BÒLIT - LA RAMBLA / DADESPAIRambla de la Llibertat 1, 17004 Girona

BÒLIT - SANT NICOLAUPlaça de Sta. Llúcia 1, 17007 Girona

Monday closed | Tuesday: 6pm – 9pm Wednesday – Sunday and bank holidays: 12noon – 2pm, 6pm – 9pm

07.05.2010 - 29.08.2010BÒLIT - LA RAMBLA / DADESPAI

Rambla de la Llibertat 1, 17004 Girona

06.05.2010, 7.30pm{opening}

10.06.2010 7.30pm{opening}

11.06.2010 - 29.08.2010BÒLIT - SANT NICOLAU

Plaça de Sta. Llúcia 1, 17007 Girona

Landsc pe

An enormous steamboat making a laborious ascent up a steep mountain, in the heart of the Amazon jungle: the image is a metaphor of the oxymoron landscape, and evokes the synthesis of the notions of construction and destruc-tion inherent in the very concept of landscape. The scene comes from Werner Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo, in which an eccentric character wants, come what may, to fulfil his dream of building an opera house deep in the jungle, for the pleasure of hearing the voice of the mythical Caruso in that place. To achieve this, the steamboat has to be transported over the impenetrable territory separating two rivers, in order to avoid sailing over the strong rapids of a meander. Once this has been accomplished, the challenge fails when it comes up against another dream, that of the jungle dwellers who, after lending their backbreaking labour to the endeavour, decide to deliver the steamboat to the river divinities, giving the landscape back its own image. Faced with sequences such as this, we should ask ourselves whether landscape is evoked, or discovered, or constructed; we wonder whether destruction is the common element to all this, as this ambivalence may actually be the generat-ing force behind all landscape. What is landscape, really? Does it exist on its own, in nature, or does it arise from the construct of the gaze? Does it respond merely to a vision, or should it be related to experience and emotion?To find a conclusive explanation for the notion of landscape is, like Fitzcarraldo’s dream, a task which is domed to failure, as witnessed by the endless number of studies, accounts and articles written on the subject from the Romantic Movement to the present day. Thus, while some authors, such as Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, sustain that land-scape pre-dates humanity itself 1, other authors consider that landscape is above all a mental construct which is con-ceivable only through our gaze and our account of it. Among the latter is Marc Augé, who states that “all landscape exists only for the gaze that discovers it. This requires the existence of at least one witness, one observer. Furthermore, the presence of the gaze, which produces landscape, presupposes other presences, other witnesses or other social actors. The landscapes which appear to be most natural all owe something to the hand of man, and those which appear to be completely independent of nature have all been approached, have allowed us to come near them, by a series of means of communication and technical devices which enable us to turn them into landscapes. Gaze alone does not suffice for a landscape to exist: there must also be a conscious perception, a judgement and, finally, a description. Landscape is the space that one man describes to other men. The description may aspire to objectivity or to indirect, poetic, metaphorical evocation. The power of words is necessary when he who has seen addresses those who have not seen. And for words to have the power of making others see, descriptions and translations will not suffice. On the contrary, the words must demand and arouse the imagination of the others, and liberate their ability to create their own landscape2”.We can thus consider that landscape is “told” from the narrative of he who gazes upon it. However, the neutral gaze does not exist; all narratives contain turning points, and emphasise aspects which for some reason or other stand out as image generators. Segments of the landscape described (and therefore constructed) are often part of episodes taking place, and leave perceptible traces in the description. To discover and describe the traces, one must travel through them, after which one may be able to echo the words of Claudio Magris on completing his long journey along the Danube (described in the book of the same name): “nature is everything, even that which appears to deny it”.Experience and research into spatial and phenomenological categories on the natural, urban and emotional features of landscape underpin the approach of Landscape? to aspects such as progress, identity and public space. These are dealt with at the exhibition from both affirmative and negative positions, in a discourse which explores several dif-ferent opposing possibilities. If construction and destruction are two sides of the same coin, then to what extent do they affect and relate to social, economic and political transformations concerning the landscape, and vice versa? Is landscape a fiction, or is it a

