Eco -Workshop Gathering

Yesterday the 5^th of June was The World Environment Day, a day which is meant to stimulate awareness of the environment. Coinciding with this Gaia y Sofia organised their first Eco-Workshop Gathering at the hotel. For us it was a very special event to have organised at the hotel, an event which gave people the opportunity to share insights and experiences, stories of sustainable livelihoods and participate in a gentle agenda of activities.

The floating maize made out of painted gourds

With the help of the artistic intervention and two beautiful sunny days the setting was stunning; a landscape born of the marriage between art and ecology. Carmen a local artist created 23 pieces of landart for the event, made from materials found in the area, no nails, screws or glue were used, just balance and equilibrium. These were carefully placed around the farm under the hotel and the effects were brilliant. She also created a “floating maize” made out of painted gourds and there was a colourful tree of wishes where people went and wrote a wish on a piece of coloured cloth then to be tied to the tree.

Landart waiting to be discovered on the farm

The tree of wishes.

There were 3 workshops; the Gaia workshop, the creativity workshop and the artisan workshop. In the Gaia workshop there were short walks and collective experiences telling stories of the earth and living things, looking at the interconnection between all living beings, including ourselves and ecosystems.

More examples of Carmen's landart.

The setting

Part of the Creativity workshop

The Creativity workshop helped the participants guide the artistic expression inspired by the environment. Here people painted together making representations of the place and experiences of the group, trying to express their feelings and memories related to the sounds, smells, etc. that surrounded them. The pieces of paint work will move on with the different eco workshops and eventually help form part of a mosaic made of all the different works produced at the different eco workshops, which along with the land art and its audio visual representation will form part of an art exhibition

Sculptures in equilibrium contributing to a landscape born of the marriage between art and eceology

The idea of the Artisan work shop was to bring people to connect with local resources, cultural identity and nature that make the environment of the Hotel Posada del Valle. Here the participants were involved in the craftsmanship of wool, from the beginning looking at the xaldas sheep on the farm to felt carding and processing. Participants had a good chance to experiment with wool themselves, relate to it and share experiences with people who work the wool, self-taught, available to anyone.

Experiences with wool; the artisan workshop.

The event took place during two days; the Saturday and the Sunday and judging how happy the participants seemed at the end of each day Sebastian and Lidia who organized the event should feel very pleased about the success of the event. Joe and Andres did an excellent job (as always) preparing the breakfast and lunch for the participants and Samantha and Jenny also did a great job with the imparting the artisan workshop.

A time for sharing experinces

This was the first of the "Eco-WorkshopGatherings" and in total there will be four such events held the first weekend of the month at different establishments belonging to the Foundation Ecoagroturism and organic farms in Asturias. The next Eco workshop gathering will be held the 2nd and 3rd of July at La Quintana del Foncalada in Arguerro Villaviciosa and there the artisan workshops will be on ceramics and the natural taming of horses. More information about the Eco workshop gathering in spanish.