Francisca Alvarez Sánchez

I am interested in working on an affective diary of sensory exploration of the El Bruc, Can Serrat territory, which records the mutation and how the territory gradually affects me holistically. With the premise of allowing oneself to be affected, of being present, of being a permeable membrane that lets things in and out, inhabiting and being inhabited by a context, inter-being. With the awareness of a cell within an aqueous space, I want to record how this territory is destroyed and reconstructed. The apoptosis and autopoiesis of the territory within me.

The possible questions that will guide me through the process are:
How does my perception change here? What is the color palette of this territory? How does the air affect my body? What color is the light? What sounds inhabit this space? What inhabiting makes this space resonate? How do the trees sound? What trees have inhabited this place since before it was called El Bruc? What birds visit it? What color are the mountains? What does the air smell like? How do the walls sound? What do the fruits taste like? What shapes do the bodies of water in this territory have? How do I feel the mountain? How does the mountain change my shape? What is the mountain telling me?
In a constant dialogue with the territory, we ask each other questions, and I put into images and words how the bodies of these territories—my human body-territory and the physical body-territory of El Bruc, Can Serrat—converse, are constructed, are destroyed, creating new narratives of the individual, dissolving the boundary between the self, the others, and that place.

What symbols appear?
Throughout the process, I will identify symbols that build images reflecting emerging phenomena. I will also record which non-human species inhabit the area. What plants, what birds, what stones tell me the history of that place.

A physical diary will be kept with writings, drawings, reflections, and found objects, along with a digital diary containing sounds, videos, and photos. This material will shape paintings, objects, animations, videos—all depending on the information provided by the territories. In parallel to this, and once the initial process is somewhat advanced, I am interested in activating collective drawing experiences related to the sensory, to play, to the therapeutic, applying tools from previously conducted workshops and new information that emerges. Activating the body in these experiences, connecting the body with drawing, awakening the senses, including participants’ dreams, to also create a collective affective diary of the territory, where the experience and the transformative capacity of the process will be more relevant than the outcome.

Francisca will be doing her residency at Can Serrat during August-September 2024.