OxymoronLandscape «Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony; it is the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder»(Werner Herzog, in conversation with Les Blank, in the film Burden of Dreams)

«Through me alone rubber becomes word»(The character of Fitzcarraldo, in the film of the same name by Werner Herzog)

pretence arising from the avid need of our accelerated modern world for consumerism and spectacular sights, fostered by tourism and development? To what extent does landscape creation pertain to any given territory? Or landscape destruction?Landscape? presents proposals based on the territory, as a means of activating a learning process on these and other issues. In the same way as Herzog and Magris both responded to a need to journey through the natural landscape in order to better understand it, Nico Baumgarten (Kiel, Germany, 1981) and Alfonso Borragán (Santander, 1983) have taken the River Ter as a metaphor, as a territory from which to reflect on landscape. Following the course of the Ter from its source to its mouth, Nico Baumgarten has taken photographs of the river, setting up a dialogue with the territory. His images treasure the stories of the people and the buildings that

have crossed paths along the way, in this dynamic, constantly-changing space which moves at the pace of nature, but also at the pace of industrialisation. Workers, hunters, tramps, sportspeople, travelling salesmen and walkers, to-gether with factories, woods, vans, trailers and urban waste, all of which bring life and death, memory and identity to a space of transit. Landscapes which reflect man’s intervention over and over again, and which may also be seen as options for life on the margins of society, gestures of freedom or even of resistance. The walls of a giant dam interrupting the flow of the river at Susqueda Reservoir merge with the surrounding woods in an image that recalls a romantic landscape painting; the image evokes resistance and control of nature, and sets up bonds of complicity with another sort of resistance, those who live in transit, nomads who circulate along the river and follow its course. Thus, a Frenchman called David was able to survive his trailer being flooded by a sud-den water level rise at the mouth of the Ter when he found, among the debris along the river bank, a book signed by Picasso which he then sold to a museum; Lluís lives under a bridge which he calls home, where he tends his garden; an African called Saiku prepares to dig the soil for a vegetable garden on his allotment in Salt. Baumgarten’s gaze goes beyond anecdote or documentary; it seeks to capture the soul of the river, to shed light on the hidden layers of a social fabric that is equally rich as its surrounding territory.

These are inner landscapes, highlighted by a journey which, like the river, flows through what Augé defines as “zones of resistance to the evidence”; through what is present but not evident, detectable through its echoes of resistance, and which should be brought to the surface. “Even though our awareness of them is only ephemeral and intuitive, there are zones of resistance to the evidence in the world that surrounds us, and within each one of us. The aim of the journey, the aim of literary research, should be (and sometimes is) to explore these zones of resistance. They exist inside us and outside us; we cannot exclude the presence of bridges between this inside and this outside which should be brought to light 3”. Alfonso Borragán’s project, carried out in several different natural settings, attempts to reveal what is hidden, and to obtain images existing in the landscape from within the landscape. In the woods, making cameras with branches in order to photograph trees with their own material; on the beach, making cameras of sand, which capture a sunset as they are swallowed up by the sea; and on the

river, making cameras with clay found on its banks, and floating them on the water to collect the images “captured” by the river as it flows along its course.In the context of Landscape? exhibition, Borragán wished to share the process of his project at the Clay Cameras workshop. The group experience started out at a place where the River Ter flows underground, but where the

nico baumgarten. Lifes of a River, 2010

alfonso borrarán. No Men’s Land. Serie Apnea, 2009

boulders and pebbles on the dried-up riverbed still retain the memory of its waters. Borragán took these elements to make clay mounds in situ, thus obtaining the first cameras, receptacles that would receive the images of the water which had given them their original shape. The resulting camera obscuras were rough, fragile objects and, in order to obtain good ceramic quality for the Ter project, the artist and his group headed off to La Bisbal, centre of the local pottery industry. At one of the quarries, they experienced and participated in industrialised nature through a game, perceiving and re-understanding it through clouds of clay dust suspended in the air, weightless earth which they would later bring down to the river. At the end of the day, the clay cameras were fired in a natural kiln, while food was cooked and relationships burgeoned among the group members, and the landscape experienced during the day was recounted through the images of memory. From that point, the idea was to recover lost memory with the newly sensitised cameras, by leaving them in the river to capture images of transit. Parallel to his workshop, Borragán concentrates his creation process on producing the ceramic pieces, the ultimate alchemy of No Man’s Land, a series carried out specifically in Girona and based on the artist’s experience in the city. However, in order to view these fragments of landscape which can only be “seen” by the river from its own perspective and movement, it will be necessary to destroy the cameras, and with them, the image itself.Clara Boj and Diego Díaz (Murcia, 1975) also adopt play as a strategy, situating their field of operations in places on the urban landscape specifically designed for playing. Children’s playgrounds, those artificial enclosures contain-ing specific urban furniture, constitute the domesticated landscape where children play out their first games and, to a certain extent, their first experiences with other youngsters in the public space. Today, however, this is not the only

