in search of the miraculous..

(working title)

June 2022: artist-in-residency at CasCaDas ArtSpace in Barcelona, Spain.

“ CasCaDas, how well this name is chosen, as the art space opens up like a tumbling waterfall, with a very high ceiling, flanked by two mezzanines, that reflect quiet midair reservoirs, allowing changes of positions of both work and maker as well as viewer… The fluidity of the space greatly influenced my work process, bringing it to a next level, with many thanks to Fiona, Julia, Maarten and all people involved.” Jacqueline Heerema, artist-in-residency ‘In search of the miraculous..’, June 2022.

*Invitation Studio Presentation on June 28, 2022 18:00-20:00* *at CasCaDas ArtSpace*, *photo Mare Mahieu*.

In search of the miraculous –
(layers of) time – Earth – climate – sea – soil – fossil – artifact – imprints or impression of something or someone…

detail 2022, photo Mare Mahieu — *detail**

detail* 2022, photo Mare Mahieu

*photos from my archive of collected hybrid subjects, glass, mirror, shadow, added new collected hybrid subjects, texts, photos from my archive.... — *details* June 2022, photo’s by Mare Mahieu*

*photos from my archive of collected hybrid subjects, glass, mirror, shadow, added new collected hybrid subjects, texts, photos from my archive….

CasCaDas ArtSpace is located at El Raval and is curated by artist – academic researcher Fiona Fell, co-curated by artist Julia Aurora Guzmán.
Location: Carrer Bisbe Laguarda 16-3, El Raval, Barcelona.
Program: Open Studio on June 16 at 18-20 hr. Studio Presentation on June 28, 18-20 hr, raw clay workshop with Fiona Fell and Julia Aurora Guzmán (artist-curators) and guest presentation by artist Kate Penn (AU, 3-d ceramics prints). Extra: 22 juni online presentation ‘The Anthropogenic Coastal Atlas’ for Sinopale 8 (TR) icw curator Rana Öztürk and artist Maurice Bogaert.

With special thanks to Fiona Fell and Julia Aurora Guzmán (artist-curators); guest artist Kate Penn (AU, 3-d ceramics prints), Maarten Renes (guide, insights BCN), Mare Mahieu (photos), Litosphera (fossils, minerals), Sio-2 (clay, ceramic supplies), Community Garden Project at Vall d’Hebron, Mercabarna-Mercat Central del Peix (Central Fish Market), Anna Bach Gómez (archeologist, UAB Autonomous University of Barcelona), all engaged people and the support of Stroom The Hague.

inspiration from my archive:

'Anthropogenic Stones' washed ashore, Barcelona, 2004-2020.
I collected ’Soft Stones’ on the beaches of Barcelona in 2004 and documented them in 2020. Relics of human household debris, that was once deposited on the foreshores to diminish the impact of waves and coastal erosion, sculpted by the forces of nature into beautiful soft stones.
Jacqueline Heerema — *‘Anthropogenic Stones’ washed ashore, Barcelona, 2004-2020*.
I collected ’Soft Stones’ on the beaches of Barcelona in 2004 and documented them in 2020. Relics of human household debris, that was once deposited on the foreshores to diminish the impact of waves and coastal erosion, sculpted by the forces of nature into beautiful soft stones.

Inspired by Isamu Noguchi, Japanese-American sculptor (1904–1988):

‘nature makes rocks, people make stones’

My work is themed around perceptions of time, matter, landscapes and climate. I connect art and science with the public and organize meetings with/ in landscapes. As an empirical artistic field researcher, I seek multifaceted and reciprocal perspectives to generate a more inclusive worldview. I include passion and curiosity, wonder and imagination, to enable a more sensitive and affectionate relationship with each other, with otherness and with the planet.

