art jota mombaca aspen air festival

Jota Mombaça, a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist known for fusing critical theory with drawing, poetry, installation, and performance, has created a new three-act opera titled "The Muted Saints" commissioned for the Aspen Art Museum's AIR Festival. The work will premiere on July 29 at the Hallam Lake Nature Preserve in Aspen, Colorado. Inspired by Mombaça's 2023 short story about a protagonist transitioning from human to geological form, the opera explores themes of planetary interconnectedness, environmental catastrophe, and the transformation of beings into rocks, ghosts, or wind. Mombaça discusses their creative process, the influence of the local Colorado environment, and the importance of site-responsive work in an interview with CULTURED.