play environment with which they are familiar. Children become used to technology from an early age, and often find a playground in virtual spaces. The video games they carry in their pockets incorporate portable landscapes which are shared over a distance, displaced from their context, through which children experience a kind of parallel environment. With Hybrid Playground, Boj and Díaz seek a space of intersection between both these territories. With a group of children, the artists created a video game designed to be activated in playgrounds. The idea is that children can play with the device while they enjoy all the fun of tradi-tional swings and slides. The virtual landscape overlaps with the public urban landscape, creating a new, hybrid territory which is more flexible and also generates new

interactional relationships between children and their surroundings, and between children and their parents. This is an additional advantage compared to standard video games, which are usually only for individual use. On the other hand, today’s public urban space is cordoned off and designed for one specific use, which reduces the possibilities of children using their imagination. By activating Hybrid Playground, children can be taking physical exercise as they slither down a slide and at the same time using their imagination as they hunt for a treasure in a fictional ocean or soar over the clouds in an imaginary virtual world. Once again, we find ourselves on fertile territory for the creation of inner landscapes from the imagination, where a concrete, artificially designed landscape can turn into a fictional landscape or even a science-fiction landscape. The echo of Jean-Luc Godard’s oft-repeated words concerning the creation of images and the power of the imagination are still valid: “The image is a pure creation of the mind. It cannot be born from a comparison, but from two reali-ties, more or less distant, brought together. The more the relation between the two realities is distant and accurate, the stronger the image will be - the more it will possess emotional power and poetic reality”. The quotation is from Pierre Reverdy4, and situates us once again within the emotional experience and the traffic of mental images, with all their symbolic, evocative power. In a nutshell, we are dealing here with images as creators of landscape, and with landscape as a creator of images, in a circular process with no restricting or well-defined limits.Herzog claims that his recent book, Conquest of the Useless, published twenty-four years after the filming of Fitzcar-raldo, is an account of the inner landscapes that were created within him after his experiences making the film, which affected his own identity. “More than anything else, I describe inner events. I’ll say it once again: it is about the dream of a delirious man. It is a book of invented catastrophes. It is as if, during the filming of Fitzcarraldo, I had written poetry on what it is like to live in the jungle”.From a similar perspective, Pauline Oliveros (Houston, 1932) also situates herself in the space between the over-whelming power of the landscape and the construction of identity. In Dreams of the Jungfrau, an experimental film made jointly with Ione (Washington DC, 1937), we witness the creation of a captive character in an observation

clara boj & diego díaz. Hybrid Playground, 2008

point, the emblematic Hotel Regina at the foot of the famous Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks in the Swiss Alps. The icons of the overwhelmingly grandiose landscape provide the framework within which to present the story of a woman who re-lives episodes from her past behind the walls of the hotel, while she hears the voices of oracles guiding her through the rooms and the insistent presence of the views, in a constant journey between physical and psychic experience. Pauline Oliveros sustains that inner landscapes arise from experiencing and listening to one’s own body, from one’s breathing and its relationship with the environment. This in turn shapes the awareness of the character and that of her observers, bearing witness to the parameters of memory and daydreaming lurking within. Oliveros created her famous Sonic Meditations back in 1971, a sort of instruction manual for activating self-awareness through “self listening”. Sonic Meditations includes non-judgmental perception, the development of

