SPACE FOR NATURE

In September 2023, we participated as performer and choreographer in the international residency Space for Nature during its first Artistic Residency at Casa Algaia (Aguarón, Spain), in the form of an Erasmus+ Training Course. There, we had the opportunity to connect and share the creative process with twenty international artists from Turkey, Romania, Poland, the USA, France, and Spain.

Several collaborative performance pieces emerged from this residency:

BACANAS, HIJAS DE PARRA
The Recovery of a Fertility Rite

Direction & Concept: Lucía Callén (Lucía Sombras)
Performance: Lucía Callén & Teresa Martí (Viola)
Video: Ainara García
Photos: Georgiana Vlahbei (GCV)

Spain, Romania

Cariñena, the land that gives its name to a grape, stands out for its abundance of vineyards which, as in most wine estates, are perfectly ordered along extensive roads. Yet, grapes and wine are symbols of abundance, frenzy, and wildness.

When observing this space—transformed over centuries by human hands—we cannot help but wonder what these vineyards were like in their wild state, what this landscape looked like before Roman exploitation, what the wine-related rituals were like in earlier civilizations, even before the emergence of Dionysus or Bacchus, when women were still the owners of their fertility and sexuality, and the discovery of pleasure was not subject to the will of a god, but to the unveiling of a mystery within their own bodies in connection with Nature.

Bacanas, Hijas de Parra seeks to reclaim the vineyards as a sacred space for women, where they can celebrate their own initiatory mysteries in the pursuit of pleasure.

 

LOST IN THE LANDFIELD

Spontaneous performance during the intervention at the Aguarón landfill.

 

 

AFTER DEMETER

In the Name of a River

Concept proposed by: Plastic Art Performance Collective
Performers/Creators: Alina Tofan; Lucía Callén; Teresa Martí; Porter Ellerman (musical performance); Georgiana Vlahbei (scenography)

Romania, Spain, Netherlands/United States

When a river dries up, an entire universe comes to an end.
The intricate connections of the ecosystem are interrupted and slowly dismantled once the primary element of life disappears.

The Myth:
When Demeter learns of Persephone’s abduction by Hades, she becomes furious and cries endlessly. To punish the gods and to suffer, she decides to abandon her duties as the goddess of harvest and fertility, with devastating consequences. The earth begins to dry up, crops fail, plants lose their fertility, and animals die from lack of food. As a result, the lands and people suffer from droughts and famines.

Our Research:
What are the last words of a river?
What comes after the drought?

“After Demeter” follows a symbolic journey of mourning for a dried-up river and the lost world that went with it.
It is a search that is both geographical and temporal:
First, an exploration of the empty riverbed, working in the absence of water.
Second, an inquiry into what comes next in the timeline of our current climate crisis.