moment-sediment-remnant (aka. QUATERNARY PERFORMANCE)

07/07/2026
Teatro Oscense, Huéscar (Spain)
as part of the XVI Reunión Nacional de Cuaternario / 16th National Quaternary Meeting

moment-sediment-remnant (aka. QUATERNARY PERFORMANCE) was an immersive live art walk-through experience that was specially created for the 16th National Quaternary Meeting, an international congress organised by the Spanish Association for Quaternary Studies (AEQUA), which gathered over 80 researchers and academics in the fields of geology, geography, paleontology, archeology and climatology. Delegates came not only from Spain, but also the United States, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Turkey and Colombia. The conference had a particular focus on the latest advances related to climate change, landcape evolution and the presence of the earliest humans on Granada's high plateau over 2.5 million years ago. The gathering also marked the 40th anniversary of AEQUA's founding.

Huéscar's selection as the host venue for the congress is no coincidence, as it's one of the villages that sit within the Granada Geopark, a UNESCO site in eastern Andalusia covering 4,722 square kilometers and renowned for its spectacular badlands, exceptional geological record, and rich archaeological heritage. Shaped over millions of years, the Guadix–Baza Basin is one of the most complete Quaternary sedimentary archives in Europe and preserves a scientific heritage of enormous value. Besides this geological importance, there are more than one hundred archaeological and paleontological sites, including some of the continent's oldest evidence of human occupation on the continet. Archaeological and paleontological sites at Orce, Fonelas P-1, Cúllar, Hernán-Valle, and of course Huéscar make this region an international benchmark for the study of human evolution.

moment-sediment-remant took place across Huéscar's entire Teatro Oscense: its auditorium, galleries, patio, the basement that served as a grain silo (in the building's days as a convent') and the small square at its entrance - which served as the location for the finale.

The performance was made up of a series of durational task-based actions involving totemic objects and materils, a vitrine installation, edited audio tracks (collaging various earthquake sonifications; sounds from frozen lakes, melting glaciers and the Antarctic Ross Ice sheet; and sounds made by prehistoric intruments). In the auditorium, a video piece was projected which imagined a number of prehistoric scenes spanning thousands of years (see 'PROTO-PALEO-PELICULA below).

​

[Full bibliography for moment-sediement-remnant: sounds, texts, materials.]

​
The cast activating the piece as performers was made up by local residents: David Martín, José Manuel Montoro, Marichi José Olivares, Rocío C. T. and  Prado Rivero. A further contribution was made by a number of children who featured as readers one of the audio tracks: Carmen Cabrera Sánchez, Guillermo Fernández Martínez, Lúa M. Paz, Marcelo Juan Capdevila, and Pablo Cabrera Sánchez. They read a list of questions I translated and adapted on the basis of a video by Kelly O'Brien for New York Times Opinion. 

​

[For English stubtitles on the videos below, just click the CC icon.]

​This video features the whole text that could be heard in the Convent Gallery. Click the CC icon for English subtitles.​

​Alongise the live performance involving the placing and sweeping away of bones across the vast floor of the Glass Gallery, a series of carefully curated objects and materials were exhibited within glass vitrines. As a whole, the collection was suggestive of an imagined museum in the future exhibiting the aechaeological remains of our times. Moreover, the items were chosen for the thought-provoking tensions within and amongst them: natural vs. manufactured, light vs. heavy, old vs. new, precious vs. disposable, organic vs. inorganic, recognisable vs. unrecognisable, whole vs. broken, dead vs. inert.​

​This video features the whole text that could be heard at the bottom of the staircase. Click the CC icon for English subtitles.​

​This is the video that was projected in the auditorium. English subtitles coming soon.​

​This performance action served as a kind of epilogue to moment-sediment-remnant (aka. QUATERNARY PERFORMANCE). On Saturday 11th July 2026, I scattered a number of 'foreign' elements on Granada's high plateau that were brought from elsewhere and which had been amongst the materials used during the live performance: three beach stones from Alicante (Spain), three pieces of flint from Kent (UK), three animal bones from the Thames as it passes through London (UK), and three stones from Birmingham (UK). By scattering these imported elements in a landscape they do not belong to, this short action sought to create a series of geological inconguencies (in that each of these 'foreign' objects might, in future, become unexpected geological surprises for anyone who might find them).

​

---

In the media:

​LOCAL RADIO INTERVIEW:

on YouTube and Instagram

REGIONAL NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:
​
'Huéscar gathers a hundred researchers to turn the Granada Geopark in the epicentre of Quaternary studies',
José  Utrera García, Ideal - Baza, 8th July 2026