empathy through listening, the creation of non-hierarchical social relationships in music making, the expanded use of intuitive forms of internal and external awareness, and new understandings of sensuality and the body. Sonic Medi-tations strategies for listening will be available at Landscape? under the dome of Bòlit-SantNicolau (a space with a strong religious background) for anybody wishing to experience and enjoy the EarPhone Installation in situ, a selec-tion of Oliveros’ sound work interventions in interior architectural spaces, including Deep Listening and Tara’s Room.The Manifesto against the Landscape by Lluís Sabadell i Artiga (Girona, 1974), to be published in the June issue of Bonart magazine together with replies from experts in the fields of landscaping, architecture and biology, occupies a

position which is antagonistic to, but paradoxically coin-ciding with, many of the above-mentioned considerations. In the exhibition, visitors are welcomed by a shadow projection proclaiming that “landscape does not exist”, a statement by the artist’s argument paraphrasing the biologist Paul Ehrlich: “No, landscape does not exist. It is a cultural, mental construct. It is a shadow. Landscape is an idea, which is why landscape does not exist. Out there (beyond our minds) something else exists, which is not landscape. In fact, since landscape made its appear-ance, nature started to die. Bearing in mind that nature is gradually losing ground to landscape (which does not exist), nature is dying little by little. Nature is not landscape, in the same way as landscape is not nature. Nature began to die on the first day that the sun rose and illuminated a landscape. When man perishes, landscape will perish with him, “but butterflies will continue to fly...’”. Sabadell proceeds to guide us through the exhibi-tion space with his Beauty and Shit (Butterfly Suite),

projection which shows a group of butterflies feeding on the sustenance provided by a pile of horse dung. The image is a clear allusion to the existence of landscape and to its denial, in an infinite cycle in which food and excrement, beauty and waste, are the same element because, as the artist notes, “everything is part of everything and, in actual fact, everything is everything and is nothing”. Just like the existence of the oxymoron landscape, affirmation and negation of itself within its own configuration.

rosa pera

lluis sabadell i artiga. Beauty and Shit (Butterfly Suite), 2010

pauline oliveros/ione. Dreams of the Jungfrau, 2007

–1 Nicolau M. Rubió y Tudurí: Del paraíso al jardín latino. Tusquets, Barcelona, 1981. p. 19.2 Marc Augé: El tiempo en ruinas. Gedisa, Barcelona, 2003. p. 86.3 Marc Augé: op.cit. p. 82.4 Pierre Reverdy: Escritos para una poética. Monte Ávila Editores. Caracas. pp. 25-26.

alfonso borragánSantander, 1983Lives and works in Bristol (UK)

He studied Fine Arts in Barcelona, where he began to work with light, and with photography as a way of capturing it. He tired of the alienation of technology and of cameras in particu-lar, and started to build his own devices to capture light and fix it onto images. Self-sufficiency, survival, building processes and the passing of time are possibly the most important factors in his work. Borragán has developed and shared projects on forests in Montseny Massif, the Pyrenees, Cantabria, Teide Mountain, Portugal and England, where he now lives on the banks of the River Avon. He has given classes and workshops at the Catalan Institute of Photography Studies, the University of Barcelona and the University of Cantabria, among others.

nico baumgartenKiel (Germany), 1981Lives and works in Milan (Italy)

Specialised in signature photography, his approach to photog-raphy is influenced by his background in social geography of developing countries and is mainly about contemporary social issues. Over time, Baumgarten’s photography production has evolved from social documentaries to a more subjective, evoca-tive language used for critical analysis of the contemporary world.Among his projects they stand out Sem gravedade docu-mentary, that has been the subject of several seminars at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and was shown at IDEP in Barcelona, Blocking the G8 documentary, selected for the “Tal-ent latent” exhibition and the Urban Eden series, currently being shown at the Fotosintesi 2010 International Photography Festival in Piacenza (Italy).

