Alchemy - Healing – Ecology
Corporeality & Environment
Melting forms is a performance–installation that explored corporeality as a field of intensity combining different media such as sculpture, storytelling, sound, and lighting.
Aliveness is present in the materiality of the installation, through the alchemical phenomenon of transforming the element of water into different states - solid, gaseous and liquid -, and in the alchemical process of medicinal herbs and flowers, which are absorbed into the water as infusions or tisane, and then transformed into ice or steam.
The alchemical process occurs when the herbs and flowers are absorbed into the water as infusions or tisane. This ancient healing knowledge is understood as the property that each medicinal flower and herb has of containing subtler energies that are released through the connection with water and which have the potential to affect corporeality on different levels; the power to strengthen and tone certain organs, as systems that
can be used as medicine for any illness; and also their capacity to balance humours and restore
equilibrium. This last aspect look at the connection between the emotional and psychic systems with the energy coming from the environment, manifested through the flowers and herbs as beings growing from the earth.
Offering a sensorial experience by integrating temperatures, odours and tastes that stimulate a wide range of perceptions in the audience. As the performance activates the audience and the audience activates the performance, the articulation of the relationships between the people who are part of this experience, frames the performance as a social practice. The device functions as an active environment that allows the participants to navigate different states, disparate forces and crossed intensities.
CONCEPT, INSTALLATION & PERFORMANCE: Josefina Camus
PRODUCTION: Mayo Rodriguez
COLLABORATION IN SET UP: Francisco Bagnara, Maria José Zuñiga
SUPPORTED BY: PARALEL-O, Especie Axial, Casa O de Lastarria
FUNDED BY: Research Support Award, Goldsmiths University of London
IMAGES: Lorena Ormeño
VIDEO: Mila Ercoli, Josefina Camus
