SOILSCAPE: THE GREAT SUCCESSION
Soil Festival / BioBlitz Serralves Foundation Park |
2026-2027 Landra and Porto, Portugal |
Funded by the European Union Soilscape project: art and soil literacy |
With soil at the center of the story of terrestrial life, it is through collective creation that we understand how microorganisms, plants, animals and other living beings build and regenerate the ecosystems upon which we all depend. From the smallest bacteria to the most advanced fungi, we will be making visible and giving voice to the marginalised life of soil that makes up all the habitats above ground.
In collaboration with the local Music Academy of Cabeceiras de Basto, in the nearest village where Landra is located, we will be developing the sound world with around 100 music school children of all ages. Following a scientifically rigorous model of how ecological succession happens, a music score will be developed through rehearsal starting in Summer 2027. Through improvisational prompts, the young musicians will experiment and learn about the functions and behaviours of key-players in the evolution of soil microorganisms.
Rehearsals will also be held at Landra, that exists in the midst of a mixed oak forest, where various microbiomes can be experienced first hand. With children coming from a rural family background, most of them are now disconnected from a direct relation to the land and forests, having moved to apartments in the village center. The Great Succession aims to reconnect their ancestral past with a new understand of the importance of preserving and regenerating the landscape they are part of.
Ceramic sculptural music instruments will be modeled after the shapes and forms of soil microorganisms. Starting with the ‘Invisible Life Drawing’, children and their families also discover the microscopic life through charcoal drawings and soil painting, which materialize in the shape of hand-held clay and plant-based placards, banners and long cloths, to be all used in the final parade.
The project culminates in the 2027 Soil Festival at Serralves Park. Families are invited to take part with their creations in an itinerant performance, where the youth orchestra will lead people on a journey through different stages of ecological succession that visitors can experience and learn more from in the park.
During the week-long festival, each day a workshop will be held in a different location, in sequentially more advanced biomes at Serralves Park, where the itinerant performance will go through. Everyday visitors can engage with the inner-processes of its making, and are envited to make their own microorganism-inspired artistic creations, experimenting with different media such as drawing with natural pigments or modeling with wild clay.
Through a printed score, festival visitors can also try out some of the improvisation exercises the music students worked on and developed. They will be encouraged to return on the last day of the festival for the final performance, joining in the parade as participants themselves.