Further information: www.nicobaumgarten.net

clara boj & diego díazSantomera (Murcia), 1975 and Puerto Lumbreras (Murcia), 1975Both live and work in Valencia

They have been working together since the year 2000. They use concepts and tools from the fields of art, science and engineer-ing to generate interactive experiences that invite spectators to redefine their position vis-à-vis the work of art. In their works, Boj and Diaz use multimedia technologies to build new devices designed to merge digital space with physical public space and to set up continuity links between old and new forms of social interaction, between public spaces and private spheres. Their latest projects are focused on the creation of strategies which redefine the concept of public space and foster com-munity involvement with devices that are both conceptual and technological. The introduction of new digital supports for play into the public space provides the basis for some of their best-known projects. Their works, installations, videos and research projects have been presented at international festivals and exhibitions, e.g. Transmediale 2010, MobileFest 09, Nouveaux Monstres, Ars Electronica 08, Big Day Out, ISEA 06, ISEA 04 and Feedback.

Further information: www.lalalab.org

pauline oliverosHouston (Texas, USA), 1932Lives and works in New York (USA)

As a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others’ sensibilities to the many facets of sound. Since the 1960’s she has influenced American music pro-foundly. She is widely known for her accordion playing with electronics using her Expanded Instrument System (EIS). She also founded Deep Listening Institute, Ltd. in 1985 to encour-age others in the practice of deep listening for creativity and heightened awareness of sound and sounding. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros’ work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills.

Further information: www.paulineoliveros.us

ioneWashington DC (USA), 1937Lives and works in New York (USA)

Well known as an improvising spoken word performer and sound artist. A dedicated educator and counsellor who special-izes in dreams and the creative process, Ione conducts seminars and retreats throughout the world. She is the Director of the Ministry of Maåt, Inc., an organization specializing in women and community and she is the Artistic Director of Deep Listen-ing Institute, Ltd. As an author, playwright and poet her works include Pride of Family: Four Generations of American Women of Colour, NileNight, Remembered Texts from the Deep, Listening in Dreamsand This is a Dream! She is also the playwright and directorof Njinga the Queen King, Io and Her and the Trouble withHim and Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_Tunes.

Further information: www.deeplistening.org

lluís sabadell i artigaGirona, 1974Lives and works in Girona

Artist and curator specialized in art and nature, who has carried out his professional activity in many different fields: curatorship of trans-disciplinary exhibitions (El paisatgetransgredit, Paisatges invisibles/Paratges impossibles); artistic projects related to nature, landscape and environment through different media (sculpture, installation, photography, video, art in nature, performance and opera-performance); inter-national projects on dissemination and education for a new post-oil culture; collaboration with architecture studios; and his expanded workshops to generate online multidisciplinary joint creation projects (Biennial of the Canary Islands on Architecture, Art and Landscape; Farrera Art and Nature Centre; and workshops on Post-Oil Cities). Lluís Sabadell i Artiga is a regular contributor to several digital and printed communications media.

Further information: www.sabadellartiga.com

integrated activitieswork in progress | workshopClay CamerasProcess of Making Clay Photographic Cameras on the Banks of the River Ter, by Alfonso BorragánMarch - April 2010

A series of specific interventions in the territory carried out along the River Ter by Cantabrian artist Alfonso Borragán, in collaboration with Provi Casals, ceramics teacher at La Mercè Cultural Centre.From the starting point of a unique art in landscape practice based on collaboration, artist Alfonso Borragán proposes a meeting point between the human body and nature, the environment and the earth itself. In this workshop, the artist wishes to share his creative process by making photographic cameras out of materials provided by the natural environment which he photographs. This open-ended participative proposal is taking place during the months of March and April in the surroundings of the River Ter, and includes games with a series of different elements such as clay, water, stones and trees. The culminating moment comes with the building of clay cameras which are then fired in a kiln and thrown into the river to capture its images, thereby allowing the river to become its own photog-rapher. The cameras and an accompanying audiovisual docu-mentary will be shown, together with other works, at Bòlit-La Rambla and on the Bòlit blog (www.bolitgirona.blogspot.com).

activity for childrenHybrid Playground, by Clara Boj and Diego Díaz7, 8 and 9 May 2010 with the artists (07.05.10: 6pm – 8pm;08.05.10: 12noon – 2pm and 6pm – 8pm; 09.05.10: 12noon – 2pm)All Fridays until 27 August with a monitor(6pm – 8pm)Plaça Catalunya playground and Jardins de la Infància playground

