Invocations (Act I) 

Forum and Crypt (Capella MACBA). Free entry on a first come first served basis. *

*This work is a meeting-installation with Chaveli Sifre, of about 10-15 min duration. Admission will be on a first-come, first-served basis until 18:30. Small groups og 3-5 people. Registration will be in the reception area of the Capella from 5pm.

Agua de Fuego (Fire Water) explores two versions of a single ritual and connects them through a process of distillation, an extraction of matter, a metamorphosis. The night-time celebrations of San Juan (Midsummer) result from syncretism, epitomising the way in which traditions transform over time, settling multiple meanings within them. We will approach these ancestral rituals through a steam distillation of ashes collected from the bonfires of San Juan and mixed with sea water. The underground crypt of the Convent dels Àngels becomes the stage for this transformation.

The work brings together two traditions of the night of San Juan: Mediterranean bonfires (a form of sun worship) and ritual bathing in the sea, which is common in Puerto Rico on the same date. Distilling the ashes with seawater produces an aroma that condenses both practices. The ashes, as remnants of combustion, are evidence of the transformation of matter. They act as fertilisers enabling the cyclical regeneration of nature. Seawater, the origin of life, evokes purification, but also the passage between territories. Through distillation, we will extract a perfume that synthesises two opposing elements (water and fire), revealing its symbolic strength. 

Gothic Room. Free entry with prior registration. 

Blob is faced with an enigma. The enigma of how, from the encounter of two things, a third element, a third dimension, something that was not previously there, appears in an unintentional, unforeseen way. And when it emerges, it transforms what was already there, thereby producing a displacement, a process of dis-identification, a collision with the undefined. Blob is an entity still to be defined, a cyborg, a mutant cell, something that is constantly changing. In this constant transformation, Blob proposes the incapacity to name what is seen. 

Blob was created within María Jerez’s project WHAT IS THIRD. This project shared time and space with Arantxa Martínez, Alejandra Pombo, Marten Spangberg, Edurne Rubio, Peio Aguirre, Vedrana Klepica, Anto Rodríguez, Mala Kline and Cuqui Jerez. 

Credits​​: A work by María Jerez. Technical assistance: Óscar Bueno. Sound: Christophe Albertijn & Maria Jerez. Co-produced by: What Is Third, La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Buda Kunstencentrum (Kortrijk), University of Zagreb-Student Centre Zagreb-Culture of Change & TD Theatre. With support from: TanzFabrik (Berlín). 

Project funded by Apap – Performing Europe project with the support of ‘Creative Europe’ – European Union Programme ‘Culture 2007-2013’. 

Capella. Free entry with prior registration.

Electroacoustic composer Maria W Horn presents a multichannel audiovisual installation and live performance originally created for the Luleå Biennial, an international taking place in Norrbotten, the northernmost region in Sweden. Den Vita Duvans Lament combines light and electronic sounds with a recorded vocal cycle, which was specifically composed for the panoptic prison Vita Duvan (The White Dove) in Luleå. 

How is a consciousness affected by the sensory deprivation that an isolation cell entails? In her work, Maria has tried to imagine the experience of an individual prisoner in total isolation. The silence and uncertainty, the ​​scarce space whose only indication of the passage of time is the cycles of daylight. 

The song cycle is composed based on the individual voices of the inmates, represented by loudspeakers placed across the venue. Together, they form a slowly evolving melodic weave. Each of the voices strives for a common experience but is hindered by the forced isolation of the prison architecture. The glowing red and white light is reminiscent of the circadian cycle.