In the 5th edition of the BoCA Bienal, the cycle of performances in natural spaces “I want to see my mountains” returns with three performances by artists Gemma Luz Bosch, Isabel Cordovil, and Janet Novás who revisit Beuys’ legacy. Between Lisbon and Madrid, their new creations create new links between art, ecology and imagination.
Fascinated by the sonic textures that clay can generate, Gemma Luz Bosch creates ceramic instruments that transform matter into music. In this performance, the artist takes the audience on an intimate journey, where each vibration awakens listening and invites you to land in a natural space in the heart of the city. A sensory encounter that fuses craftsmanship, sound and landscape, revealing the poetry hidden in the molded earth.
Biography
In order to perceive sound, you need a source that makes the air vibrate and someone to capture those vibrations. Gemma Luz Bosch’s work seeks to give form to this movement since, for her, “sound is movement”. In 2019, the artist began a meditation with clay, creating small pieces every day, smaller than her hand, in silence and without distractions. One day she thought: “this could make sound”. Since then, she has explored the sound possibilities of clay and ceramics, fascinated by the infinite textures that this natural material can generate, creating instruments and installations. Physically sharing the work is essential in her practice: the vibrations produced by the pieces reach the audience directly. Many of her performances take place outdoors, inspired by and built with the place. The sounds created - from clay, water, air, musicians or mechanisms - are not the focus, but an invitation to open one’s ears to everything that already resonates around.
About the cycle “I want to see my mountains”
In 2021, on Joseph Beuys’ centenary, BoCA inaugurated the project “The Defense of Nature”, a ten-year proposal based on the action 7,000 Oaks to think about ecology as an artistic and collective gesture. Inclusive and participatory, the project invites citizens to plant trees and name them, in a practice that extends Beuys’ idea that “we can all be artists”. This initial gesture is followed by the creation of performances, meetings and debates, combining artistic programming with the creation of natural spaces. It was in this context that the “I Want to See My Mountains” cycle was born, curated by Delfim Sardo and Sílvia Gomes. Artists such as Sara Bichão, Diana Policarpo, Dayana Lucas, Gustavo Sumpta, Gustavo Ciríaco, Musa paradisiaca and the Berru collective created interventions in the natural landscapes of Lisbon, Almada and Faro.