Non plus ultra' holds public meeting to claim the power of the unexpected in the face of climate crisis

The event "El agua brota sin avisar. An encounter against drought through art and memory", is aligned with the project's problematic, which invites us to approach the ecological crisis from an anti-imperial and decolonial perspective, together with the mediator, Jose Iglesias García-Arenal, and a group of six young people from the south of the province of Badajoz.

A few years ago, in the province of Badajoz, a detonation in a quarry caused a lake of crystalline water to appear out of nowhere. For a few months, before drying up, the quarry was transformed into a playground and refuge from the heat. Improbable and ephemeral, the lake remained in the memory of all the people who enjoyed it and is the starting point of “Water springs up without warning. A meeting against drought through art and memory”.”, to reclaim the power of joy and the unexpected in the face of the climate crisis.

The full programme of the event will be as follows:

19.00hrs. Presentation of the project ‘Non plus ultra’ and collective mapping against drought - of water and imagination - in the south of Badajoz. 

MAL House. Calle Sevilla 53, Los Santos de Maimona (Badajoz).

20.30hrs. Poetry recital “Invasive species”.” where the writer Mayte Gómez Molina will share a series of new poems about belonging to a territory and the violence that forces people to migrate, together with the writer Mayte Gómez Molino in “Especies invasoras”. 

Plaza del Pilarito, Los Santos de Maimona (Badajoz).

21.00hrs. Performance. Coinciding with the sunset, the artist Élan d'Orphium will invite you to “Sweat the rain”, a performance to inhabit uncertainty through the body and dance. 

Camino de la Sierra del Castillo, Los Santos de Maimona (Badajoz).

00.00hrs. Sound aquifer. Closing night with electronic dance music, organised by the UHT collective.

Paraje La Nava s/n, Los Santos de Maimona, (Badajoz).

Participants: 

Mayte Gómez Molina (Madrid/Granada, 1993) is a writer, researcher and new media artist whose work explores themes such as political corporeality, perception as a social contract and the difficulty of constructing identity in a world hyper-mediated by power and technology. Winner of the ‘Premio Nacional de Poesía Joven Miguel Hernández’ with his book «Los Trabajos Sin Hércules» (Hiperión, 2022), he uses writing as the backbone of a practice based on the digitally produced image that encompasses everything from digital cinema to 3D and virtual reality. His latest book, «Circuito Cerrado de Vigilancia» (Cielo Santo, 2024) explores the reality of bodies, still analogue, immersed in a digital state, and questions the supposed binary division between the concept of natural and artificial.

Élan d'Orphium it is wild, a bird, a pájara, a prancer, a prankster, a mischievous, a bicha, a queen abujarra, a little flower, a clown, a stilt, a feathered, a ladybird, a hairy and, in its spare time, an artist. With a bit of luck she can be found in the Extremadura dehesa, practising in the spring pollination process.

UHT is a collective based in Los Santos de Maimona dedicated to watering the musical culture of lower Extremadura by organising events and promoting the work of artists who walk on the edges of electronic, punk or experimental music.

‘Non plus ultra’: Ecological issues from an anti-imperial perspective

‘Non plus ultra’ addresses the problems of the ecological crisis, imperial nostalgia and the colonial gaze that naturalises the destruction of ecosystems through the work of the mediator, Jose Iglesias García-Arenal (Madrid, 1991), who since 2019 has been directing the MAL Platform, dedicated to research and creation projects, exhibitions and other activities on the transformations of “diffuse urbanities” -, and a group of six young people between 26 and 34 years of age who live in the south of the province of Badajoz, between the regions of Campiña Sur, Tierra de Barros and Zafra-Río Bodión.