Residency snippets – Ena Jurov
As part of the Solitude Exchange Network 2026 artist-in-residence program, illustrator, comics author, and visual communication designer Ena Jurov will be in Stuttgart from September to the end of November 2026.
After more than a month of stay at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, the artist conveys the experience of the residence to us through personal impressions, photographs and one illustration.
I came to Solitude castle with the intention of working on a new comic. I arrived in September, during the second summer, and for the first month I didn't feel like drawing, so I spent most of my time in the forest.
Life at the estate is pleasant. My day begins at dawn, which arrives later here than in Zagreb, around 7:45. After a quick yoga session and breakfast, it’s time for a morning walk. I spend at least two hours a day, often more, walking through the woods. In the forest, I’ve seen squirrels, a woodpecker, a deer, a dead mole, small frogs, a pheasant, ducks, wild boars, sheep and horses. The horses are retired police horses. In the yard, we have a garden where chard grows.
The food in the canteen isn't exactly the best, so we manage as well as we can. I pick blackberries and gather wild apples in the forest and then I make jam out of them.
The rains have recently begun, so I’ve started drawing, though I keep looking out the studio window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sun. Every Thursday, the castle’s administrative staff prepares cakes and coffee for us, which, if it’s sunny, we enjoy out in the courtyard.
When I talk to my dad on the phone, he tells me it sounds like I’m in a sanatorium.
The residency has created the time for me to open new chapters in my work, to pursue what I had envisioned, but also to develop something entirely new, for now only on paper and in the form of sketches.
What surprised me most were the technical working conditions provided by Solitude; in the Croatian context, this feels like something straight out of science fiction.
However, what I certainly didn’t expect was how difficult it would be to say goodbye to dear people who have concluded their stay here.
My favorite spaces are Studio 15, a workshop for "messy" work, Herman’s Library and the forest surrounding us.
Akademie Schloss Solitude is an international residency program that has supported around 1,700 young artists from more than 120 countries since its establishment in 1990. It creates a closely-knit, global and transdisciplinary network of Solitude alumni that expands year after year.
Solitude Exchange Network is a new name of the Eastern European Network that the Akademie Schloss Solitude began to develop in 2002, in which Croatia has participated through the partnership with Pogon since 2009. Candidates who earn a residency in Stuttgart are selected through a public call once a year. The Residency Council established by Pogon selects three shortlisted candidates on the basis of submitted applications. The final selection is done by the Akademie Schloss Solitude, and 2026 fellow is Ena Jurov.
