Raquis, 2021. © Kommúnik - Estudio de creación audiovisual.
OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN 'ENCLAVE LAND ART ARTISTIC RESIDENCY 2022’
Vall de Gallinera, Alicante. Spain
Until September 15, 2022
By Studio Mónica Iglesias
ENCLAVE LAND ART is a project coproduced by Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana through a program of residencies Cultura Resident, with the support of the Vall de Gallinera council (Alicante, Spain). We are glad to announce the open call for the Fourth Edition of the Enclave Land Art Residency.
Submissions should focus on the dialogue between human beings and nature so as to create an artistic Land Art itinerary in the area.
We will select seven projects from different artistic disciplines that will be developed and produced in the natural environment during the two weeks of the Art Residency, sharing experiences, ideas and a common goal.
All projects must take into consideration people's interest in contemporary arts, aiming to give greater value to the area of Vall de Gallinera, promoting a deep and permanent conscience about the historical, cultural and traditional aspects of the territory through a dialogue between art and nature.
Cantar a la montaña de Antes todo esto era campo, 2021. © Kommúnik - Estudio de creación audiovisual.
CONCEPT
Enclave Land Art 2022 invites artists to reflect on how the Sun, ever-present in Vall de Gallinera, is influencing and shaping its surroundings, and on how this impacts on nature, animals and humans.
The Sun's influence is mirrored by a natural separation of the valley itself in two segments: the Solana (permanently sunny side) and the Ombría (shady side). The human distribution within the villages is equally affected, all being located on the southern side of the Gallinera river, the backbone along which the water flows constantly, despite its appearance and disappearance.
The Solana, mainly shrubland, thinly vegetated and strongly sun-exposed, has very high temperatures during the summers. Decades back, this favoured transhumance and livestock transport, as well as the construction of farmyards - although abandoned today, they still stand as a fine expression of the dry-stone construction, typical of the region, and have now become a building heritage of the area. The Ombría, the shaded area, is characterised by thicker vegetation and colourful terraces stretching across the whole rhombus-shaped valley. Alongside this anthropic-natural link with the land/sun, a distinctive element, la foradà, originated thanks to the particular orography and an imaginative play of nature.
The natural arch in the rock is a coup du théâtre. The Sun wants to wink and sneak into the shadow. It is an unexpected spot that offers the Sun the chance to participate twice a year in this unattainable place. In the 17th century, some Franciscan monks interpreted this as a divine sign and built a monastery in its honour. The solar alignment reached notoriety and it was reinforced by this building. However, this was lost and forgotten until the beginning of this century.
As José Lull wrote in 2008 in La alineación solar de la foradà en la Vall de Gallinera, nowadays the monastery does not exist anymore. All the traces of its presence were cancelled, even from the collective memory of the valley. Only a vague memory has been heard about its existence before. Even the solar alignment through la foradà was lost. No alignment, no franciscans, no monastery. Everything forgotten, buried forever. However, in recent years, the alignment of the Sun has made a comeback, and the legend of the monastery it illuminated has become part of territorial history and a rescue of historical memory.
In this fourth edition of the Enclave Land Art Residency, we invite artists to reflect upon the presence of the Sun and how it affected, is affecting and will affect human nature. The existence of a dialogue with Mother Earth has always been a constant. We can only understand Nature's signs and thus benefit from them if we are willing to look at them closely and from a variety of different perspectives.
OPEN CALL 2022
Enclave Land Art is a project coproduced by Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana through the program of residencies Cultura Resident.
With the support also of:
Creaturisme Comunitat Valenciana
Ajuntament Vall de Gallinera (Alicante, SPAIN)