The pilot project for Estudio Nuboso in 2014 has been having a revival and has become my current research focus. Suelo came back to me after the pandemic and lockdown in 2020 as a powerful way to support people and communities reconnect with their surroundings and expanded networks of solidarity. So when the team behind The Shape of a Practice event for the Anthropocene Curriculum in Haus der Kulturen der Welt invited me to present a case study at their upcoming conference, it was clear that Suelo had to be my topic. Here you can read and see the materials I put together for that: Suelo, Expanded connections to soil, land, community and territory. After the experience of sharing practices with so many folks around the world, all working hard to raise awareness about the role humans play today in our society and environment, it became clear to me that I would like to create a methodology for Suelo so that others can implement it in their territories and contexts, with or without my support.
A few months later, I decided to offer the Suelo Methodolgoy to our (Estudio Nuboso) partners of the Green Art Lab Alliance . In our working group for Biodiversity and Reforestation, they all agreed that indeed soil is of the essence and this approach, a very nice way to interlace many practices and common themes. They supported me to break it up into the layers and steps necessary for others to grasp more easily. One of our partners, Fundación Mar Adentro, invitied me to write a text about my vision of Suelo and it just came out in their publication for the exhibition Expanded Nature, curated by Maya Errázuris and Carlo Rizzo. It is beautiful work! Check out the online publication here. This led to an invitation to participate on a panel discussion in the Assembly for Permacircular Museums, within the exhibition Critical Zones at ZKM, Karlsruhe.
I had been working on an image to help summarize the methodology, using a soil profile as a base. This image was proving quite useful for explaining what this methodology can achieve on various scales. So when my friend Dominique Ratton invited to make a portal (poster) for the summer exhibition Para que haya fiesta tienen que danzar el bosque, – a project curated by Michy Marxuach in collaboration with multiple transhemispheric voices, in the Espacio para las Artes de Tenerife, I submitted the following image to be riso printed and join the many other portals of eco-social solidarity in the exhibition.
In the Fall of 2021 I was one of the recipients of the Research Stipend for Curators, given by the Berliner Senate. This funding allowed me to continue to develop this methodology for three months. After that I was awarded a residency at HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts in Dresden with #TakeHeart Performing Arts Fund, within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR. With two dancer colleagues (Rosalind Masson and Moss Beynon Juckes) I had 2 months to explore the embodied aspects of the Suelo Methodology. I then received an invitation from Heizhaus in Ufer Studios to try out Suelo there, in another 30 day residence, which I am currently working on.
Entering the Spring of 2022, it is exciting to see that Suelo is starting an implementation phase through Pollinaria in Abruzzo, Italia; with Valley of the Possible in the South of Chile; and with me right here in Berlin. And early July I will be offering a workshop in an Art and Science Festival in Stiftung Kunst und Natur Nantesbuch. Stay tuned for more news as it comes along 🙂