In this 5th edition of the BoCA Biennial, the cycle returns to reaffirm its vocation of crossing geographies and practices. Isabel Cordovil, Gemma Luz Bosch and Janet Novás take on the challenge of revisiting Beuys’ legacy from their own mountains - real, symbolic or interior.

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.

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 Isabel Cordovil, Gemma Luz Bosch and Janet Nóvas who revisit Beuys’ legacy. Between Lisbon and Madrid, their new creations create new links between art, ecology and imagination.