Cali (Colombia) October 18, 2024 - Just two days away from the opening of COP16, we invite you to get to know one of the key moments of the cultural agenda of the world's most important biodiversity summit: the symbolic act ' From Water and Earth', which will take place twice during the program. The first will be at the opening event of COP16, on October 20, in the Blue Zone, at the Pacific Valley Events Center. The other will be at the concert 'Peace with Nature: a song for life', on October 26, at the Pascual Guerrero stadium in Cali (Colombia).
The symbolic act ‘From Water and Earth’, under the same structure consisting of four moments in which music, dance, speech and imagery will be present, will have variations according to the characteristics of the two venues. For example, for the opening event of COP 16, in the Blue Zone - a high-level discussion space managed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - where Party delegations, heads of state and observers will be present, Nataly Domicó, poet of the Embarra people, and mamo Crispín Izquierdo, of the Arhuaco people, are scheduled to speak.
On the other hand, in the case of the symbolic act of the concert 'Peace with Nature: a song for life' there will be contemporary dance and monumental mapping performed by Cacumen, a collective from the city of Cali. In addition, Colombian soprano Betty Garcés and the Cali Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the requiem 'Pie Jesu' by composer Gabriel Fauré.
In addition, the projection of images, conceived thanks to the implementation of the project of co-creation with communities ' Rivers of Life' of the National Center for the Arts and the Agency for Territorial Renewal, with rural communities in five municipalities PDET.
On the event ‘From Water and Earth’
The symbolic act ‘From Water and Earth’ encourages reflection on the possibility that communities whose past has been erased can imagine futures in which there are balanced relationships with nature and human beings become aware of the care of their common home: Mother Earth.
“The symbolic act is a harmonization ritual of our ethnic populations, in which the rural population, women, young people, artists and cultural managers who care for nature also participate. To be able to have these voices present at the COP and to have them be protagonists is fundamental,” said the Minister of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge, Juan David Correa.
For the head of the culture portfolio, it is essential to learn from these cosmovisions that protect and coexist in balance with nature from a communitarian vision.
The event ‘From Water and Earth’ is based on the following moments:
- 'Law of Origin'. The cosmovision of the originary peoples of unity with nature will be projected. Participants will include mamos from the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, maloqueros from the Amazon and wise women from different communities.
- ''Water Chants''. Afro-Pacific singers, led by Nidia Góngora, will make an offering to water through a traditional boga song. This space will reveal the importance of organizing the territory around water so that human activity is sustainable. At this moment, the marimba music and traditional songs and dances of the Colombian region of the South Pacific, a cultural manifestation born from the rivers and the jungle, which was inscribed in 2015 in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO, will be the protagonist.
- 'Breath of the Earth'. Through dance, mapping and speech, an urgent call for help for the destruction we are doing to the planet will be made.
- 'The tree of life' -harmonization-. Traditional Wayúu dance of the yonna, followed by performers carrying native bushes on their backs that will form a forest. The mapping projection recreates the rebirth of life in unity with the cosmos. At this time during the concert, the main stage design will be a giant canoe based on a painting by Colombian painter Pedro Ruiz, whose design was worked on with Teatro El Juguete. During this space there will also be a yonna dance with red costumes that represent peace, life and blood for the Wayúus.
Iván Benavides, curator of programming at the Delia Zapata Olivella National Center for the Arts, said: “The level of symbolic language of the native peoples and Afro communities is profound. This dance, for example, is in spiral form, which corresponds to their way of conceiving harmony and time”.
The symbolic act is a proposal that seeks to promote a communion with the audience, based on a construction born from the ancestral wisdoms of the communities in their territories, which are mediated for the stage with mapping and lights.
Check all the news about the COP of the people and the cultural agenda of the COP16.