We use art and activism to accelerate the cultural paradigm shift we urgently need. Practices drawn from deep ecology and the Work That Reconnects help us deeply experience our interdependence with nature and process our shared pain at the damage we humans are causing. We seek deeper conversations around the uncertain future, raising awareness and curiosity through art works like Almenara – Memorial a la Vida.
Creating space for grief and loss
in a regenerative culture
During the last glaciation (in the early Neolithic period), La Janda was an oasis of biodiversity from which life re-emerged to repopulate Europe as the ice retreated. We are committed to preserving the biodiversity that surrounds us as a tool against mass extinction, in the hope that life may resurge from privileged places where it has been protected. Our work with deep ecology has shown us the transformative power of including space for difficult emotions – fear, anger, grief and loss – to help us open to deeper conversations around the issues. So we created a space on the edge of our land, where private land meets public space, where we share an art installation that offers the perfect conditions for unusual encounters.
A community ritual
In May 2021, in collaboration with XR La Janda and Be.Time (a local cooperative working with art and ecology) we inaugurated “Almenara: Memorial a la Vida”. The installation is a Life Cairn, a stone mound that is a symbolic tomb for lost species. It occupies a beautiful place with views of the Strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic that are admired by the hundreds of people who walk here every week. Passers-by are invited to add their stone to the growing pile in honour of all that is lost – the local varieties of plants that are no longer in our gardens, the birds that are no longer seen in the area, the animals that have disappeared from our shores. By the entrance, on a rusting steel plaque, the words of a local poet – Francisco Basallote – set the tone:
STILL LIFE
To inventory loss
is so elusive
that sometimes the essential
is overlooked,
the space
where light
and the heart trace
the coordinates of grace.
(An extract from “Naturalezas Muertas”, by Francisco Basallote)
Taking our place in the
community of living beings
Almenara is a place of alarm and hope; a place to mourn what has been lost, a place to say, “so far but no further”, a place to defend life from love and from fury, a place to tell the truth. But it is very difficult to face such pain alone: we need to do it in company, together with other humans and other beings of nature – so the Memorial provides a place where we can gather with others (or through the presence of the stones know that others have been there before us). Almenara promotes a change in the way we relate to nature, through the acceptance of loss and the mourning necessary to come to terms with it. Human beings must take our place in the web of life and recognise our interdependence. Our shared destiny means that any prosperous future we design must be for the whole community of living beings.
Memorial a la Vida
The Life Cairn is open to anyone to visit at any time. It is just a few metres from the road and it usually possible to park nearby. It’s also an enjoyable walk from the small town of Vejer de la Frontera.
Please visit and take time to leave a stone in honour of any species or place you carry in your heart, and to connect to others who have visited before you. Sit a while, be present, and enjoy the views.
And if you’d like, you can share your experience and photos on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AlmenaraVejer
