Photo of @GGrippo

Chádào (茶道)

Another years installation. Photo by @leyre.lopezdelapaz

Chádào (or sadō or chadō in Japanese) is composed of the Chinese characters for ‘tea’ and ‘road’ or ‘path’. And it’s a practice that dates to… some point? Written records of tea ceremonies can go back to the eighth century, but tea drinking itself in China is likely older than the second century BCE. In terms closer to our American or European readers’ hearts: That was when Sparta was still a thing.

Ancient tradition, the point is. And consequently its variations are broad and very regionally defined.

GGripo in search of a different project outside of his fields of art and fashion found himself resonating with the environmental design involved in chádào. The curation of a space and atmosphere tailored to hosting guests in a meditative, calm frame.

Basing the proceedings of the ceremony in the rules and traditions used by American Buddhist monk Wu De and his work in ‘Global tea hut’, whenever outside of America he seeks to carefully tailor the experience to the new location and atmosphere he finds himself in.

And so:

Another years installation. Photo by @leyre.lopezdelapaz

Beautiful tea ware from Petr Novák a Czech artisan, Chabu ceremonial tea cloths by Studio Jumi made with yarn steeped and dyed in tea and Palmito mats and carpets by Antic Mallorca & Espai Kamandalu, a material deeply interwoven with Palma de Mallorca.

The entire ritual takes months to put together.

A warm, sleek, and textured color palate that effortlessly blends into the cream-colored sights of the city. The flower arrangements, the thin trail of smoke rising from the incense, and the low murmur of water heating as your brain stops working a mile a minute and begins to process the small everyday sounds that usually pass you by as noise.

It’s a really pretty experience, not just in its process but also in the general ambiance it creates.

Photo of GGrippo (@GGrippo on Instagram)

Tea ceremonies are meditative and calm experiences, so contrasted with the frenzy that markets can evoke, the two can feel like a bit of a contradiction. XTANT is full of these.

Isolated week-long paid educational programs next to wide free-access two hour panels, Markets of over 75 artists besides exhibitions decidedly not for sale.

This unity of many small opposites is something that exists in all things. According to certain people’s interpretations of Hegel it goes from atomic chemistry to the way we organize society in general.

“Wow. What nerds” Yeah they really were, but what I’m trying to get across is the multi-faceted nature of the environment here. That the more and more aspects that this community builds atop each other the more it resembles something like a society of its own. Mass of contradictions and all.

And, well — if you ever want to get your ideas implemented on a societal scale, you do first have to build them and prove them viable, right?

TL;DR: Tea is nice, register for this.

Register for a slot of the Chadao Tea ceremony!

THERE ARE STILL OPEN SPACES FOR THIS YEARS WORKSHOPS. BOOK THEM WHILE YOU CAN.

WORKSHOP PAGE.