27 – 28 September

Madrid – Goethe-Institut Madrid

Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal

In the 5th edition of the BoCA Bienal, the performance cycle in natural spaces “I want to see my mountains” returns with performances by artists Isabel Cordovil and Gemma Luz Bosch who revisit Beuys’ legacy. Between Lisbon and Madrid, their new creations create new links between art, ecology and imagination.

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From the Bronze Age to the environmental urgencies of the present, this performance investigates the evolution of the shield as an object of protection, transforming defense into a poetic and political gesture. Through a narrative that crosses archaeology, activism and fiction, the work reveals the continuity between shields that protect human bodies and those improvised to defend non-human bodies, such as urban trees.

The starting point for the research is the 2004 Madrid protests, in which demonstrators created human barriers to save the trees on the Paseo del Prado. Inspired by this act, the performance projects a new chapter for this story: the presentation of an “Anti-Felling Shield” designed for the 2025 controversy in Lisbon, where the jacaranda trees on Avenida 5 de Outubro are under threat.

The performance invites the public on a reflective walk, starting at the Goethe-Institut in Madrid and the National Library in Lisbon, towards the site of the action, collectively reimagining the relationship between care, resistance and public space.

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