Behind the Garden: the Making of ‘An Aria for the Mallard’

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This film charts the unfolding process behind ‘An Aria for the Mallard’, a project where opera, art, and neuroscience don't just converge, but blur and breathe as one entity.

This recording of the creative process behind Rosana Antolí’s installation weaves together fragments from intensive rehearsals, vocal explorations, deep field recordings, interviews with the collaborators, and immersive garden walks.

Unlike a conventional ‘behind-the-scenes’ narrative, this video piece is designed to reveal the intricate architecture of more-than-human co-creation. It shows how the work was shaped by a collective of voices and disciplines: soprano Claire Rocha Santos; composer Jorge Ramos; neuroscientists; the presence of birds; the teams from CAM, the Gulbenkian Culture Programme and the Gulbenkian Garden; and other natural forces.

Ultimately, it constitutes not a linear chronicle of production, but a reflection on shared authorship, exploring porous borders, where the human and the more-than-human meet – not merely in theoretical discourse, but in radical, embodied practice.


Credits

Behind the Garden: the Making of ‘An Aria for the Mallard’
2025, 35’
Documentary

Courtesy

Rosana Antolí Studio

Interviewees

Ana Botella (Deputy Director, CAM)
António Gomes Costa (Gulbenkian Culture Programme)
Pablo Giner (Architect, PIC Arquitectos)
Jorge Ramos (Composer)
Paula Côrte-Real (Learning Programme Coordinator, Gulbenkian Garden)
Claire Rocha Santos (Soprano)
Nuno Charneca (InovLabs)
Rosana Antolí (Artist)

Supports

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.

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