Heliofilia: Opening of the research

This event is presented as an opening of the research linked to Lola Lasurt’s project Heliofilia, focused on the naturist group Els Amics del Sol (The Friends of the Sun), established in 1915 on the now-disappeared Can Tunis beach, very close to the Graner. This project was part of the previous edition of MANIFESTA, in which Graner collaborated by hosting in residency the creation process of its performative aspect (the choreographed walks). It immediately captured our interest, as it is directly connected to the neighborhood we are part of, its history, and, very explicitly, the history of dance.

Els Amics del Sol, with their amateur practice of both Isadora Duncan’s dance and the gymnastic exercises proposed by her brother Raymond Duncan, became pioneers in introducing some of the foundations of modern dance to the Iberian Peninsula. All their activities were carried out in close contact with nature, especially along the beaches of Barcelona’s Llobregat coastline, the same ones that were easily accessible to the residents of the La Marina neighborhood before the successive expansions of the Port of Barcelona.

Heliofilia has materialized into a series of pictorial friezes created by Lola Lasurt and the organization of three choreographed walks. These walks have been conceived as artistic recreations of Els Amics del Sol’s outings to the beaches in the early 20th century, which are now transformed into a third post-industrial landscape of the city, located between the port and airport expansions and affected by the artificial diversion of the Llobregat River and the retreat of the delta caused by climate change. During the event, Lola Lasurt will share all the archival documentation gathered during her research on the naturist group and will converse with choreographer and dancer Mireia de Querol about their collaboration in a residency at the Graner, addressing the formal development of her dance intervention during the choreographed walks of Heliofilia.