There is a special beauty and art to life here in the mountains of Andalusia. To live here takes a creative mindset and the line is often thin between task and ritual; work and play; life and art. The harvesting of the caqui fruit for example is a long held tradition in these villages, and is something very beautiful to observe. We wanted to capture this moment in time, and use this source material to inspire an audio-visual piece of work, paying homage to the art that exists in abundance in our daily lives.
“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The caqui (or Persimmon) originates from South-East Asia, and is popular the Alpujarras. During the winter, her fruits are commonly seen decorating the villages, drying in tidy rows hanging on bamboo canes from balconies and verandas.
Here at Orarca Techno Zen Centre, we are blessed with a glorious caqui tree on our land, and the help of some veteran caqui harvesters, Rafa and Wolli. We captured the harvest from different perspectives using several gadgets, including a special 360 degree camera, honouring the event as an interaction with the “fruit of divine fire”.
After a long day of work, finally up they go..
Some months after.. they're ready, Yummm!
Coming back to these materials months later, as the caquis were drying and becoming ready to eat, we let a fresh perspective come through once again. Finding ourselves hypnotised by the beauty captured we let it take us on a psychedelic trip into the divine fire, inspiring resident artist, Nick Tyler (aka Alian Pizza Van) to compose a piece of music to accompany the visuals Michal Hermon (aka Lulu Play) had started to create. And after a fruitful process of editing and polishing, we can finally share with you, the final result. enjoy! ///