CONCERT FOR THE BIOCENE – EL ESCORIAL

concert for the biocene – El Escorial
a creation for the 250th anniversary of the Teatro Real Coliseo Carlos III in San Lorenzo de El Escorial
concert for plants as a symbolic proposal for a paradigm shift
single-channel vídeo and a series of 6 photographs
6 minutes 54 seconds

The Real Coliseo Carlos III theater in San Lorenzo de El Escorial is celebrating its 250th anniversary with a play from its well-known Concert for the Biocene series, created by Eugenio Ampudia and curated by Blanca de la Torre.

The work, which premiered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and is now beginning its tour, in different versions, at international institutions and biennials, was created as a symbolic action as a starting point for reformulating the present, the paradigm shift that would kick off the new post-COVID era.

Unlike the presentation at the Barcelona opera house, where the audience was exclusively plant-based, on this occasion the plants will share seats with a select group of spectators. This hybrid audience, alluding to the importance of interspecies coexistence as part of a paradigm shift, will enjoy Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid Op. 30 No. 6, by Luigi Boccherini, performed by an orchestra of 10 or 12 musicians.

Recent scientific studies on plant behavior reveal that plants are organisms capable of reacting sensitively to sound stimuli, and numerous thinkers and scientists have developed relevant theories about the sophistication of plant intelligence, such as Michael Marder and Stefano Mancuso. In the case of the former, he develops an elaborate theory around what he considers “plant-thinking,” assigning plants the ability to develop their own way of philosophizing. For Mancuso, although plants are not equipped to listen to music, they do perceive sounds and frequencies, and they have a great capacity for communication.
It is this communication and interdependence that Ampudia refers to, appealing to
cooperation, empathy, and interspecies coexistence as the only way forward in the face of the cul-de-sac that is the climate crisis.

The term Biocene, referred to in the title of this series, forms part of Blanca de la Torre’s research thesis, a term coined as an alternative to Anthropocene. The latter, popularized at the dawn of this millennium by Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Paul Crutzen, would replace the previous period, known as the Holocene, and recognize humans as responsible for the state of degradation of the planet.
Given the connotations of the popular term, which seems to sidestep the political, economic, and especially colonial implications of the planet’s ecological deterioration and unfairly distribute responsibility evenly among all “anthropos,” a multitude of alternative concepts have emerged. Some of the best known are the Eurocene proposed by Peter Sloterdijk and the Capitalocene, coined by Andreas Malm and Jason Moore and widely used by Donna Haraway.

In the case of the Biocene, the aim is to bring about a paradigm shift and usher in a new era that places life at the center. This requires a Copernican shift that connects with post-humanist thinking, a line along which the “Concert for the Biocene” is situated, since one of the tasks of contemporary art and aesthetics must be to promote new alliances between human and non-human entities that recognize the importance of interdependencies between species, ushering in a new era of true eco-social commitment.