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UNSEEN LANDSCAPES (Still and moving)

 

(work in progress)

 

SENSITIVE LANDSCAPES. MOVING SPACE.  SENSE OF PLACE

 

An exploration of movement outside conventional dance frameworks, incorporating industrial architecture, photography, illustration, sound and video.

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

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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.​

  On. Say on. Be said on. Somehow on.

Till nohow on. Said nohow on.

  Say for be said. Misssaid. From now say for

be misssaid.

 

  Say a body. Where none. No mind. Where

none. That at least. A place. Where none.

For the body. To be in. Move in. Out of. Back

into. No. No out. No back. Only in. Stay in.

On in. Still.

  All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried.

Ever failed. No matter. Try again.

Fail again. Fail better.

  First the body. No. First the place. No.

First both. Now either. Now the other. Sick of

the either try the other. Sick of it back sick

of the either. So on. Somehow on. Till sick of

both. Throw up and go. Where neither. Till

sick of there. Throw up and back. The body

again. Where none. The place again. Where

none. Try again. Fail again. Better again.

Or better worse. Fail worse again. Still worse

again. Till sick for good. Throw up for good.

Go for good. Where neither for good.

Good and all.

  It stands. What? Yes. Say it stands. Had to

up in the end and stand. Say bones. No bones

but say bones. Say ground. No ground buy say

ground. So as to say pain. No mind and pain?

Say yes that the bones may pain till no choice

but stand. Somehow up and stand. Or better

worse remains. Say remains of mind where

none to permit of pain. Pain of bones till no

choice but up and stand. Somehow up.

Somehow stand. Remains of mind where none

for the sake of pain. Here of bones. Other

examples if needs must. Of pain. Relief from.

Change of.

  All of old. Nothing else ever. But never

so failed. Worse failed. With care never worse

failed.

  Dim light source unknown. Know minimum.

Know nothing no. Too much to hope.

At most mere minimum. Meremost minimum.

  No choice but stand. Somehow up and

stand. Somehow stand. That or groan.

The groan so long on its way. No. No groan.

Simply pain. Simply up. A time when try how.

Try see. Try say. How first it lay. Then somehow

knelt. Bit by bit. Then on from there.

Bit by bit. Till up at last. Not now. Fail better

worse now.

  Another. Say another.Head sunk on crippled

hands. Vertex vertical. Eyes clenched.

Seat of all. Germ of all.

  No future in this. Alas yes.

 

  It stands. See in the dim void how at last

it stands. In the dim light source unknown.

Before the downcast eyes. Clenched eyes.

Staring eyes. Clenched staring eyes.

 

  That shade. Once lying. Now standing.

That a body? Yes. Say that a body. Somehow

standing. In the dim voice.

 

  A place. Where none. A time when try see.

Try say. How small. How vast. How if not

boundless bounded. Whence the dim. Not

now. Know better now. Unknow better now. 

Know only no out of. No knowing how know

only no out of. Into only. Hence another.

Another place where none. Whither once

whence no return. No. No place but the one.

None but the one where none. Whence never

once in. Somehow in. Beyondless. Thenceless

there. Thitherless there. Thenceless thitherless

there.

 

  Where then but there see...

  See for be seen. Misseen. From now see for

be misseen.

  Where then but there see now...

  First back turned the shade stand.

In the dim void see first back turned the

shade astand. Still.

...

Initial fragment of Worstward Ho written by Samuel Beckett.

The Dance creation developed from this process is entitled "Notwithstanding" and will be presented at Barakaldo Theatre (Bizkaia) on the 16th of May 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Notwithstanding" artistic team

Artistic and choreographic direction

Blanca Arrieta
Creation and performance

Laura Cobo (Danza), Robert Jackson (Danza) and Gabriel Ocina (Voz)

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

 

Subsidized by

Cultural and Linguistic Policy Department of the Basque Government

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