Ingela Ihrman, Daisy Lafarge, and Luz Pichel: Resonances in Nancy Holt Geopoetics

Ingela Ihrman’s work cultivates forms of empathy towards living beings, which she considers part of a wider ecosystem. Costume-making is a fundamental element in her work, which is brought to life through performances marked by tenderness, awe, and playfulness. Ihrman presents her performance Giant Otter Giving Birth (2012), in which she will embody an otter seeking refuge in the museum’s atrium to give birth.

Daisy Lafarge’s first book, Life Without Air (2020), alluded to the microscopic universe of bacteria and yeast described by Louis Pasteur. Lafange’s poetry invokes a complex nature, which would be traversed —in her own words— by “microplastics in the air and fatbergs in the sewer.” In this event, Lafarge will recite a selection of her poems alongside fragments from Lovebug, a new essay on the poetics of infection. 

In Luz Pichel’s poetry, the rural landscape of her native Galicia is layered over the folds of gender and class in an exploration of the potential of minor languages and folklore as a revulsive force within dominant culture. Pichel’s writing captures a rural world that lingers on the brink of extinction, while reflecting on her own status as a migrant and displaced person through a non-folkloriszing use of dialectal variants such as Castrapo.  

This event is presented within the framework of Geopoetics, a live arts program that brings together the voices of poets and artists who turn to writing to reflect on a present marked by the irreversible transformations of planet Earth. Curated by Sabel Gavaldon, Head of Programmes at MACBA, and Alicia Escobio, Programmes Coordinator for the museum.