110 people attended the SAÓ Festival on 11 October 2015 organised by the Centre d’Art i Natura in the vicinity of the village of Farrera in the Catalan Pyrenees.

In the morning the audience saw Joanès Simon-Perret’s tree caressing machine and his mountain mirrors greeting the midday sun. Next they passed by my writing on water at the ford. Then Quelic Berga presented his comparative circles designating the amount of landuse to produce one meal with meat, one vegetarian and one vegan. And the audience could also view Quelic Berga’s GOD installation.

At lunchtime documentation of Jutempus’s Mycomorph Laboratory was on display using living mycelium (mushroom roots) to create a new material.

In the afternoon the audience made their way along the narrow vertiginous path to the ruined chapel of Santa Maria de la Serra where Anna Rubio worked with musician Carola Ortiz. Josep Maria Mallarach gave a talk on the history of the chapel responding to Anna Rubio’s presentation. In the guise of an archaeologist from the future Meritxell Romanos presented her project with Blai Mesa, to paint the chapel with brilliant blue and gold representations of the universe. Finally Anna Rubio and Quelic Berga’s haunting film shot in the chapel and featuring the voice of Carola Ortiz was shown, and provoked a spontaneous finale of collective singing from the audience.

You can find more information on the artists and their projects on the SAÓ Artists Blogs.

Centre d’Art i Natura, Jutempus, Joanès Simon-Perret, Tracey Warr, Quelic Berga and Anna Rubio are partners and artists contributing to the Frontiers in Retreat five year art and ecology research programme.