WHAT IS thE IBIZA MOVEMENT ARTS COLLECTIVE?
We are a collective of local women artists from Ibiza who through our work with small groups are reviving and bringing visibility to the cultural and ecological side of Ibiza that has been driven into hiding and is now being systematically destroyed by both mass club tourism and the VIP tourism of the mega wealthy.
In response, we offer small, intimate, encounters with Ibiza (workshops and non residential retreats) that are based on movement, arts, culture, earth and community and that give centrality to her ancient roots, spirit, and mythology as the ground and inspiration for our creative explorations together.
Our model is low impact and simple. It works with local people and small scale family run businesses to put money back into the local economy, to take care of the earth, and to develop collaborative, diverse networks and relationships that envision futures on the island that are innovative, regenerative and that honour the earth, the sea, the water and the culture.
We are in the process of envisioning ways to give back to the Ibiza, to regenerate her lands, to revitalise her culture, to nourish her spirit and to celebrate and give expression to her magnificent energy and beauty, which is the way she should be treated. Ibiza has eternally welcomed and accepted people from every culture, race, religion, class, sexuality and orientation through the ages. Please come and help us develop another way to visit and enjoy her.
IBIZA INTENSIVES
‘Unmasking the Body, Sculpting the Mask: Back to the Water”
14th - 18th October 2024
with Gemma Mallol & Joanna Hruby
A five-day adults arts intensive exploring somatic movement, puppet-making and ritual in nature. From 14th – 18th October 2024, on Ibiza.
Since time immemorial, humans have crafted puppets, masks and ritual objects in order to harness a deeper relationship with the landscapes around them. Through sculpting a material and imbuing it with a thought or intention, these shapes can become spells and prayers, offered back to the land which first birthed them.
During this five-day, multi-disciplinary arts intensive, somatic movement practitioner Gemma Mallol’s morning explorations in the elemental body, within the raw, rugged terrain of Ibiza, will cultivate an embodied field of creativity which will be developed further in the afternoons with artist, puppet-maker and storyteller Joanna Hruby.
Through their ongoing encounters with the Ibizan landscapes, participants will give physical form to a puppet-mask being – through cardboard sculpture and papier-mâché, via crafting and adorning with natural materials and pigments. Following this process, we will find a lost language that enables us to rebuild bridges of connection with the earth upon which we stand. On the final day, our embodied creations will lead us back into the heart of the landscapes from which they were born; through an exploratory closing ritual, we will listen to the message these beings offer us.
This five-day intensive fuses somatic process, movement, craft, art, sculpture and ritual, whilst also forging an exploration of story, myth, culture, folklore and ecology. Many of our outdoor sessions will take place beside Ibiza’s ancient wells, and we will interrogate water as a container of both personal, and collective ancestral memory, and a metaphor for our inner and outer ecologies.
Schedule: Workshop starts at 10am on Monday 14th October and ends at 7.30pm on Friday 18th October.
Outdoor Elemental Movement from 10.00 - 1pm
Afternoon Mask Making from 4.30 - 7.30pm
Facilitator Biographies: Joanna Hruby is an artist, puppeteer, performer and storyteller originating from the South West England. On settling on Ibiza eight years ago she formed “Theatre of Ancients” whose highly-visual and ritualistic puppet and mask performances bring to life the history, myths, folklore and traditional culture of Ibiza. All of the facets of Joanna’s work strive to create a dialogue and communion with the wild, ancient landscapes of Ibiza which have been silenced by mass tourism and globalisation. https://www.theatreoftheancients.com
Gemma Mallol half from Ibiza is currently an embodied dance and movement researcher (Master’s at Plymouth University), a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Senior Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Trainer (22 years teaching) and works with somatic movement, nature and creativity in the resolution of trauma. She is currently researching where Butoh Dance, Somatics and Buddhist meditative movement forms such as walking meet.
https://instagram.com/ancestral_body
Intensive Locations: On this intensive elemental movement work will take place outdoors (site specific) in the mornings and in the afternoons mask/puppet making sessions will take place in a local artist’s rooftop studio on the west coast of Ibiza, near San Antonio
https://www.vesselstudioibiza.com
Further Logistics and Organisational Details:
Accommodation: These are non-residential intensives. We have a list of suitable places we can recommend in the area and it is up to you to arrange your own accommodation. We are recommending simple places on the west coast of Ibiza that charge between 30 - 60 Euros per night per person to keep costs as low as possible. Obviously if you want to book something more expensive that is up to you.
Food: We recommend that participants have a light breakfast before morning practice. The options for lunch are to bring a packed lunch or to have a Spanish menu of the day in town, we have some local recommendations. We will be providing an optional light dinner after the afternoon session at the Vessel Studio which costs 15 Euros per person / per dinner. You need to book in advance.
Cost: Non- Residential / 375 -475 Euros (sliding scale) per workshop
Bookings & Info: Please email Gemma on stillflowing@hotmail.co.uk or Whats App 00 44 7745300237
We warmly welcome all bodies, brain types, ages, ethnicities and genders
Places are limited to 12 and accommodation books up in Ibiza so please book well in advance
Testimonial Sharings:
(These are fragments of an account written by one of the participants of our 2023 intensive)
“Physically touching, smoothing, tucking sticking, smearing in the final phases of the mask making connected me to its embodiment into a being… dancing my own ritual… spontaneously collecting artefacts that became sacred charged objects seemed like an important precursor/ rehearsal for the real ritual, though I didn’t realise it at the time. I was performing a permission seeking ritual to nature.
I did not know that my sculpture would embody as the Widow of Mother Nature until Thursday evening. When the name came, everything that I felt in the morning practices… then had a reason, which I’d not been able to articulate during the morning sharing sessions.
During the final act in the water, letting the Widow go was more reverential as an individual moment. Felt very intensely aware of the presence & intimacy with her. Felt responsible & wanted to reassure the Widow that her journey was inevitable and she’d fulfilled her purpose because she was inside me now…
Walking barefoot through brambles to the water hurt, but was a necessary precursor to the final act. I felt if I was suffering it would alleviate the puppet’s suffering. It also was symbolic to experience physical pain before the letting go. Like I was offering my physical suffering in exchange for the Widow & her wisdom embodying with me.
Thank you, thank you, Thank you.”