@ Barcelona:
In search of the miraculous – (layers of) time – Earth – climate – sea – soil – fossil – artifact – imprints or impression of something or someone…

During my residency at CasCaDas ArtSpace, I will continue empirical field research into perceptions of time, follow my ongoing fascination of the ways natural and human-induced (artifactual) forces intersect to shape not only a landscape but also perception itself. While exploring the beaches and neighborhoods of Barcelona, I aim to get in touch with timeless movements of sea, natural resources and humanity. Triggered by contemporary social notions that state that ‘Barcelona has always had an underworld centred in El Raval’, I am curious how interactions with the subsurface – or a life that is hidden from daylight – can challenge our contemporary world views. At the intersection of art, geology, archeology and ecology I will follow fluxes of the sea and dissolving sands; of Neolithic relics (approx. 7,000 YBP) beneath the contemporary buzzing life in El Raval, that include a specific kind of pottery decorated with imprints of marine shells, called Cardial Ceramics; and seek to dig up mud, called el fang in Catalan, or modder in Dutch.

work-in-progress @Barcelona:

In search of the miraculous... in-between-ness of materiality and words....
June 2022, Jacqueline Heerema — *in search of the miraculous… in-between-ness of materiality and words..*..JH 17062022

Exploring the subterranean, soil as Earth with local, professional involvement, June 2022.
Jacqueline Heerema — *Exploring the subterranean, soil as Earth with local, professional involvement*, *June 2022*.

Pedres toves - piedras blandas - Soft Stones, zachte stenen, collected at Platja de Sant Sebastia Barcelona, June 2022.
Jacqueline Heerema — *Pedres toves – piedras blandas – Soft Stones – zachte stenen, collected at Platja de Sant Sebastia Barcelona, June 2022.*

*Table as painters palette and/or point of reference or departure, June 2022*

Detail Table 2, sourcing edible bivalve shells at Mercat de Boqueria and Cardiidae, fossil shells of Pliocene, dated 5,3 – 2,6 million YBP, with special thanks to Litosphera, Barcelona.
June 2022, Jacqueline Heerema. — *Detail Table 2, exploring **edible bivalve shells** at Mercat de Boqueria and **Cardiidae fossil shells** of Pliocene, dated 5,3 – 2,6 million YBP, with special thanks to Litosphera*, *Barcelona*.

Detail table 3, scourcing Soft Stones at Platja de Sant Sebastià, ceramic shards at Serra de Collserola and eating escopinya, berberechos….
June 2022, Jacqueline Heerema. — *Detail table 3*, *exploring **Soft Stones** at Platja de Sant Sebastià, house hold **ceramic shards** at Serra de Collserola and eating escopinya, berberechos….*

*Detail table 4, exploring **traveling soils** from the community garden project at Vall d’Hebron on the slopes of Collserola, with special thanks to Gia Luziatelli*. Soils, that overtime slip down the Collserola hills by the numerous (nowadays often subterranean) **streams and torrents** to the plain of Barcelona (where the city is nested between the Besòs and Llobregat deltas) and onwards to the Mediterranean Sea.

*Detail table 5, with **reversed imprints** of bivalve shells; stacked nets of shells, inspired by visit to **Mercabarna** – Central Fish Market Mercat Central del Peix* *de Barcelona, with special thanks to Jordi Defez Torelló, manager of Mercabarna.*

vitrines

vitrine 'Continental Drift', Fiona Fell. — *vitrine ‘Continental Drift’, Fiona Fell.*

vitrine 'ceràmica cardial suau atemporal', Jacqueline Heerema — *vitrine* *‘ceràmica cardial suau atemporal’, Jacqueline Heerema*

presentation, workshop

cat: empremta o impressió d’alguna cosa o algú
es: impronta o impresión de algo o alguien
en: imprint or impression of something or someone
nl: afdruk of indruk van iets of iemand

*presentation, table as conversation piece*

re-sources

seeking versatile beauty and poetics in soils as Earth, as (un)fired morphological features of time..
collecting timescales or non-linear time…
in-between-ness of the natural and the artifactual…
art, at the intersection of natural and human-induced forces, that shape not only the landscape but also perception itself…

*All flows to the (Mediterranean) Sea; from the Collserola hills, through the deltas de Llobregat and *Besòs*, with the plain of Barcelona in between*..

aigua - agua - water - water for the community garden at Vall d’Hebron origins from Collserola mountains, June 2022. Jacqueline Heerema — *aigua – agua – water – water for the new plants of community garden project Hort Urbà Masia Can Soler* *at Vall d’Hebron origins from Collserola mountains*. The pond is/was called Font del Bacallà.

