Adversities and silence. Ways to celebrate and thanks the Mother Earth

  

 

Adversities and silence.

Ways to celebrate and thanks the Mother Earth

Text by Francesca Romana Rietti – Photos by Teatret Om

 

Ringkøbing, 8^th of August 2026

We spend our long last day of work mainly at Brogaarden, a cultural incubator and a residence for artists of Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality. It is here that, during Art-Nature Lab, many of us have not only slept and eaten, but also shared our free time. Brogaarden has been the headquarters where our temporary community experimented forms of coexistence, weaving professional and human bonds, beyond the opportunities created by the programme of activities.

Today we began by attending a talk – The Art of Darkness – by the Jordanian artist living in Denmark, Dina Abu Hamdan Cultural Consultant in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality, who told us about her experience as curator, since 2023, of the Danish open-air Festival Vinterlys which in Danish means Winter’s Light.

Dina shared with us many of the questions that underpinned her research as a curator and many of the answers and solutions she found along the way during the years.

I just want to try to summarise what seemed to me to be the essence of her speech.

How to give a concrete shape to this oxymoron? How to find a balance between the light and the long Danish winter, which is inhabited by the absence of light for many hours? How to work together and in dialogue with the darkness and how to underline its importance? How to bring the electricity in the heart of the woods? And how to deal with the problems of energy saving, which have been made even more acute by the break-out of the war between Russia and Ukraine?

First and foremost, by learning how to be under the mercy of the nature and turning adversities and obstacles into opportunities and advantages.

Yes, but how?

According with Dina’s experience, it has been crucial build bonds between the invited artists, the politicians, the local companies of energy and her “army” of volunteers: in the Region her festival has the highest number of volunteers. Once again, as in theatre, working in the nature makes visible the strength and the necessity to build a community to bring an artistic reality to life able to stand the long test of time.

Community and duration, two guiding principles in theatre history.

The following workshop, led by the Italian (resident in Denmark) Sandra Pasini, Artistic Director of Teatret Om, actress and theatre director and the Swedish Petra Lindblom, actress, Gestalt Therapist and Shamanistic practitioner, focused on the voice, exploring its use in the open space of the city park. After leaving Brogaarden, we all met at the park entrance, where Sandra and Petra asked us to walk in silence along the path that would take us to the next place of work. Without ever using our voices, we had to explore the surrounding natural world using our five senses, to discover, through human silence, the voice of the nature. A very specific and rather difficult task, as it required us to set aside an instinctive impulse and act following a different logical approach. To learn to use our voice in the nature we have to start from its contrary: listening the sound of our silence. Once again, a theatrical golden rule: the way of opposites, to use the words of Eugenio Barba.

After this time for the individual exploration, we started the work in a circle where Sandra introduced us to the study of the different vocal resonators. Petra aught us ways of modulating our voices like the farmers in certain parts of Sweden do, particularly when calling to animals and two songs which we carried on practicing in the afternoon, after the lunch break.

Back at our headquarters in Brogaarden, we began preparations for the long celebration to give thanks to the Mother Earth and to mark the end of our work. Several fires were lighted, one to burn the pottery we had made in the previous days during the workshop with Otto Pilgaard (a Danish sculptor, ceramist and founder og the International Wood Sculpture Symposium in Ringkøbing). A second to prepare the asado for dinner and cook one of the sheep from Berit’s farm. A third to purify the ground where we would leave our offerings to food the Pacha Mama – as Mother Earth is known in the Andean religion of the Incas – the protector of the harvests.

Pacha Mama, Madre Tierra, aquí estamos tus hijos agradeciéndote por todo que nos das: la vida, el agua, el alimento y el calor del sol. Recibe esta ofrenda con amor. Danos fuerza, salud, protección para seguir andando en este camino con respeto hacia todo lo que vive.