CELULOSA INVASIVA
December 23rd, 2024
I have been exploring environmental issues in my artistic work for about 20 years already. During my residency in Do Picho it was therefore very exciting for me to investigate the ecological consequences the construction of a huge cellulose factory in Palas de Rei would have. Conversations with local representatives of the very active environmental movement Altri Non were just as important as exchanges with the entire Do Picho team, who also supported me with advice and assistance: Ralf and Jaime researched interesting locations, travelled with me to many places in Galicia, invited interesting interlocutors, rowed the canoe while I shot underwater videos. Jaime even turned out to be a very talented drone operator!
From what I was able to film in Galicia I will develop a video installation that has already been accepted for exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich in the summer of 2025, and that we plan to exhibit also in Galicia and Madrid.
I was very pleased to see that the ecological catastrophe (and other serious negative consequences for the future of central Galicia and its people) that would accompany the construction of the factory have led to the creation of a very strong and broad-based resistance movement and triggered intense community-building processes.
I would like to build on this in a further step of my work: in addition to the presentation in museums, it is important to me to take the work of art into the public space to reach a broader audience. To this end, I have developed the format of a mobile video platform with which I would like to introduce CELULOSA INVASIVA into the public realm: The work will be shown in large and small towns in Galicia in a kind of “art guerrilla tactic”, accompanied by lectures, discussions and protest actions.
I am very impressed by Ralf ‘s commitment to setting up this artist residency and running it with a such energy and dedication. In a relatively short space of time, he and his team have already made many personal connections that I am sure will continue to grow. I would also like to thank all the other people who support Do Picho in the background, especially Guille Tort and Santiago Concheiro. And I am very much looking forward to the events Do Picho is planning for next year, which will bring together all the artists who already have resided at Do Picho and those that will make a residence in 2025, creating a network that will hopefully move mountains, or at least help to stop the invasion that the construction of a huge paper factory would represent.
Stefanie Zoche
Artist in Residence at Do Picho (September-October 2024)
