The Archaeological Museum of Catalonia Empúries will host an international creative residency

2024-10-09 12:04:00

Him Archaeological Museum of Catalonia in Empúries will host an international creative residency, the first promoted by the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and the Ramon Llull Institute. The initiative, which will take place from 16 to 21 October, aims to promote the exchange of professionals and creators in the field of humanities, sciences and arts, coming from the territory and also internationally, in heritage spaces. The proposal will bring together the British poet Alice Osvaldo with the Mallorcan singer, composer and performer Joana Gomilathe Catalan poet Maria Callis and the independent art curator Alessandra Laudo.

Empúries is home to the only site on the Iberian Peninsula where they live together remains of Greek culture with Roman remains. The collaboration with the Festival dei Classici offers the opportunity to enhance the validity of the classics in the field of contemporary creation in an exceptional setting from an international perspective. Joana Gomila, Maria Callís and Alexandra Laudo will create a joint creative process linked to classical culture, taking the poem “Memorial” by Alice Oswald as a reference. “Memorial” transfers the atmosphere of the “Iliad”, with the allegories that describe its characters and nature. Jaume Coll’s Catalan translation won the award 16th Jordi Domenech prize of translating poems. In this first residency, this moment of “quality and shared knowledge” will allow the authors working on Oswald’s work to have direct contact with the writer. The meeting will allow them to nuance and enrich the adaptation they are working on in their creative process, as well as “revisit” the validity of the classics, from different perspectives and disciplines, and promote dialogue about adaptations. It will also promote the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia in Empúries from an artistic point of view. The result of this creative sojourn can be seen next November 23rd, as part of the Festival of Classics, in a show at La Capella entitled ‘Like the leaves…’ Alexandra Laudo will propose a performative rereading of the poem “Memorial”. Through a constellated and fragmentary story, he will share the reflections arising from reading the collection of poems. Its author describes it as a translation of the Iliad that presents the Greek poem as an oral cemetery. Laudo is interested in this idea and, making use of theoretical and visual references from different sources, reflects on some cultural ways of approaching what is dead. Subsequently, the music and voice of the singer Joana Gomila and the declamation of Maria Callís will be the protagonists of a concert-recital that brings us closer to the world of the Iliad and the English poet.

The Ramon Llull Institute residency program aims to develop and promote a residency policy which allows us to connect the creation and research of Catalan-speaking territories with talent from all over the world and to promote cultural exchange and dialogue on a global scale.