Nayari Castillo’s artistic research goes public!
Photo: Nayari Castillo
Nayarí Castillo has been exploring more-than-human encounters in the city of Graz and its adjacent forests as part of her artistic research in the Forest Encounters project. Her explorations began by mapping different animal encounters recorded in recent years by biologists in the forests around Graz. Castillo used this information to develop a series of joyful poems or spells and placed them (in a form of silkscreened signs) in the public space in Graz and its forests, inviting people to transform themselves into forest animals. This game of magic and more-than-human sensibility opened a new door to understanding the forests in and around the city.
The first part of Castillo’s project was displayed at the Wild Spots exhibition in <rotor> Centre for Contemporary Art in Graz (June 7–October 19, 2024). The exhibition was in the form of an installation entitled Spells for Shapeshifting in which spells were combined with optic machines that showed possible human-animal transformations.
On October 12, 2024, Castillo created a parkour of spells by posting the spells for shapeshifting around Graz. A guided tour led a group of participants to different viewing spots to find the magical animals. The tour ended with a visit to the installation in the Lech Forest near Graz where all the spells were exhibited. The installation remained in the forest until the end of November 2024, and some of the poems/spells from that period can still be seen at various locations around the city and its forests.
Photo: Consuelo Méndez
Photo: Nayari Castillo
Photo: Nayari Castillo
Photo: Consuelo Méndez
Photo: Nayari Castillo
A second part of Castillo’s work was installed at an artist residency in the Hoke Workhouse in Carinthia (September 1–13, 2024) in collaboration with the Simultaneous Arrivals (Simularr) project. Castillo used a fallen tree house found in the forest compound near the residency and developed the site-specific intervention Shrine for the Goddesses of Transformation, an homage to deities that rule mystical forest beings. Castillo transformed the amazing tree house into a resonating structure, allowing visitors to hear a litany of spells for shapeshifting as they walk around of it. The soundscape was made by recording fourteen persons from the surrounding village whispering the poems/spells, and thus creating a chorus of transformation wishes.