
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 y Oihana Vesga, 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.


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 will be presented at Barakaldo Theatre (Bizkaia) on the 16th of May 2024.