‘The Spine’ is a fascinating research and art project by Isabel Burr Raty that starts from a single powerful metaphor: the spine of the earth. The lecture performance establishes a link between the spine of humans and that of the earth, opening up new ways of ‘listening’ to the landscape.
Raty takes us on the initiatory journey of ‘The Spine’ on Easter Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She focuses on the original inhabitants, the Rapa Nui community, who still bear the impact of Chilean colonialism. They see ‘The Spine’ as an opportunity to revive spiritual traditions and ancestral knowledge by allowing the project's path to run across their sacred volcanic landscapes.
The lecture interweaves landscape, history, audiovisual archives, herbal tinctures and ritual research and poses the profound question: How can landscape art be an instrument for regenerating together?
