Performing in a quarry

Some quarries seem to be made for theatrical performances, including stages and places for audience. Although it is an open air venue the sound and light are mysterious as you are at least 10m and in some cases 70 m below the surface.
We did several informal try outs with more than satisfying results. But to organize a formal public event in a quarry is not easy because of safety and logistics.

Ruth Baettig, Beate Schnaithmann and Giuseppe di Salvatore were working on a long-term project: “Ich habe mich verloren”. The idea is that losing yourself can be a starting point, an opportunity to find yourself in a reality previously unknown. The project also considers what in the Anthropocene are the links are between humans, animals, vegetation and non-living matter.
Their joint residency was a burst of creativity. An obvious highlight was a performance 50 meters deep in an abandoned marble quarry, in the light of the full moon. While Ruth, dressed in a black “skin”, was making minimal movements, Beate was improvising on “La Folia”, a motive from the Baroque period. This slide show gives an impression. A video compilation is available on request.

divina commedia detailsMiira Sippola (Finland) developed a very ambitious and successful theatre production: Divina Commedia 2.0. See below for an impression. More information is on the page divina commedia.

Students of Margo Kalse (Holland) did sing to experience the unique acoustics, as did the students of António Carrilho (Portugal) in his Master class recorder.

Rob Monaghan (Ireland) made an impressive video of an as impressive performance by Phyllis Olwande (Denmark). The video has been presented as part of a land art installation in Ireland.
The slide show gives an impression. A full video coverage is also available.

The artist’s couple Dan and Trish Scott realized a series of projects, assuming that the abandoned marble quarries were not the result of recent industrial activities, but are the remains of temples of an ancient civilization. They collected artifacts that they feel support their hypothesis, reconstructed instruments, wrote a scientific essay under the pseudonym of Dr Rosa Ramm, and gave at the end of their residency a press conference to present their findings.
A wonderful video showing the archeological excavations is on http://www.trishscott.org/marmaros.html
Dan Scott studied the acoustics of the quarries and concluded that this civilization must have used marble xylophones for communication and leisure. He reconstructed one. See this video.
At the end of their residency Dan and Trish Scott gave a press conference of their findings in Évora.
 

Ingrid Simons (Holland) made a banner with Indian ink. Pedro Cabral (Portugal) made a video of it. It became the central piece of a solo show of Ingrid in a prestigious gallery in Holland. 

Melina Peña (Mexico) and Nuno Veiga (Portugal) recorded on the foot of a marble waste pile a performance with butoh dance elements.  Some video stills are below.  

Jee Won Kim (South Korea) made a choreography for a dance and danced that piece herself in a quarry, partly accompanied by by António Pliz on violin. 

Maria Hannson (Sweden) is singer and performative artist. She explored what the abandoned marble quarries could bring her. In two she danced, partly in the water: see the video compilation below. In another quarry she had a photo shoot with Pedro Ferro: see another page on this website.

Beate Schnaithmann (Germany, living in Switzerland) went with Rob Monaghan at night to an abandoned marble quarry to make video recordings of the cello and croaking frogs. The video was selected for screening on festivals in in Ireland and Spain. 
Later at daylight Beate returned to play Benjamin Britten. And in another occasion she experienced sunset while playing.       

Yuval Gilboa (Israel) recorded several songs, especially to make use of the extreme echo. Several YouTube clips are available of his performance.