Using video, performance and installation, Landra’s work involves experimentation with local production methods and forms of art-life.  

Part of the ‘Institution(ing)s’ programme, the project ‘The Body in the Middle’ is a proposal that develops in two activities: a reading session and a workshop. 

The workshop proposes a walk deep into the Gulbenkian Garden, where we will recall excerpts from the previous day’s reading session and place them in context with the plant species we find. What relationships are there between what we read and what we see, touch, smell and taste?

The landscape that usually surrounds us, entirely changed and humanised, proposes different worlds and shows different ways of inhabiting. Its construction presents us with sometimes blatant clues about the societies that occupy the territory and the policies they practise or idealise. The knowledge we have inherited and which we are still acquiring about how to read and understand the environment around us becomes essential.

Given that the Gulbenkian Garden is one of the most complex and diverse gardens in the city, we aim to discover which species compose such a varied group, invaluable to humans and other beings. After identifying their forms and properties, we will gather some of the most edible species, or those with greatest culinary interest, to cook and sample, followed by a chat.

Among these foraged delicacies will be the fruits of the genus ‘Quercus’ – acorns or ‘landras’ – which fall from common oaks, holm oaks and cork oaks, and scatter abundantly over the ground in autumn. To accompany the plant-based lunch, we will try acorn bread, made from acorn flour, as well as an infusion.  

Through a short performance, we will experience the harvesting of acorns, followed by their manual processing and simple preparation. Evoking images of the oak grove where they live, the duo paints a picture of a culture that has been lost and which offers us glimpses of a future that could be abundant, resilient and free.

‘Institution(ing)s’ is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Creative Europe. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.