally Bitton

Tomer Damsky

View of the northern side of the property.

Peñagalera, the rock pinnacle hovering above our heads.

Punta del Carrascal, bordering the property.

The wedding cake

View of the farm from above. Pines, oaks, olives and almonds.

Mas de Cocoti

Ground floor

First floor

The historic well (still has water)

The area

About the association

Silbos is a non-profit cultural association based in Spain, working between Barcelona and a remote piece of land in Teruel, Aragon. Its current main project springs from this rural site, where an old stone masia and surrounding forest are slowly being transformed into an off‑grid refuge and multi-purpose studio, exploring the relationship between wild landscape and contemporary culture through long-term artistic and research practices.

The association’s interest fields span sound art and sound studies, audiovisual work, artistic and practice-based research, ecology, mystical practices and literatures, underground and collective art, and other non‑institutional forms of making and thinking.

Around the project in Teruel, Silbos develops collaborations that range from DIY and traditional construction and land care (permaculture, rewilding, cultivation) to programs with local communities. Alongside this project, Silbos also initiates and joins activities, collaborations, and research processes at national and international levels: performances, listening sessions, workshops, publications, and collective experiments that extend the questions raised by the land into other contexts. Together, these strands form an evolving platform for working with sound, attention, and ecology across places and scales.