TALKS AND GATHERINGS

A Living Field of Inquiry

In conjunction with
Linda Zambolin and Francesco Tori: Once Upon a Time – Incarnation of Place

This series of talks and gatherings unfolds as a living field of inquiry—bringing together artists, musicians, scholars, and guides whose practices engage landscape not as image alone, but as lived, temporal, and embodied experience.

Held within the intimate setting of El Nido, these gatherings invite slow listening, shared reflection, and sustained attention. Each session approaches landscape as a site of memory, perception, material process, and inner transformation—where creative practice becomes a dialogue between place, time, and consciousness.

Through conversation, sound, ritual, and informal exchange, Talks & Gatherings offers a space to pause, reflect, and engage the deeper rhythms that shape both artistic inquiry and the human condition.

photo credit: linda zambolin and francesco tori

PROGRAMMING

2 PM - SATURDAY, JANUARY 10 - OPENING RECEPTION, JOHN NATHAN LEGRANDE, TRANSMUTER, ACTIVATOR, HEALER

JOHN NATHAN LEGRAND IS A TRANSMUTER AND ACTIVATOR IN THE HEALING ARTS. OVER THE LAST 25 YEARS HE HAS NAVIGATED THE INTERNAL LANDSCAPE OF HUMAN LIFE. ON OPENING DAY OF EL NIDO’S: ONCE UPON A TIME - PHOTOGRAPHY… HE WILL LEAD A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE INNER WORLD WITH NATURE’S OUTER WORLD AND THE LANGUAGE THEY SHARE. 

2 PM - SATURDAY, JANUARY 17 - YURI BOYKO, INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST

YURI BOYKO WILL SPEAK ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH LANDSCAPE AND HIS PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, “MEDITATION ON A TREE.”

YURI BOYKO IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST WORKING ACROSS PHOTOGRAPHY AND SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION. HIS PRACTICE EXPLORES INDIVIDUATION, TRANSIENCE, AND THE EMBODIED PERCEPTION OF PLACE. HIS WORK HAS BEEN EXHIBITED INTERNATIONALLY, INCLUDING ART1307 INSTITUZIONE CULTURALE AND MUSEO DELLA MODA NAPOLI (ITALY), OFF LES RENCONTRES D’ARLES (FRANCE), AND FABRIK PROJECTS GALLERY (LOS ANGELES).

BOYKO REALIZED MIGRATING MIND, A SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION AT THE NAPOLI AFRAGOLA RAILWAY STATION DESIGNED BY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS, THE PERSONA, A PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION COMMISSIONED BY THE CITY OF WEST HOLLYWOOD. HE CURRENTLY LECTURES AT DONGHUA UNIVERSITY IN SHANGHAI.

3 PM - SATURDAY, JANUARY 17 - ALESSANDRA PASQUINO - — PRODUCER / DIRECTOR

ALESSANDRA PASQUINO WILL READ FROM THE WORKS OF AMERICAN POET AND TRANSLATOR DAVID HINTON, OPENING A CONVERSATION ON CONSCIOUSNESS, LANDSCAPE, AND THE COSMOS—EXPLORING “EMPTINESS” AS A LIVING, CREATIVE FORCE AND INVITING A SHIFT AWAY FROM DUALISTIC THINKING TOWARD A DEEPER SENSE OF KINSHIP BETWEEN HUMANS AND THE EARTH.

ITALIAN-BORN AND LOS ANGELES–BASED, ALESSANDRA PASQUINO IS THE CO-FOUNDER OF GROUNDSTORM MEDIA, AN INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION COMPANY FOCUSED ON HUMAN-CENTERED STORYTELLING AND THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF ART AND CULTURE. HER WORK SPANS ETHNOGRAPHIC FILMS, MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES, EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS, AND CULTURAL EXHIBITIONS.

IN 2025, SHE WON A LOS ANGELES EMMY FOR THE CHEECH, A PBS ARTBOUND DOCUMENTARY ON CHEECH MARIN’S CHICANO ART COLLECTION, AND PRODUCED A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY ON FOLK SINGER-SONGWRITER JANIS IAN FOR PBS AMERICAN MASTERS, EARNING A SILVER ANTHEM AWARD. HER CURRENT WORK FOCUSES ON DOCUMENTING RESISTANCE TO BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND THE RECOVERY OF ENDANGERED SPECIES—PARTICULARLY THE JAGUAR—ACROSS THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST AND BEYOND.

2 PM - SATURDAY, JANUARY 24

DAVID MATHER, SCHOLAR, ARTIST AND ART HISTORIAN

TALK AND DISCUSSION: “ROBERT SMITHSON’S ARCHETYPAL LANDSCAPES”

 DAVID WILL INVITE PARTICIPANTS TO EXPLORE SOME WAYS TO THINK IN AND THROUGH GEOLOGICAL TIME, AS CONTRASTED WITH LIVED, HUMAN EXPERIENCE. TO ANCHOR THIS TALK, HE WILL REVISIT THE WORK AND WRITINGS OF ROBERT SMITHSON—AN ARTIST WHO FRAMED GEOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL ISSUES IN RELATION TO HUMAN TEMPORALITY.

DAVID IS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCHOLAR AND ARTIST WHO STUDIES, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THE HISTORY OF COLOR IN WESTERN ART, AS WELL AS ASPECTS OF HUMAN VISION AND OF INNOVATION IN IMAGE REPRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY. HIS TRAINING BEGAN AT UC SANTA CRUZ (BFA, 1994), AND HE RECEIVED A PHD FROM UC SAN DIEGO (2011). HE HAS PUBLISHED HIS ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS, INCLUDING IN HIS RECENT MONOGRAPH FUTURIST CONDITIONS: IMAGINING TIME IN ITALIAN FUTURISM (BLOOMSBURY, 2020).

