The Walking Society Magazine
Quarantine Events

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Meet the team behind this left-field creative project that imposes isolation and a digital detox.

'Quarantine' is not for the faint-hearted. The brainchild of Carles Gomila, Joan Taltavull, Itziar Lecea, and Darren Green whisks artists away by boat to the Illa de Llatzeret off the coast of Maó. This islet was once part of a peninsula until the adjoining strip of land was destroyed to ensure absolute isolation for those suspected of carrying contagious diseases in the 18th and 19th centuries, an estimated 400,000 people. The Llatzeret in question was a sanitary prison. Now it is the site for an unusual art experience that Carles, the creator and director, describes as "purgatory".

'Quarantine' is not for the faint-hearted. The brainchild of Carles Gomila, Joan Taltavull, Itziar Lecea, and Darren Green whisks artists away by boat to the Illa de Llatzeret off the coast of Maó. This islet was once part of a peninsula until the adjoining strip of land was destroyed to ensure absolute isolation for those suspected of carrying contagious diseases in the 18th and 19th centuries, an estimated 400,000 people. The Llatzeret in question was a sanitary prison. Now it is the site for an unusual art experience that Carles, the creator and director, describes as "purgatory".

For the first edition in 2023, artists were chosen through a rigorous selection process to make sure people could handle being cut off from life and worse, their cell phones. The results have been enlightening, encouraging liberation, human connection, and originality, thanks to the lack of outside influence.


The end of the residency is the real test, when all artworks are burned.

Omar Sosa

Bettina Calderazzo
and Matt Weston