The MATCH Residency at K2 Urla Breathing Zone (K2UBZ), İzmir, brought together artists Maya Aghniadis (Flugen) and Joana Amora for a period of research, fieldwork, and exchange in close relation with the local ecological and cultural context.

During her residency, Joana Amora investigated the agricultural landscape, endemic species, and food systems of the İzmir region. Through visits to local farmers and producers cultivating olive oil, grapes, artichokes, mulberries, wheat, and other products, she explored how the land is cultivated and how it nourishes communities. Her research also included encounters with local food communities, visits to bazaars, and walks in the forests around K2 Urla Breathing Zone to identify endemic and edible species. She also developed a visual inventory through filming, documenting the local ecological food ecosystem.

The work of Maya Aghniadis (Flugen) explores the tension between human speed and nature’s time through sound and image. During her stay at K2UBZ, she used a geophone to record olive trees, as well as microscope lenses and a hydrophone to reveal hidden textures and submerged soundscapes. She built a harp and created cyanotypes, while also developing Memoryscapes, a composition dedicated to buried histories and unresolved trauma. The geophone recordings were used as an act of protest and remembrance for olive groves destroyed in Southern Lebanon by Zionist occupation forces.

In her reflection, Maya Aghniadis describes the residency as a space between research and deep listening, extending into memory, loss, and responsibility. Recording 100 olive trees, building a harp, and creating cyanotypes became acts of witnessing, shaped by slowing down and sustained attention, and by encounters with people whose generosity and presence marked her experience.

For Joana Amora, the residency offered continuity to her long-term research on agroecology. Through encounters, conversations, walks, and visits across farms, food communities, ecological markets, and forests, her process unfolded without a fixed plan, allowing her to deepen her engagement with local knowledge and practices.