On the 23 and 28 June 2025, the 2nd Residential Workshop of PALIMPSEST project along with the Songs of the Nearby Earth (SONE) project was held in Jerez de la Frontera, with the presence and participation of representatives of the international consortium: Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), Aalborg University, NOVELCORE, Culturalink and Lodz Art Center, as well as Sanna Lehtinen (Aalto University School of Arts), member of the Advisory Board, Estelle Jullian (Culturama), artist selected after the Creative dialogues and the local team, constituted by Jerez City Council, Fundarte and Nomad Garden.

Throughout the week, emphasis has been placed on the collaborative creative work that has been developed over the last few months by artists, institutions, cultural agents, associations and the citizens of the city around Songs of the Nearby Earth (SONE) project.

 In addition, several key spaces for the development of the project have been visited, such as the Escuela de Arte y Superior de Diseño de Jerez (EASDJ), the Gresierra ceramics studio, the Centro Andaluz de Documentación del Flamenco, and the trellises of the Escuela de Idiomas and the González-Byass or Tradición wineries, as well as the new ones that have been planted in different public streets of the city. During these days,  participants had the opportunity to meet key local actors such as: the association Amigos de los Árboles and Emparrados group -Juan Luis Vega and Miguel Revuelta-, key promoters of urban greening with vine arbours in the city of Jerez; Austin Gardner, maker of FabLab Jerez; the post-composers Belenish Moreno-Gil and Óscar Escudero; Jose Manuel Coca, luthier of zambombas and Claudia GR Moneo & Lucía Franco Corrales involved in the book “Lah Letrah de nuehtra zambomba”. The project also has the invaluable collaboration of Francisco Benavent, from the Centro Andaluz de Documentación del Flamenco.

SONE project links the landscape of the countryside with the local cultural richness through the traditional Jerez zambomba, operating at the intersection between tradition and innovation, weaving collective narratives that honour the past to imagine a more sustainable future. An initiative inspired by the zambomba as a symbolic and functional element that connects the natural and urban landscape of Jerez. In Jerez, the zambomba is the protagonist of the advent festivities, around the singing of carols and popular romances celebrated in neighbourhood courtyards, together with a bonfire and frying pan sweets. Originally made from local materials, this object served both as a food container and as a musical instrument. Its cyclical and locally sourced materiality makes it a true paradigm of sustainability and creativity rooted in the territory.

SONE project begins right here, in glimpsing and weaving the links between this object and the landscape. To this end, new zambombas are being designed together with the EASDJ Ceramics Degree, the Coca family (the last zambombas luthiers in Jerez) and the Gresierra handcrafted ceramics workshop. The use of local materials such as albariza (the most appreciated soils for wine production in Jerez countryside, composed of the remains of diatoms and radiolarians that precipitated when it was still a sea) or the remains of prunings from local vines such as Palomino Fino, Pedro Ximénez, Moscatel or Tintilla de Rota have been investigated for their shaping and enamelling. A material approach to culture that has counted, among others, on the collaboration of the geologist and oenologist Willy Pérez or the musicologist Belenish Moreno-Gil, who is preparing a sound work as a strategy to invoke the past and potential landscapes of Jerez with the collaboration of Óscar Escudero. To this end, during the Residential Workshop they have been capturing sounds from the zambombas created for the project by the EASDJ, Gresierra and Coca.

A work that will be complemented with a compilation of carol lyrics and romances with references to the landscape and the new challenges of the Jerez landscape. A selection of lyrics, bequeathed from the oral tradition with more than 4 centuries of history, which will serve as a basis for rethinking not only the past, but also the future of the city. Claudia GR Moneo and Lucía Franco Corrales will guide us through this collective heritage configured as a true palimpsest over time. 

Finally, continuing with the tradition of imagining alternative uses for these objects, the reuse of zambombas as a protective device and planting of urban vine arbours is proposed. Jerez is a deeply wine-producing city, and the vines are the historical shade for private spaces such as patios and porches. In some cases, such as the González Byass wineries, these infrastructures began to venture further afield, into semi-public streets. Now the association Amigos de los Árboles/Emparrados is proposing to extend this green infrastructure to public streets in the city.

In support of this environmental initiative, SONE proposes to reuse instruments enamelled with the remains of agricultural vines and other materials from the surrounding landscape as devices to protect these new vines. A strategy around which a more sustainable and hedonistic urban renaturation plan can be conceived or imagined. With this in mind, an atlas of existing vine arbours is being drawn up, and we are collaborating in the installation of an environmental monitoring network in different areas of the city with the collaboration of Austin Gardner (FabLab Jerez, El Altillo School) in order to sensor and contrast the climatic, ecological and sensitive benefits of the city’s vine arbours compared to others without arbours. In parallel, ICCS, also a member of the PALIMPSEST consortium, proposes to use augmented reality tools to simulate these interventions with the camera of our phones, bringing the project closer to all kinds of audiences.

SONE aims to facilitate the adoption of these strategies by the corresponding institutions, imagining new processes of governance and value, as well as new rituals that recognise and celebrate the links and responsibilities of citizens in the care of their most immediate spaces, in a similar way to what happened in the past with the celebration of the zambombas in the neighbourhood courtyards.

For more information, you can consult the pilot’s brand new web-blog here (in Spanish): https://gardenatlas.net/gardens/palimpsest-jerez/ and on SONE project’s Instagram account: sone.jerez