SALTS

CITY SALTS: A Nana e a Pepita
Solo show by Noa and Lara Castro in the Water Tank
15 Jun – 10 Sep 2023

A Nana e a Pepita (The Lullaby and the Seed)

Opening 15 June 6–10 pm
Performance 17 June 5 pm
Opening hours during Art Basel 16–18 June 2–6 pm

Paxariño, 2023: Single-channel projection, loop
Floriña, 2023: Video animation, loop
The future will bring you a bird from the riverside, 2023: Stereo sound, 6 mins.
A Nana e a Pepita, 2023: Performance, 15 mins.

Since 2021 Noa and Lara Castro have been working on an ongoing and shapeshifting project called "Sempre se encontra consolo" (Comfort can always be found) based on storytelling, songs and prophecies, and reflecting upon the performative art of sharing through the voice.

This project is a way of trying to comprehend how intrahistory, memory, fantasy and possibility are entangled in oral traditions, especially in the ones that have been present in the Coast of Death (Galicia, Spain) for many generations, which have been past on to the artists and have affected their ways of relating to others in many ways.

A Nana e a Pepita ("The Lullaby and the Seed") can be considered as part of this ongoing practice. Noa and Lara Castro started with a dedication to honor their grandmothers, whom they call Nana and Pepita, and then they went on playing with the meaning of these names, which translate from Galician as Lullaby and Seed respectively.

Following the thought of a prophecy that speaks of two futures that have already come to past, the artists were interested in the idea of transformation, of memory and desire, and how the lullaby and the seed hold the significant potential of care, of a beginning, of solace. They relate in many ways to the voice of the bird, and to the growing flower. There is a promise somewhere.

Noa and Lara Castro decided to animate two drawings their grandmothers made, as a portal to enter our tale and use their simplicity and brilliance to help them get into a wider story, that inquires about love, but also maybe about violence or pain, bonds, expectations, and personal needs and affections.

Finally, the artists propose two paths into the work, one being a sound piece that fabulates around traditional songs and rhythms that they learned as children from which a phrase is intelligible: "The future will bring you a bird from the riverside". The second path, more volatile, will consist of a more narrative tale that will be performed in person by Noa and Lara Castro.

About the artists:

Noa and Lara Castro are interested in tales as a means of fabulation, providing a poetic understanding of intrahistory. They see tales as a technology of memory to combat extinction and misunderstood progress, and appreciate the fragmented and unpredictable structure of dreams, in its unusual associations, where all sorts of apparitions and transitions are common. Born in A Coruña in 1998, Noa and Lara Castro are currently enjoying a scholarship from the María José Jove Foundation to pursue their MA in Fine Arts at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK Basel FHNW.