བར་དོ་ (Bardo) is a Tibetan word meaning intermediate state or state of transition, which can describe moments in which the usual way of life is suspended.
In this piece you are here: བར་དོ་, floating in the dark on a magical element that acts as a boundary between inside and outside, between now and after. You, and you alone, are here, in the liminal zone where everything ends up beginning, a singular inhabitant of a womb-vessel in which to go through this rite of passage. You are here, in a mystical machine that asks for nothing more than your willingness to let itself be accompanied.
[You are here: བར་དོ་] is an immersive installation, and the second installment in my series of liminal experiences for aquatic bodies following Baptism. Designed specifically as a threshold to the group exhibition “L’altre costat” (The Other Side) at the Centre Santa Mónica in Barcelona, it continues to develop two lines of my current research: generating private experiences in public places, and making use of water as a channel, as a communicating vessel, as a fluid stage that supports a rite of passage. I understand my installations and performance pieces as places for practicing states of embodied reflection, made possible by the creation of suspended environments in which we become self-conscious. This piece can work as an individual, double, or triple installation, which therefore occurs for one, two, or three spectators at a time, one per room.
[You are here: བར་དོ་] is a piece by iara Solano Arana
In collaboration with Sammy Metcalfe and Chris Brett Bailey
Produced by Sleepwalk Collective and the Centre Santa Mónica
ORIGINAL IDEA: iara Solano Arana
TEXT: Iara Solano Arana, Sammy Metcalfe, and Chris Brett Bailey
ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Sammy Metcalfe
SOUND DESIGN AND PROGRAMMING: Damien Bazin
LIGHTING DESIGN: Pablo Velasco
SET DESIGN AND TEXTILES: iara Solano Arana
EMBROIDERY: Camila Vecco Haddad
VOICEOVER IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH: iara Solano Arana
VOICEOVER IN CATALAN: Mónica Almirall
EXHIBITION CURATORS: Enric Puig and Ferrán Utzet
EXPERIENCE DURATION: 5 minutes
LANGUAGES AVAILABLE: Spanish, English, and Catalan
In [You are here: བར་དོ་] three different rooms await you: one red, one green, and one white, representing culture, nature, and identity, respectively. In each of the three rooms there’s a bed for you, but you’ll only be able to access one of them. And it’s not just any type of bed; it’s a waterbed that incorporates the vibrations of the binaural soundscape that flows beneath your body and around you in 360°.
Take the survey
Collect your number
Pay attention to the screen
Open the indicated door, enter, and…
Lie down. Lie down now.
Let your body float on this bed made of lakes,
waterfalls, thunderstorms, dripping taps, sweating lovers.
Surrender to the in-between state and allow yourself to be carried away
by a simulacrum of death and resurrection on this great raft of tears,
your tears, all the tears you cried in your lifetime.
On behalf of the entire onboard crew, we hope you enjoy your voyage. And remember:
Hold baggage must be abandoned in order to make space for new baggage.
