blanca arrieta
Photography: Blanca Arrieta | Illustration: Leire Llano
Photography: Juan Félix Ruiz | Illustration: Robert Jackson
UNSEEN LANDSCAPES (Still and moving) is an ongoing artistic project devised in one of the frameworks (“Artistic interventions in non-conventional contexts”) of the European program TrainArt 2019-22, with the mediation of Haceria Arteak (Bilbao).
The main objective is to link dance with other non-performing art forms. On this occasion, we associate dance to photography and illustration. To this end, we search for inspiration in the context of Industrial Heritage of the Basque Country, in its architecture. These beautiful architectural structures, or what remains of them, preserve the character and visual force, the mystery and the evidence of a past. It is in the act of re-imagining these places where we find the artistic possibilities.
We also propose a study on the corporeal and poetic image, with the body, space and movement as the backbones of the proposal. The aim is to lead us into different imaginary and poetic states, using metaphors generated by the interaction between the body, the building and the landscape.
The creative process will continue throughout 2023 and the beginning of 2024 with dancers-performers Laura Cobo, Robert Jackson and Oihana Vesga, actor Gabriel Ocina, photographer Juan Félix Ruiz, visual artist Leire Llano, light designer Borja Ruiz and KLEM Laboratory of Electroacoustic Music.
Photography: Blanca Arrieta | Illustration: Leire Llano
Gallery - Study images
Ajuria and Urigoitia industrial site in Araia, Álava
A reflection on the overlapping concepts of landscape-place-body-space.
We explore both the stillness and the movement that coexist in the captured image of a body, an object, elements of nature or a unique perspective of the space.
How the place merges with the environment, how it stands, how it separates from the surrounding nature. It is about materialising these sensations and making them tangible.
A space is a body, and a body is space. In this reciprocity, dimensions or elements such as mass, scale, weight, matter, structure and volume can be explored and brought into the artistic dialogue.
An exercise of abstraction. The observation of the place (body-landscape) and its surroundings.
Photography: Blanca Arrieta | Drawings: Robert Jackson
The project begun in August 2022, at the Ajuria and Urigoitia industrial environment in Araia, Álava, and is being developed as two complementary lines of work: one is study and experimentation; and the other the creation-production of choreographic, visual (photography, illustration, video) and sound materials. All the stages of the creation process link and feed each other.
The project will continue in 2023-24 with the last phase being the creation of a dance work, inspired by the reflection, exploration and all the artistic work generated during the development of the previous stages.
Additionally, the artistic materials created will enable the devising and realisation of an hybrid installation. A journey through a choreography of images (still and moving), which will encourage reflection on the overlapping concepts of "landscape".
Landscape - Place - Space - Body
Gravity
Distance
Weight
Touch
Dantzalabea residency- Barakaldo Theatre
7-12/11/2022
(First physical research week)
Photography: Juan Félix Ruiz
Proximity
Action
Observation
Interruption
Multiplicity
Projection
Periphery
Horizontality
Verticality
Focus
Ajuria and Urigoitia industrial site in Araia, Álava
Photography: Juan Félix Ruiz
Structure
Armature
Skeleton
Organic
(matter)
Inorganic
(matter)
Membrane
Layer
Skin
BONES
Poetry
Elasticity
Movement
Curvature
Transition
Degree
Texture
Density
BONES
Light
Colour
Depth
Tactile quality
Perception
Frontage
Density
Frame
Interiority
Intimacy
Distance
Momentum
Axis
Fall
(mysterious)
Chronology
Disorder
Stillness
Asymmetry
Inertia
Plane
Geometry
Dimension
Imbalance
Delay
Slope
Volume
Density
Scale
Surface
Gap
Silence
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Interior
Exterior
Rest
Movement
Curvature
Change
Rhythm
Alternation
Interchange
Continuity
Momentum
Tilt
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
(right)
Angle
Intersection
Assembly
(body)
Mass
(spacial)
Arrangement
Form
Weight
Resonance
Variation
Dantzalabea residency- Barakaldo Theatre
6-10/02/2023
(Second physical research week)
Photography: Juan Félix Ruiz
Variation
Balance
Speed
Play
Early movement studies
Dantzalabea residency - Barakaldo Theatre
6-10/02/2023
In hybrid processes work with the body is initially located in a diffuse, blurred place. The body is not "comfortable" until it finds its place or function. It needs to build relationships (of tension) with the rest of the elements in play. The body, the space and the building have common attributes that will be very useful in the course of the experimentation. The most obvious quality which they share is that all three bend before gravity.
We search for new tools and techniques which will help us in the process of building and producing movement in this hybrid context. How to facilitate a true translation and interaction of the materials?
What we explore.
What we re-interpret.
What we construct (re-construct).
Where does movement start?
What is its function?
How is it organised?
What relationships does it generate?
How should we organize dance, and what can dance become?
Repeat a gesture, it will resonate.
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We articulate spaces, form and geometry.
We interact with the environment.
"A place. Where none. A time when try see.
Try say. How small. How vast. How if not
boundless bounded. Whence the dim."
Extract from Worstward Ho, written by Samuel Beckett.
The content and musicality of this text is used as an artistic element for reference during the creation process of the dance work.
NOTWITHSTANDING, an abstract contemporary Dance work, will be developed from this process.
"Notwithstanding" artistic team
Artistic and choreographic direction
Blanca Arrieta
Creation and performance
Laura Cobo (Dance), Robert Jackson (Dance) and Gabriel Ocina (Voice)
Light design
Borja Ruiz
Photographic report
Juan Félix Ruiz
Video editing
Leire Llano
Voice recording
Alberto de la Hoz
External partners
Hacería Arteak
TrainART
KLEM Laboratory
CDART
Dantzalabea
Subsidised by
Cultural and Linguistic Policy Department of the Basque Government
