Cinzas, Pó e Mar _ a residência

For two months, Madeira became a place for listening, writing, and gathering.

Ashes, Dust, and Sea — the residency It took shape through walks, sound recordings, writing workshops, readings, conversations, and moments of shared creation with different communities on the island. More than simply preparing a performance, this process sought to build relationships, allowing the territory and the people who live there to actively participate in the creation of the work.

It was a long two months.

Made up of fascination and frustration, of love, doubt, desire, and belief. Two months of scenery that looked like something out of a movie and a project that slowly took shape as we came together.

I arrived on the island with an idea. I left with people.

Throughout the residency, the work was continually transformed by conversations, walks, workshops, readings, and unexpected encounters. The creative process shifted from following a predetermined plan to responding to the territory, its voices, and the time needed to listen to them.

I realized, once again, that working with the community is not merely a complement to artistic creation. It is at its very core. It is a need to come together, to listen, to discuss, and to build collectively. It is a place where the work ceases to belong solely to those who create it and instead becomes something that is shaped by those who experience it.

I leave Madeira with the sea closer—on the inside.

The workshops took place in various educational and community settings, blending sensory writing, oral expression, and slam poetry. Starting from listening, memory, and observation of the local area, each participant was invited to transform experience into language, contributing to a creative process in which words ceased to be merely written and instead came to occupy the body, the voice, and the space. Between each session, there was a place to return to. The Artistic Creation StudioIt became this “home base”: a space for rehearsal, gathering, reflection, and creation, where the voices gathered throughout the residency found time to breathe before returning to the world in the form of a performance.

The residency evolved from a process of continuously listening to the local area.

The sound recordings were interwoven with writing workshops, slam poetry sessions, public readings, informal gatherings, and long walks around the island. Each new conversation altered the creative process and gave rise to new questions.

Instead of following a rigid methodology, the process gradually adapted to the people, places, and circumstances that arose along the way. The performance took shape slowly, drawing inspiration from the voices of the community, shared memories, and the human and soundscapes of Madeira.

This residency has reinforced a belief that permeates my entire body of work: to create is to listen.

This process gave rise to relationships, texts, sounds, memories, and a new way of inhabiting the territory. The work carried out in Madeira was also a continuation of the artistic research begun in *What sound? What music? Just the world!*, by exploring the relationship between listening, community, and contemporary creation.