Culture

A concert for plants

Madrid, Jun 23 (EFE/EPA).- Puccini’s Crisantemi’s restless and mournful melody fills the Liceu Opera Theater in Barcelona.But there are no mask-clad audience members sitting in the opulent red velvet seats.Instead, 2,292 potted plants are serenaded by a string quartet. FOOTAGE OF THE PLANTS.SOUNDBITES OF EUGENIO AMPUDIA, ARTIST:-"It is an action charged with symbolism. What I wanted to explain through it was that our relationship with nature needs to change. What is more, I think it is an issue that is on the agendas of all social agents, politicians, even companies are thinking about ethics and each has presented it in different ways. I thought I also should give my opinion on the matter. I think art can provide different aspects to these types of dialogues and what artists do normally, my work consists of telling the people that are around me what is happening in my surroundings and from a point of view that is usually aesthetic or political."-"An artist is someone who tells other people about stuff and that point of you one has is crucial when it comes to talking about things and I don’t think you can detach yourself from your role to communicate. We are people who communicate in a very specialized way and I don’t know what an artist who doesn’t have anything to say is doing in this galaxy in this moment. "-"There has to be clear and equal relationship between species. We cannot think of ourselves as being alone in this planet nor can we think that we can dominate nature, it is obvious that things are not like that and there are many many species that have a lot to provide."-"It is true that oriental cultures have positions on this matter work and it is true that westerners with our quest to generate resources and above all profits we are destroying the place that we inhabit and this is very evident now."-"I think we have reached the end of an era and I think things will never be the same again and I think for artists to tell this story is as reasonable as it is for others to so. It may well be the case that artists don’t have this dosis of greed that bother people’s rhetoric may, and that we look at things from a more global perspective and even perceive that things are deliciously interwoven."-"I also think that spaces are important, space convey concept to pieces. This work, the Concert for the Bioceno, if it weren’t in the Liceo which is one the great international opera houses, it has 2292 seats and a brutal program and an incredible history and it is one of the most important buildings created for the Opera, if it weren’t to take place there the artwork wouldn’t have the same meaning. My idea needs to be understood as unfolding within a space of great symbolic value."-"I have worked on a collection of small sculptures: a Bosco style sculpture of an acorn with antennae growing out of it working as a photo holder, a dolphin shaped sculpture made out of rubber bands. A tiny placard with miniscule lettering and a very intimate message: “Artistic institutions can be a good tool to unite geographies and types of life when they utilize their power as a platform for though, the most grave world problems can be understood with honesty and hope” quote by Estrella de Diego. "-"For me art is essential for the conservation of human life, not only mine but also everyone else's. Art creates relational spaces that are not even physical that amplify all of our possibilities. When you mingle with people from the culture sphere many things are endlessly growing, like branches that interweave with other branches, I cannot conceive of someone not thinking that it is something that is key to life for artists to be working on what they are working. I cannot conceived of life without artists, I cannot conceived of life without art and I cannot conceive of art without culture. "