Come and join us from the 24th - 31st of July 2026 for a transformative, artistic week around the theme of Shadow Work and Creative Rebirth with Sylvie Barbier (Ritual artist and co-founder of Life Itself) and Kay Michael (ecological artist and co-founder of Letters to the Earth), two female leaders powerfully alchemising art and eco-spirituality at the Life Itself Farmhouse Hub (Dordogne - France).
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious” - Carl Jung
What must be released for the unborn future to be born?
“Our shadows run deep, they are at the source of wars, extraction, the killing, the revenge, the manipulation, the rape, the gossip, the suicides, the bullying, the blind eye and our lack of integrity. In a globalised world that has intimately woven us together, commitment to shadow work and loving accountability is non-negotiable if we are to bring forth the transformation our current day crises require.”
from Joy and Shadow work Manifesto draft by Sylvie Barbier
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” C. Jung
During our week-long residency, we invite you to immerse yourself in the poetic and transformative terrain of shadow work, held through the vessel of ritual art. Our exploration will be an opportunity to interrogate, inform and evolve a new manifesto ‘Joy and Shadow Work’ written by Sylvie Barbier.
The journey begins from a shared recognition: both of us have been shaped by lineages and personal enquiries where the unseen, the unspoken, and the unresolved have called to be honoured and transformed. Dreams, hauntings, old patterns, and ancestral echoes are not obstacles here — they are invitations.
Join us in exploring personal and collective shadow material through guided rituals, movement, elemental practices and artistic creation. Some rituals will be intimate and simple, others will be more collective and immersive. Throughout the week you will also have the opportunity to create your own rituals, creative interventions and /or celebrations to be witnessed and experienced by the others.
The residential holds three complementary movements:
Receiving – allowing unconscious intuitions and symbolic material to surface and guide us via dreams, artistic and somatic practices
Transmuting – activating creative life force and embodied expression as a sacred way to transform and integrate what lies beneath the surface
Rejoicing - celebrating and enjoying our connection with life and with each other
Workshops
Workshops will explore the following and more:
Grief as portal: Grief is woven into the residency as a gateway to love, acceptance, and transformation — a way of honoring what has died, what is dying, and what must be let go for new life to emerge.
Sound as presence and activation: Sound and song as a way to connect, release emotion and call in energy
Movement and embodiment: Awakening our body as a canvas and vessel for animality and deep wisdom
Spoken word as an access: poetry, prayer, myth, dramatic text
Land-based ritual: tapping into ancient and ancestral memories within us and in connection with the Earth
In the midst of shadow and death, something new wants to be born. This is the art of birthing an emerging dream for our collective future. Together we are offering a place for the past, present and future to be witnessed, released and reclaimed.
The intention is not to “resolve” the shadow, but to enter into a relationship with it—to let it teach, awaken, and reshape us and give room for light to emerge.
Our work is informed by Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joanna Macy, Bill Plotkins, Francis Weller, Bayo Akomolafe, Ursula Le Guin, Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramović , Vest & Page, Butoh, Ken Wilber, Bill Viola, Mary Overlie.
This residency is for anyone who feels the quiet pull toward ritual—whether or not they call themselves an artist or walk a spiritual path. It welcomes all committed hearts from: dancers, writers, dreamers, performers, painters, musicians, makers, visual artists and those simply curious about the deeper currents within themselves. It is for those who long to step into ritual space, to listen for the ceremonies that live inside them, to awaken the oracular body, to open an energetic field together, and to train the body to become a vessel of ritual in communion with others.
Note: This is not a therapeutic retreat, although the process can be deeply therapeutic. It’s an artistic and spiritual experiment in collective ritual creation. Each participant is responsible for their own physical and mental wellbeing at all times.
Facilitators
Sylvie 'Shiwei' Barbier
Sylvie ‘Shiwei’ Barbier is a French-Taiwanese visionary artist and curator committed to create, share and support transformational art. Her work synthesizes Eastern and Western philosophies and aesthetics. Sylvie trained as a performance artist, designer, facilitator and in anthroposophy pedagogy and has lectured in leading fashion institutions such as Polimoda and IED.
Over the last two decades Sylvie has developed unique methodologies for transformational art leading rituals in galleries, public spaces, retreats, churches, natural landscape, and educational institutions such as Hardvard.
Since 2015 Sylvie has co-founded of Life Itself, a leading organization in building a Second Renaissance cultural movement dedicated to practical actions for a radically wiser, weller world.
She is the author of the Art of the Second Renaissance Manifesto and Editor of Second Renaissance Magazine.
As a mother of two Sylvie is devoted to cultivating wisdom both personally and collectively. She bridges worlds between ancestral indigenous knowledge and futurist vision.
Kay Michael
Kay Michael: is a London-based theatre-maker, ecological facilitator and creative producer. She creates and guides cultural experiences in theatres, streets, derelict sites, woodlands, galleries, festivals, and retreat centres.
Trained at Drama Centre London, Kay has developed award-winning new writing, devised performances and directed premiere productions. Since 2014 her work has centred on cultural and community responses to the planetary crisis. As a co-founder of Culture Declares Emergency she has produced Cultural Climate Assemblies for leading arts organisations including the Southbank Centre, and led festivals featuring hundreds of environmental artists.
Kay is also the Co-Founder and Executive and Creative Director of Letters to the Earth, an award-winning organisation transforming humanity's relationship with nature and the Earth crisis through outdoor immersions, creative writing, and storytelling campaigns. A facilitator of Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, Kay co-produced and curated the first Council of All Beings for global delegates at COP26.
Pricing
The residency will be intimate, with 15 residents.
The full 7-day workshop (24th-31st July) costs EUR680.
We also offer three discounted spots at EUR360 for those for whom cost is a barrier.