Clara Boj and Diego Díaz will run an interactive workshop called Hybrid Playground in children’s playgrounds in Girona. The workshop will consist in a game session where the children will play an adapted video game while using the elements of the playground.An easy-to-install sensor system, which the children cannot see, turns playground fixtures into interactive elements that collect data which is then processed and incorporated into the dynamics of play. The idea is that children play a video game as they swing, slide and climb on playground fixtures in their customary way. The aim is to bring the experience of interactive play (usually taking place at a computer/console in the private space) into the public space.Hybrid Playground is an invitation to encourage children to play outdoors, enjoying all the benefits of fresh air, physical exercise and contact with other children.During the exhibition, the game will be made accessible to all the children in Girona in playgrounds around the city, under the supervision of a trained monitor and by reservation only.Further information: www.lalalab.org/hybrid.htm

collaboration with bonart magazineManifesto against Landscape, by Lluís Sabadell i ArtigaJune 2010

Landscape? exhibition has infiltrated into Bonart magazine with the publication of a manifesto entitled “Manifesto against Landscape” by Girona artist Lluís Sabadell i Artiga. The manifesto will be contested by specialists from the fields of landscaping, architecture and science. This derivative from the main proposal in the exhibition space is due to appear in the June issue of the magazine.Further information: www.bonart.cat

related activitiesworkshop 20th Intensive Course on Deep Listening6 – 10 July 2010 at Nau Côclea, Camallera, Girona

Deep Listening is a form of meditation based on extreme attentiveness to sound, silence, the sounds of the body and the soundscape. The courses are for people who wish to deepen their auditory awareness, following a method devised by Californian composer and accordionist Pauline Oliveros in 1991. The activities will be led by Pauline Oliveros, Ione and Heloise Gold and are designed for persons wishing to work on their auditory sensitivity and awareness: artists, musicians, teachers and anybody who is interested in creativity, well be-ing, relaxation, attentiveness, and communication with others and the environment.Further information and course enrolments: www.naucoclea.com/cat/musica-13/deep-listening

parallel activitydocumentaryVa de Bòlit, by Joanot Cortès

Right from the start, when the word “bòlit” was chosen to designate Girona’s contemporary art centre, the aim has been to work out of and for the local context. This documentary video, which links the Centre’s identity with its territory, now joins the series of artistic proposals of work in progress in the territory which have been carried out at Bòlit Contemporary Art Centre over the last two years.The idea of the video is to draw attention to the light-hearted, traditional etymology of the name of the Centre, which is linked to a traditional Girona activity. The game of bòlit (or bèlit) was very popular during the period after the Spanish Civil War and is still played in the Girona district of Sant Narcís. The bòlit world championship is an annual event held in this area.The proposal aims to highlight the memory of a game that is part of Girona’s folk tradition by creating a video capsule which will be shown on the Bòlit website (www.bolit.cat).

guided visitsFree of charge. Times by arrangement. Guided visits include a commentary on the exhibitions at Bòlit–La Rambla/Dadespai and at Bòlit–Sant Nicolau.Places by reservation only (bea@bolit.cat).

exhibition

Curator and direction of the project: Rosa Pera Graphic Design: ferranElOtro StudioPoster Ilustration: Martín VitalitiInstallation Coordinator: Xavier TorrentVigilance: Omar Al-Ajvani Vázquez, Adela García-Caamaño and Mariona TerratsGuided Visits: Beatriz García MorenoTranslations: Link traduccions

Further information and reservations:www.bolit.cat | info@bolit.catTel. (+34) 972 427 627

With additional support:

Acknowledgements:

special acknowledgements

Provi Casals, Argiles Colades S.A., ERAM, Clara Garí, Juan Herreros, MACBA, Anna Cristina Morell, Parramon Exportap S.L. and Álvaro Sau.

bòlit, centre d’art contemporani. girona

Organized and produced by: Ajuntament de Gironaand Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Culturai Mitjans de Comunicació.Director: Rosa PeraProduction: Farners CabraPress and publishing coordinator and web: Diana SansManagement: Airusa AguileraInternship: Ruben RodríguezIdentity design – Design consultant: Estudi Lamosca

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