BAJO LA SOMBRA DEL SOL

(UNDER THE SUN’S SHADOW)

“Our future hinges on our ability to re-image our place in the world” 

Anja Stadelmann

The way forward is inward. Bajo la Sombra del Sol is a journey into the collective shadow of our unconscious, the veiled inner land where our instinct, drive, and desire live. Where the constructs of what we think we should be threatens us with the possibility of self-annihilation while giving us power for transformation and life. 

Bajo la Sombra del Sol / Under the Sun’s Shadow is a performative hypertextural scenic work that makes communion with the natural landscape of Mono Lake, pointing toward its complex ecological and symbolic relationship with Los Angeles. The piece seeks to create a liminal space between contrasting spaces and approaches. Between the harsh and challenging outdoors of the great basin to the controlled black box environment of a theater nested in a thirsty megalopolis. Between film and live performance. Between defined structure and emergence. Between tradition and ingenuity as represented by the SunDrum created by artist Jerónimo Naranjo.  Using the creation of myth as a way to reintegrate the notion of ecstasy in the social realm to define our ontological principles and communal consecration to social togetherness.

Filmed at Mono Lake in September of 2021. Presented at REDCAT as a performative Installation during November 18th-20th of 2021. A full length film integrating the film version from Mono Lake  and  the live performance is in the process of editing. The release date will be in the fall of 2023. 

The work includes a powerful array of artists, performers, and producers: Jeronimo Naranjo, Milo Tamez, Jose Pablo Jimenez, Dorian Wood, Tanya Orellana, Yulissa Maqueos, Oguri, Madeline Falcone, Israel Castañeda, Matthew Johns, Justin Asher, Lauren Klein, Mataji Booker Graham, Madison Heying, Kozue Matsumoto, Roxanne Steinberg, Hyoin Jun, and Asher Hartman.

-How a performance about California’s environment was shaped by water and fire-

by Carolina Miranda for The LA TIMES Newsletter, November 13th, 2022. 

* Bajo la Sombra del Sol is funded in part with generous support from the Elizabeth A. Greenberg Fund and Seth Polen. Additional generous support for this project is made possible by Metabolic Studio. 

**Supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.

***Under special use permit from California State Parks