If you wish to really connect to Aruba and its origin, go deeper into the heart of the island, and be open to an art performance that takes you on a mind-opening journey: go experience Caricia at UNOCA by local artist Natusha Croes. Caricia means caress and this is what she does with her Aruban mother earth.
Upon arrival you will find a key on a small table with a note asking you to take a minute of mindfulness before opening the door. Fully present in the moment, you are taken on a visional tour enhanced with singing, poems and words of Croes, the performing artist. She presents live to you and also from a screen in a video. “I’m led by a deep sense of longing and child-like curiosity to play and create from an immediate interaction with the landscape. Manifesting from an urgency to reconnect with the island from which I originate.” After being gone for almost a decade, reconnecting back with the organisms that the landscape permitted enabled her to come in communion with a portal that connects Croes with everything that existed before and will continue existing after her.
Croes is a storyteller with an evident passion for poetry and with her pure and peaceful appearance she takes you deeper into her world like a mermaid seduces a human to indulge in the sea’s life. Croes is that she gives you air instead of taking it away. While you considered a stone, just a stone, Croes makes you appreciate every single thing nature has created as you connect with what you see and feel in front of you. Imagine having this experience in the outdoors instead of observing it onscreen. “That is my intention. Taking visitors on a journey in nature.”
An eco-friendly artistic interpretation of Aruba
A year ago Croes finished her MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths University of London after obtaining a BA in Audio Visual Fine Arts at Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. “I came back after obtaining my Masters of Arts degree in Performance Making to conduct artistic research, which is developing into a business proposal which will deliver to our visitors and locals a more eco-friendly artistic interpretation of Aruba.” Her goal is creating a wellness-oriented map of experiences which takes the audience into an in-depth exploration of Aruba’s landscape with concentration and a reverence for one location at the time. “From a simple touch, I developed CARICIA. A soothing and gentle interaction that brings to you an in-depth artistic exploration to our first location on the map of exploration, namely Daimari.”
She explains Caricia is a gentle means to interact, inviting an ecological awareness, a sense of curiosity, and a state of play. It acknowledges the importance of our sensibility, of touching, of submerging ourselves into the landscape, opening a space where words subside and an invitation for feeling takes charge. “With Caricia, I am exploring different sites on Aruba, acknowledging their cultural and natural heritage. Understanding the child-like curiosity that leads me to explore and thus unfold the creative potentialities these natural sites provide. Delving deeper into our natural heritage and opening a channel, for the inner and the outer to become one. A sense of homage for Aruba guided me into a process of interacting, intimately, sensibly with one location at the time.
For more information:
Email: natushacroes@gmail.com, Facebook Caricia, Instagram natushacroes
