Invocations (Act I)
The first night of Invocations, a programme of performance, music and live arts exploring the potential of ritual as a catalyst for transformative experiences.
To mark the summer solstice, this live programme of spells, incantations and oracles unfolds across two venues: Capella MACBA and the Convent dels Àngels, a former nunnery whose history stretches back to the dawning of colonial modernity.
The programme is divided into Macrocosms, collective invocations at Capella MACBA, a Gothic-style deconsecrated chapel; and Microcosms, consisting of one-on-one sessions of divination and self-examination in the crypt that is hidden beneath this venue.
Invocations is rounded off with the Oracles Fair organised by the Metzineres collective in collaboration with Christina Schultz. A Cabinet room will host unorthodox tarot decks created by Equipo Jeleton —whose cards are hand-painted in menstrual blood— and the queer/cuir feminist group INVASORIX, alongside an installation of spirits (both liquors and ghosts) by Ariadna Guiteras.
Acting as a portal between the different spaces within the Convent dels Àngels, artist Suzanne Treister’s alchemical diagrams map out the entangled histories of occultism, psychedelia, counterculture and cybernetics.
Curated by Sabel Gavaldon, Head of Programmes at MACBA, and Alicia Escobio, Programme Coordinator at the museum. For more information about the programme, visit the Invocations webpage.
Participants
CruhdaPatricia DomínguezAriadna GuiterasINVASORIXEquipo JeletonMarissa Malik (aka Manuka Honey)MetzineresChristina SchultzSuzanne Treister
Programme
One-on-one sessions of divination and self-examination in the crypt that is hidden beneath the Convent dels Àngels.
Marissa Malik: Astrological Tarot Readings
Marissa Malik, better known as Manuka Honey, is an astrologer, bruja, DJ and producer at the forefront of the UK underground scene. Her work explores terrestrial and cosmological journeys, diasporic circulations and ancestral yearnings. This session introduces a lesser-known dimension of her practice, as a tarot reader, through intimate card reading sessions.
ORACLES FAIR
A journey through the symbolic interpretations and intuitive connections of the Drug Tarot created by Christina Schulz and Metzineres.
Christina Schultz and Metzineres: Drug Tarot
This tarot stems from the project Conjuros y colocones (Spells and Highs), resulting from the collaboration between Christina Schultz and Metzineres, a collective based in the Raval neighbourhood that provides support networks for women who use drugs and survive various forms of violence due to their vulnerable situation.MACROCOSMS
Collective invocations and transformative experiences at Capella MACBA.
Ariadna Guiteras: The Sleepwalker
In this performance, artist Ariadna Guiteras calls forth a range of voices, as if she were a medium, among them those of Amalia Domingo Soler, a late-19th Century anarchist medium, while also unearthing the entangled histories of spiritualism and feminism, the Renaissance-era notion of the “porous body” as well as folk wisdom about plants and flowers through their poetics.
Itxaso Corral: Oscillating
“Floating, vibrating, stuttering”—writes Itxaso—“it is through oscillation that we learn, in the first waters, this experience of unfolding ourselves in life. On the night of the solstice, we will bring together calligraphies, choreographies and magic grammars to continue working together on the task of trying out names and rubbing up against the unknown.”Patricia Domínguez: Technologies of Enchantment
Patricia Domínguez performs a ritual reading of Technologies of Enchantment, an ethnobotanical journey across indigenous lands that have been devastated by neoliberalism in Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Her work uncovers histories of hybridity and resistance buried beneath the surface of hydropower dams, Inca pyramids refashioned into ATMs and other temples of extractivism.
Cruhda (feat. Judith Adataberna)
Cruhda combines electronic avant-garde, folk tradition and the gloomy aesthetics of Tenebrism to present a soundscape of deep Spain. Field recordings, samples, vocal melodies, synthesizers and clarinets are central to her compositions. For this ritual invocation, Cruhda joins forces with Galician visual artist Judith Adataberna, with whom she shares an intimate connection in relation to loss and mourning.
CABINET
This cabinet room hosts unorthodox tarot decks created by Equipo Jeleton —whose cards are hand-painted in menstrual blood— and the queer/cuir feminist group INVASORIX, alongside an installation of spirits (both liquors and ghosts) by Ariadna Guiteras.
Acting as a portal between the different spaces within the Convent dels Àngels, artist Suzanne Treister’s alchemical diagrams map out the entangled histories of occultism, psychedelia, counterculture and cybernetics.
Registration can also be done at the museum, before the start of the activity, and is subject to the availability of spaces. If you have any question, feel free to contact us on 93 481 33 68 or by email at macba [at] macba [dot] cat.
Exhibition
Related
Activities
Images
