The film Environmelisma is based on a previous homonymous text published by A*DESK in 2024, which explored the combination of "environment" and "melisma" to propose a perspective from which to sense what nature is telling us. These pieces stem from a larger project, one of whose outcomes is this short film. A key element of the project is the work with groups led by Teresa Vicente (professor of philosophy of law at the University of Murcia), who have advocated for granting legal personhood to the Mar Menor in southern Spain (which in 2022 became the first European ecosystem of this legal type). The entire project examines three interconnected extractivist processes in that area of southeastern Spain: mining in La Unión, construction in La Manga, and agroindustry in the Mar Menor. This short film was scripted as a spiral, revisiting the same three locations in three rounds. It overlaps archival materials with new recordings, aiming to approach the territory as a stratified archival ground – a form of storytelling conveyed by the land and water themselves. The archival materials are treated as compacted strata, whose grain and texture offer the possibility of excavating the trauma inscribed in the territory.
Still from the film Environmelisma by Lorenzo Sandoval and Pedro André
Lorenzo then develops the issues of more-than-human representation (not only) in the work Environmelisma in a podcast interview.
Lorenzo Sandoval (Madrid, 1980) works as an artist, filmmaker and curator. He holds a B.F.A and a Masters in Photography, Art and Technology from the UPV (Valencia, Spain). He received curatorial prizes such as Inéditos 2011, Can Felipa curatorial prize and Nogueras Blanchard 2012. He won the art prize Generación 2017 presented in La Casa Encendida (Madrid) and V Beca DKV- Álvarez Margaride for Shadow Writing (Algorithm /Quipu) at LABoral, Gijón, 2017. Sandoval was nominated for the Berlin Art Prize 2018 and Premio Arte Contemporáneo Cervezas Alhambra 2020. He presented Shadow Writing (Lace/Variations) in Lehman + Silva Gallery in Porto and Nottingham Contemporary. He was part of Canine Wisdom for the Barking Dog. Exploring the sonic cosmologies of Halim El Dabh curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Kamila Metwaly and Marie Helénè Pereira for Dak'art Biennale 2018. Sandoval was artist in residency at Bisagra in Lima, culminating in an exhibition at Amano Museum Textile Museum. He was part of the Miracle Workers Collective representing Finland in the Venice Biennale 2019. He presented the film Shadow Writing (Fábrica Colectiva) at IVAM Alcoi, a research on the collectivization of factories related to sound. In 2020, presented Shadow Writing with pieces from all the chapters of the project, curated by Emanuele Guidi at Centro Párraga in Murcia. He participated in Here History Began. Tracing the Re/Verberations of Halim El-Dabh at SAVVY Contemporary, with the commissioned film The Book of Vibration on El Dabh. Together with Tono Vízcaino, produced Industria. Matrices, tramas y sonidos for IVAM in 2021. In 2022, opened Las formas que sostienen el discurso at The Liminal, a collaboration with Floreal Rodríguez de la Paz, with a film on the anarchist monument build in the proximities of the Albatera Concentration camp. In 2018, he started the research for his current research project Garganta/Brazo/Surco, which as an output will have a film titled That summer of ‘22. Since 2015, Sandoval runs The Institute for Endotic Research, which opened as a venue in 2018 in Berlin.
Pedro André is an electronic music producer and sound artist living in Berlin, currently doing the MA Spatial Strategies at Weissensee Kunsthochschule, Berlin, DE. He was composer for Museu da cidade do Porto from 2020 until 2024 and co-founder and member of the venue for arts and experimental music Altes Finanzamt, Berlin until 2014 and co-creator of the workshops CSF. He was also co-founder and member of the electronic music label Marvellous Tone and Faca Monstro (2008-2018). As an electronic music producer, Pedro André has collaborated with musicians and sound artists from different fields, among others, the experimental dub producers Jonathan Saldanha and Pedro Augusto, improvising musician Ignaz Schick, composer Llorenç Barber, sound artist Gil Delindro, sound designer and film-maker Didio Pestana & eletronic musician Nils Meisel. In the visual arts Pedro André collaborated with Eli Cortiñas in The Machine Monologs, Mariana Silva and Pedro Neves in the Inhabitants, Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela for the audio-visual installations, Meia – Noite, Animal Vegetal Mineral, Radial Body, composed the soundtrack for the short-film Sombra Luminosa and developed several sound installations for the curator Nuno Faria. Collaborates regularly with the artist Lorenzo Sandoval, with different compositions for his works, films and art installations.
Introduced by: David Přílučík
Podcast Sound Design: Jan Kašpar
Published on 29th of July 2025
Available online till the 29th of September 2025
The work was created with the support of Artyčok.TV.