Eix d'aire - eje de aire - (communities living around an) air shaft, El Raval Barcelona, June 2022.
Jacqueline Heerema. — *Eix d’aire* *– eje de aire* – *(communities living around an) air shaft, El Raval Barcelona, June 2022*.

Sòls circulars - suelos circulares- circular soils, Rambla del Raval Barcelona, June 2022.
Jacqueline Heerema. — *Sòls circulars – suelos circulares- circular soils, Rambla del Raval Barcelona, June 2022*.

Empremtes Cardíaques contemporànies - impresiones Cardíacas contemporáneas - contemporary Cardial Imprints, Argopecten purpuratus (Lamarck, 1819), zona de extraction pais Peru, Mercat de Boquiria Barcelona, June 2022.
Jacqueline Heerema — *Empremtes Cardíaques contemporànies – impresiones Cardíacas contemporáneas – contemporary Cardial Imprints*, Argopecten purpuratus (Lamarck, 1819), zona de extraction pais Peru, *Mercat de Boquiria Barcelona*, *June 2022*.

*Trobades empremtes – huellas encontradas – found imprints – gevonden afdrukken, of shells on a doorway..*

Neolithic Cardial or Cardium Ceramics, excavation *Caserne Sant Pau del Camp* Barcelona (now El Raval), courtesy Miguel Molist Montana, Anna Bach Gomez, archeologists, Grup de Recerca Arqueològica en el Mediterrani i Pròxim Orient, Departament de Prehistòria. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

*Visit to Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona*. *Holding time in my hands, Neolithic Cardial Ceramic shard with imprint of circular sun?* *With special thanks to Anna Bach Gomez, archeologist UAB.*

*Xarxes apilades – redes apiladas – stacked nets – gestapelde netten, of shells, inspired by visit to Mercabarna – Central Fish Market Mercat Central del Peix* *de Barcelona*.

Preliminary research:

*Cardiidae, said to be around since the Cambrian 550* *million years ago and still delicious; hart shaped shell, bivalve mollusks, cockles; inspiration for imprints on Neolithic Cardial or Cardium pottery*

*Caserne Sant Pau del Camp*, *Neoliothic,* *approx. 7,000 YBP*, *in the area that is now called El Raval*

*Subterranean* *Rei Martí Cistern*, *since 1361? Build to store fresh water, prevent flooding, now a cultural hub?*

CasCaDas ArtSpace:

Over the years I developed a method for empirical artistic field research, called Explore, Collect, Share & Learn:

Explore:

Walking the beaches from (Ebro delta – ) Llobregat delta – Besòs delta..
Meet subterranean streams and paleochannels, cisterns to collect fresh water, to prevent flooding…

I read that Barcelona city is located in a basin about 12 km long and 5 km wide, between the Mediterranean Sea (SE), Collserola Hills (NW), Monjuic Hills, Llobregat delta (SW) and Besòs delta. A basin, crossed by a system of subterranean streams and paleochannels, over time filled with gravel, sand, clay and slate gravel…with names like ‘Torrent del Mala’ (Ramblas de Barcelona), ‘Riera Blanca’, ‘Torre Melia’, ‘Molins’, ‘Riera del Notari’ or ‘les Roses’… and a wide floodplain that lies under almost all the Catalunya Square…

Touching upon geological records of rock, granite, sedimentary layers of sand, clay, (slate) gravels and an anthropogenic layer…

Engaging with Neolithic Cardiac or Cardial pottery with imprints of Cardiidae, bivalve mollusks…

I like to connect to this particular pottery, learn about size, shape, purpose, work methods of grinding and sculpting, origin of this Cardial ware, methods of imprinting, spreading of knowledge?
Raw materials, clay, local source?
Shells, malacological analysis, in conjunction of (coastal) food habit, local source?
And do these archeological studies contribute to reconstruct past climatic conditions? As lessons for the future?

Eating escopinya, berberechos….

Collect:

Re-sourcing, engage with local resources, matter, people’s knowledge, perceptions, connect to versatile world views…

Making, morphological features…

Share:…

Engage, public program…

Learn:…

Responses, audience…

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