Eugenio Ampudia: Concerts for the Biocene and Other Stories

A conversation with the Spanish multidisciplinary artist about nature, art and music.

Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

Thinking back on 2020 and the period of uncertainty that followed, the overload and, yet, lack of information, it’s easy to remember some of the creative actions that helped us not only to escape but also to rethink what was happening before the pandemic. I particularly remember National Geographic’s November cover featuring theatre Liceu Barcelona with UceLi Quartet on stage. At first sight, the image would have seemed like a conventional instrumental concert if it wasn’t for the fact that the theatre’s seats were fully occupied with a crowd of plants, who appeared to be peacefully enjoying the musical theme. It took me a few seconds to realize that this was one of the latest initiatives by Spanish artist Eugenio Ampudia whose work (coming from a family of biologists) has touched me for some years now.

I talked to Eugenio about dropping out of art school, interspecies relations, and the influence of nature in his art.

Georgina: In an interview with Arte en Cuarentena, you mentioned you started your education in Fine Arts but then switched to veterinary sciences. I actually found this move very interesting and after looking at some of your works like “Moving Landscape” (2018), “Orchard Channel” (2019), or “A Glorious Accident” (2020),  I could highly perceive the influence of scientific culture in your work. How have you linked these two disciplines in your art?

Eugenio: The truth is that in art school I was taught how to “dissipate” and to think out of the box, while in vet school I was taught how to “not let a dog die.” Both experiences helped me define both aspects and provided me with a scientific culture that helped me to better understand the concept of interspecies relations. In the beginning, when I wanted to become a veterinarian, I wanted to save animals but, later on, the idea became more conceptual and less scientific, focusing less on anatomy and more on the relations between species. The decision of becoming an artist has to do with the things that I wanted to tell others and that I couldn’t tell from another position. 

G: How do you think having both of these educational backgrounds have influenced your ways of creating? 

E: I have no doubt that my previous education has influenced a lot in how I produce my pieces and in the interests that I want to communicate. There are certain things that, if they were not coming from a scientific background, I wouldn’t be able to tell them with as much fluency as I try to. For example, there’s a part of my work that is related not only to the animal world but to mechanics and engineering; I work hand-in-hand with teams from other disciplines as well.

G: Of course! This is the case of “Glorious Accident,” right?

E: Exactly! For example, this piece is related to the origin of life and the formation of life on Earth. I thought that the best way of developing it was by working with an engineer to produce these pieces and make them look and move with the appropriate rhythm, in order to make them look like “moving pieces of life.”

G: In “Concert for the Biocene,” where you worked with Blanca de la Torre, you filled the 2,292 seats of the Liceu Barcelona with different types of plants, who had the opportunity to listen to the UceLi Quartet performing “Crisantemi” by Giacomo Puccini. In an interview with El Español, you mention that you chose this song because of the relationship it has with plants and the belief that it could make them react. Could you tell me a little more about this idea?

E: I don’t think it is a belief. There are studies that have evaluated the reaction of plants to music. This quartet was important to me because it was written by Puccini during the night that his friend, Amadeo de Saboya, died. It’s a very sad theme. The day that we presented the concert was the same day that the COVID-19 state of alarm in Spain ended, so for me, it was very reasonable to tell the plants how sad and devastated we were. It’s true that plants have a different speed to process things, to store something in their memories– but they do it anyway. I wanted these plants to have the feeling that we were communicating with them with the best tools we have which is culture, art and music.

G: Did you carry out previous scientific research for this project?

E: I’ve read a lot about plants’ reactions regarding their development, their memory storage, etc. Even though they don’t have brains, they think. They have their own way of being in the world that’s very different from animals and the rest of the living beings but they relate to themselves and with other animal species like insects which is a correlation that has existed for a million years. Trees relate between themselves through their roots, by cultivating fungi that give them sugars that will, at the same time, cultivate bacteria. And all this happens under the ground. Also, trees are “cautious” with touching each other with their branches. It’s as if there is some kind of shyness between them when invading the space of other trees. Plants have a way of being on this planet that has evolved even more than animals’. They are quiet, they get their energy from the sun and develop their own strategy. 

G: I’m sure that many people have asked you this… but what happened with the plants after the concert?

E: We took the big ones back to the plant house because they were very heavy. And the small ones were given to the doctors, nurses and the staff from the Clinical Hospital of Barcelona. We thought that giving them as a gift to the ones who take care of other people’s lives would be good for the plants. Also, as you might already know, each plant had a unique numerated label. This was a way to value them as living beings, so if you received one of them as a gift after the concert, you could tell from the pot that the plant had assisted to the Concert for the Biocene.

Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

G: This was definitely one of my favorite elements of the initiative. I read that the plants were actually treated as human beings during the whole concert…

E: Yes! Each and every single plant had an admission ticket for the concert, which was actually the opening of the new season of the Liceu Barcelona. So the plants were the special guests of this event. They were not ornamental; they were part of the audience and they were treated like it.

G: This concert took place in June 2020. Could you say that the pandemic has had an influence in your creative process or in the subjects you address in your works? What do you think has changed since then?

E: My work consists in observing what happens around me, getting conclusions about it and explaining it to the audience. There was a pandemic so, of course, I had to react to it and for a long time, I had been working with interspecies relations so it was the right moment to tell this, hand-in-hand with the Liceu. I think that the most important thing about this action was not only the concert itself, as there have already been a lot of concerts for plants since the seventies, but the context of that time, which gave it visibility. After that, we have presented the concert for many places like the Cuenca Biennal in Ecuador, featuring traditional music from this country, and in El Escorial, Spain for the 250th anniversary of the Teatro Real Coliseo de Carlos III. For me, these two concerts represent the booster doses for the Covid-19 vaccine.

G: In one of your latest releases, "Our Destiny was the Present," you share through video a game between the sounds of the city and instrumental music mixed with natural and artificial lights and its movement. What role does music play in this work? 

E: This work, which is also directly related to the pandemic, took place in New York City. It’s a story told by the buildings, the people inside and all the elements that accumulated in this video. I chose Symphony No. 40 by Mozart as if it was interpreted by John Cage battling against the piano. That’s why the music seems very “New Yorker.” We wanted to portray the feelings of solitude and dislocation that everyone was feeling at that time. We chose New York because it was the best example of the accumulation of individuals predisposed to a global pandemic. Music was important because the buildings, the time, and the whole city are dancing in response to it.

G: Correct me if I’m wrong but I felt this work was a response to Concert for the Biocene…

E: Of course! Many of my works are a response to the concert. Another one would be a concert we did in Estufa Fria, a greenhouse and botanical garden home to over 300 plant species in Lisbon. For this project, three of the most important musicians specialized in fados and Portuguese guitar went to where the plants were, and not the other way around like in the Liceu where the plants went to where the music was. We did this as a sign of respect for the plants. 

G: Can’t wait to see how it went! Don’t forget to keep us updated.