Paz de la Calzada: Bucolica

3rd Floor Gallery

 Bucolica | Paz de la Calzada

A participatory mural project conceived by artist Paz de la Calzada, Bucolica invited CIIS students to participate in the creation of a mural celebrating the California native grassland ecosystem.

Bucolica, inspired by the Renaissance Bucolic genre, is a multidisciplinary and ongoing project that recovers the romantic idea that the landscape embodies a certain state of emotive consciousness, meant to inspire awe and reflection, calling our attention to the compromised relationship we currently have with the natural world.

Participants worked with Paz over three days, using natural pigments and only discarded pieces of mass-produced astroturf or fake grass instead of traditional brushes. This painting-performance revisited the concept of alchemy as a tool for creation, healing, and transformation.

More than 300 species of native grasses are found in California; our grasslands are giant reservoirs of biodiversity that support many of our bird, mammal, reptile, and insect species. In addition to being home to a great abundance of native and endemic plant and animal species, including crucial pollinators, the grassland ecosystem is under intense pressure from climate change, development, and invasive species. 

Participating CIIS community members include:

Mary-Ann Casanova

Kristiana Chan

Josephine Eberhardt

Marie Marković

Bucolic: A pastoral lifestyle that lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music that depicts such life in an idealized and romantic manner, typically for urban audiences.