Description:

Trabeska follows the transect method to delve into concepts that cover landscape or territory, and the tension between map and experience. The transect is a method whereby a portion of land is marked off for study. Tracing a straight line upon a map and experiencing the tension between it and the physical place it occupies. When this piece of land is examined, rather than a space being found, it is produced. Trabeska offers an exploration of a space, off the beaten track, traversing areas of dense vegetation. Far from presenting a bucolic or romantic notion of landscape, what is under exploration is its elusive nature. The supposedly untouched, “over yonder in the mountains”, original, virginal and innocuous, has become outworn as a point of departure.

The walk started on one of the sides of Mount Besaide, at Arrasate-Mondragón (Gipuzkoa). Participants were driven by bus to the location. The group crossed the forest following a straight line, parallel to the construction of a high speed railway (TAV) joining the three Basque provinces (known as the Basque Y ). Coinciding with the railroad entrance into the mountain, the group entered inside a nearby cavern, Kobaundi, to explore a sound installation. The cave separates an active limestone quarry for cement and mortar, Kobate, and a paleontological site from the lower and medium paleolithic, Lezetxiki; places with completely opposite temporalities in friction. The cave is currently the habitat for a community of bats.

A sound work activated each of these layers of the place, establishing a dialogue with the sounds of the environment and using the cave resonating actor. Finally, the participants would exit the cave and cross the stone quarry to return to the bus that took them to the departure point. In the bus, a music accompanied the ending trip as a way to generate a cinematic appropriation of the experience.

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