2 PM - SATURDAY, JANUARY 31

JL CEDERBLOM, ARTIST, PHOTOJOURNALIST

WILL GIVE A TALK ON BIODYNAMICS AND LAND-BASED PRACTICE THROUGH CAREFUL OBSERVATION AND LIVED STUDY.

 JL CEDERBLOM IS AN ARTIST AND PHOTOJOURNALIST WHO GREW UP ON A FARM, WHERE HER WAY OF SEEING WAS SHAPED BY SEASONS AND THE PACE OF GROWTH. HER TALK EXPLORES BIODYNAMIC STUDY AND LAND-BASED PRACTICE THROUGH OBSERVATION AND LIVED PROCESS, REFLECTING ON HOW ATTENTION TO CYCLES, TIME, AND THE LIVING WORLD INFORMS CREATIVE THINKING AND MAKING.

2 PM - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, ANTHONY CARDELLA, COMPOSER, CONCERT PIANIST

Saturday’s programming is an informal talk, and concert— within the El Nido studio or courtyard surrounding

In a Landscape: The Pastoral Tradition and the Changing Sound of Nature
explores how composers across three centuries have imagined nature not simply as scenery, but as emotional space, symbolic landscape, and sonic environment. Through a guided lecture interwoven with live performance, this program traces the evolution of the pastoral tradition—from Classical ideals of balance and tranquility in Beethoven’s Pastoral Sonata, through Romantic and Impressionist depictions of landscape and atmosphere in Grieg, MacDowell, and Debussy, to modern conceptions of sound, time, and process in works by John Cage and Philip Glass. Drawing on historical, theoretical, and analytical perspectives, the lecture highlights how musical representations of nature shift from mythic countryside imagery to interior psychological landscapes and immersive sound worlds. Audiences will hear how composers use harmony, texture, repetition, resonance, and temporal design to construct distinct experiences of “being in nature,” while live performance demonstrates these ideas in real time.

Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Sonata in D Major, Op. 28 (“Pastoral”)
I. Allegro
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Les collines d’Anacapri
from Préludes, Book I (1910)
Des pas sur la neige
from Préludes, Book I (1910)
Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
Abend im Hochgebirge (Evening in the Mountains), Op. 68, No. 4
from Lyric Pieces, Book IX
Edward MacDowell (1860–1908)
To a Wild Rose, Op. 51, No. 1
from Woodland Sketches
Philip Glass (b. 1937)
Metamorphosis Two (1988)
John Cage (1912–1992)
In a Landscape (1948)

ANTHONY CARDELLA IS AN AWARD-WINNING PIANIST AND COMPOSER WHOSE WORK BRIDGES VIRTUOSIC PERFORMANCE, CONTEMPORARY COMPOSITION, AND INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION. HE HAS PERFORMED THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONALLY, AND HIS PIANO SONATA ONLY THROUGH TIME IS TIME CONQUERED PREMIERED AT THE 2024 VENICE BIENNALE. BASED IN LOS ANGELES, HE IS ACTIVE AS A PERFORMER AND EDUCATOR WHILE COMPLETING HIS DOCTORATE OF MUSICAL ARTS AT THE USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC.

3 PM - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14 - CLOSING RECEPTION, ESTER SPITZ, WRITER, PERFORMANCE ARTIST, THEATRE-MAKER

ESTER WILL SHARE A TALK ON EXPLORING LAND THROUGH WRITING.

ESTER SPITZ IS A DUTCH WRITER AND POET. BORN IN THE NETHERLANDS AND BASED IN LOS ANGELES SINCE 1985, SHE HAS WORKED IN THEATER, EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE, AND FILM. SINCE 2010, SHE HAS BEEN DEVELOPING THE ES SERIES—A LYRICAL, LONG-FORM EXPLORATION OF LIFE, PSYCHE, AND EMOTIONAL PASSAGE. THE FIRST VOLUME WAS PUBLISHED IN MARCH 2020.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING

ON THE SUBJECT OF LANDSCAPE

AS PART OF THE EXTENDED PROGRAM, A SERIES OF ONLINE INTERVIEWS WILL BE SHARED—CONTINUING THE DIALOGUE BEYOND THE PHYSICAL SPACE AND OPENING NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANDSCAPE AS LIVED, FELT, AND REMEMBERED.

Q & A

LINDA ZAMBOLIN AND FRANCESCO TORI, PARTNERS IN LIFE AND WORK AND BASED IN BIELLA, ITALY, UNDERSTAND PHOTOGRAPHY NOT AS DOCUMENTATION, BUT AS AN INCARNATION OF PLACE—AN EMBODIED ACT OF LISTENING TO LAND, MEMORY, AND TIME.

IPSHITA MAITRA, A LENS-BASED ARTIST FROM INDIA, WORKS ACROSS MIXED MEDIA AND COLLAGE, APPROACHING LANDSCAPE AS BOTH A PHYSICAL TERRAIN AND AN INNER, SHIFTING FIELD OF PERCEPTION.

BETHAN DEAR, THEATRE MAKER, PERFORMANCE ARTIST, AND WRITER, EXPLORES HER CREATIVE PROCESS AND THE WAYS IN WHICH LANDSCAPE BECOMES A CONDUIT FOR HEALING, TRANSFORMATION, AND PRESENCE.

TOGETHER, THESE VOICES EXPAND THE CONVERSATION—REVEALING LANDSCAPE NOT AS A BACKDROP, BUT AS A LIVING, RELATIONAL FORCE.