Being Land? 2023

Being Land?

Installation and immersive art experience, 2023, Pela Terra Gathering (Idanha-a-Vida)

Being Land? / Ser Terra? is a participatory artistic experience and trail, which was commissioned by Pela Terra – gathering for art and ecology embedded into a regenerative project Idanha-a-Vida at Idanha-a-Velha, Portugal.

Resulting from a year-long art residency alongside a group of artists and the local community, the trail emerged through walking and listening to the land, but also through interactions with the local community, hearing about their cultural practices, stories and their dreams about the future.

The artist offered a contemplative walk of art and poetry following the natural landmarks, an installation in the land and a participatory ceremony. All the poetry is written from the perspective and in the voice of the land, posting a series of questions to the participants. These questions are written with calligraphy on the flags which are installed on the trail alongside other artists’ interventions.

The project brings the participants to face questions concerned with ecology, our role in the time of the earth, our relationship with the wilderness, and our understanding of intelligence and sentience of the land and her beings – through poetry, land art and walking art.

When participants walk the land they are faced with these questions:

Where do you end? Where do I begin?

How do you measure life?

When is my time? (reading TEMPO on the large flag)

Where is my wilderness? and What is your medicine?