On Friday 22nd August, as part of the EAF’s closing weekend, Mercedes Azpilicueta performed a newly commissioned performance, Fire on the Mountains, Light on the Hill, on Calton Hill. Alongside her collaborator Janice Parker (artist and choreographer) and dancers Federica Cologna and Carmen Berbei-Lapaz the artist employs artworks from her exhibition to bring to life the acts of resistance and care central to her practice.
Before time and space
Four figures in black
Lay a scorched bronze orb
And ancient
tools
on a cold concrete altar
an offering to the gods, perhaps?
An expanding silence,
sweltering sun,
glimmers reflections.
The women begin…
pushing the alter
impelling
the immovable.
Trying to change what
cannot be changed.
Despite it all they
hold one another up
limbs entwined becoming one
A common purpose.
Stones
scattered like rain
tiny drops
of resistance,
in the ocean of
walls
and pain
and threat
that chip
away
at us.
Defeated
one lays prostrate.
Dead?
No!
Against all odds
She rises to
dance.
At a rasp of metal,
her sister dons
an otherworldly,
carrier
of lustrous silver,
a tapestry woven with the
blood and toil
of her ancestors.
Tools gathered:
a solemn
funeral procession
ensues
across
serrated land
formed
by monstrous fire
and indifferent ice
In wide open space
the sea watches
the women map
acts of
love and care
of resistance past
and yet to come
A sister is crowned:
A celestial goddess!
Alone
she ventures
South-East.
A rites of passage.
Where she has forged
a path
the others follow.
Binding themselves
in swathes of
glistening fabric
an argent river
they adopt a pose
of equilibrium
a rare moment of
calm.
Before a transformation
a moment of joy,
then
joy coiled away
stoically
they carry their burden
Pull
Entrapped
A war
Oscillating between
blissful delight
and the ominous weight
of remembrance.
A wall is built
but the outsider
is given permission
to enter the fold
leaning back
The women
exist in perfect
harmony
An orbital dance
in a cape of mercury
the pure glee-like
spin of a child
The orb is
laid to rest
in a
burial mound.
A circle of protection
Laid.
Applying healing
totems
they soothe
and heal
One step forward
one step back
Downhill
the women
sit
resigned.
It is not the end
It will never end
But defiant
They stare.
Faces to the sun
Then
Resilient
Proud
They walk into
the wilderness…
