Amanda Piña, To Bloom () Florecimiento, 2024 © Britt Ryckebosch
To Bloom ( ) Florecimiento
To Bloom () Florecimiento by Amanda Piña is a project exploring the ocean as a space of ancestral knowledge. Through artistic practices, the work reimagines our understanding of water—not just as a resource, but as a life-giving force that shapes bodies, identities, and ecosystems.
The project has been designed in two formats:
Stage Performance
Choreographer Amanda Piña in collaboration with Nyandra Fernandes and an ensemble of artists from the Americas, Europe, and Africa create a fascinating installative performance as an oceanic celebration. Based on the movements and supra-temporal memory of ancient underwater species such as sponges, cnidarians (jellyfish and coral), mollusks and echinoderms, the choreography reconnects historical and contemporary events related to the so-called AMOC oceanic current phenomenon (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation). From the 16th to the end of the 19th century, more than 35,000 trade voyages with more than 10 million enslaved people subjected to forced migration followed closely the existing currents. These currents facilitated the movement of ships carrying people, goods, and extracted resources through the "Black Atlantic" triangle between Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The immersive installative performance to Bloom () Florecimiento is created by a diverse ensemble from three different continental contexts and the Caribbean. From a global perspective, the history and cultural memory of the transatlantic trade of enslaved people has been shaped by profit and global power, forced immigration and creolization, racism, exploitation and extreme violence.
In addition, petro-masculinity, neo-colonialism and capitalism have literally fueled the constant exploitation of resources in Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean, the pollution of oceans and rivers, and the deforestation of mangroves and rainforest and still persists today. At present, scientists fear that the overheating of the world's oceans will cause a major change in the currents and winds of the AMOC. The climatic consequences of these changes are not yet clear.
Intertwining historical, ancestral, and contemporary micro- and macro-movements, the cosmic and the political, the ocean and its entities appear as a confluence of flow, death, and decay, but also as a vibrant, vital realm that sustains our lives. In To Bloom () Florecimiento, the word "blooming" is used as a metaphor for the continued resistance of indigenous, afro-diasporic, and local communities who continue to practice forms of honoring water as the source and fountain of all life: Water as a fluid entity and not as material stuff. Our collective hosting of the re-appearance of three Orishas as "high art" (Nyandra Fernandes) as well as ancestral memory is a ceremonial act of resistance against petro-masculinity and a worship of the beauty of threatened aquatic ecologies.
Workshop & Performative Sculptures
Under the title “To Bloom () Prácticas de Florecimiento” this version of the work consists of an installation of seven performative sculptures performed by participants - dance students or professional dancers - of a workshop led by Amanda Piña in the place where the installation is on display.
The sculptures, made from handwoven textiles and movement, can be exhibited in museums, outdoor spaces, or unconventional venues such as port buildings and others.This installation is based on the movements of ancient animal species such as corals, anemones, sea urchins, and sponges that live underwater and whose bodies resemble flowers.
Amanda Piña connects them to the constant movements of ocean currents and human migration in order to bring forth another and embodied understanding of water ecologies and the origins of climate change, deeply connected with the transatlantic slave trade.The sculptures, activated during performances, invite you to think about being part of a web of invisible and visible relations.
CREDITS
Artistic direction
Amanda Piña
Created in collaboration with
Nyandra Fernandes
Integral design
Michel Jiménez
Dramaturgy
Nicole Haitzinger
Assistant Choreographer & Research
Inés Sofía Cardona Parra
Creative Adviser
Mae Celina de Xangó
Choreography and Dance (original creation)
Nyandra Fernandes, Layza da Rocha Soarez, Zora Snake, Amanda Piña and the students of second year of the Bachelor of dance of the conservatory of Antwerp, Vera Asunción, Olivia Busquets, Moreu Bianca, Neyre Caroppo, Joséphine Chaix, Szczurek Linde, Engelen Lluna, Galarza Tomàs, Gispert Jiménez, Aster Henderieckx, Julie Leysen, Silas Martens, Dominika Novak, Tuur Sweerman, Oliver Vilhelmsen, Daniel Garcia, Emily Jane Steele, Joanne Jacob
Performative Sculptures
Amanda Piña / Estudio Fortuna
Costumes
Federico Protto / Rheremita Cera
Makeup and body painting
Rheremita Cera
Sound Design
Dominik Traun
Technical Direction
Marcelo Daza
Light
Emilio Cordero Checa
Production
Amanda Piña/ Studio Fortuna
Co-production
De Singel
Funded by
Cultural Department of the City of Vienna, Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria
CREDITS (Performative Sculptures)
Artistic direction
Amanda Piña
Integral design
Michel Jiménez
Assistant Choreographer & Research
Inés Sofía Cardona Parra
Performative Sculptures
Amanda Piña / Estudio Fortuna
Costumes
Rheremita Cera
Sound Design
Michel Jimenez
Music
Christian Müller
Produced by
Amanda Piña/ Estudio Fortuna
Coproduction
De Singel
Funded by Cultural Department of the City of Vienna Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria