An Ode to the Mountain (NAT Art Residence - 06/2023)

To come into direct contact with the origins.

To explore the bowels of a mountain.

To experience the geological archive of the world.

To witness absolute darkness.

The project consists of a performance and a two-channel video that present a homage to the mountain through a ritual of gratitude for that place of lightless clarity within me to which the mountain speaks without words, inviting me to awaken. Exploring the mountain shows me the transition from resistance to surrender, from chaos to silence, from weight to lightness. By inhabiting the mountain I discovered how to inhabit myself. The video is an encounter, an intertwining between the mountain and myself through a dance of initiation into contemplation and surrender.

Text in the Video

An Ode to the Mountain

Inhabiting the mountain showed me the way.

The mountain made inroads into me. 

It reflected inside me.

I discovered a place of clarity without light.

A space inside me to which the mountain spoke without words.

I wanted to shelter that space, to recognize and contemplate it. 

To contemplate myself.

I made space,

When I felt it, 

When I found it, 

When I could say

There it is,

Here we are,

Here I am,

It's the mountain in me, 

It's the instinct in me,

It's liberating.

I let it expand,

It embraced me and invited me to dance, 

It invited me to shake.

I let it guide me,

We dancen to the sound of the sea,

To the rhythm of the waves.

That clarity without light,

That is inside me, 

Accompanies me wherever I go,

I can dance with the mountain,

I can shake,

I can feel it, 

I can surrender, 

And she's there,

Accompanying me, 

Releasing me,

Making me feel,

So mine,

And so hers,

For we are one.