Sequedad sobrenaturalizada
Sequedad Sobrenaturalizada is a site-specific sound installation and live “mass” by Mexican composer Delia Beatriz (Debit) that re-scores Carmelite and monastic chant through the mystical notion of sequedad—the spiritual “dryness” described by Saint Teresa of Ávila. Within the vaulted nave of Ex Teresa Arte Actual, processed voices, a live choir and resonant electronics transform the church’s architecture into an instrument, mapping a journey where divine presence is sensed not in comfort but in the disciplined act of persisting through absence. By foregrounding the defiant legacies of women mystics—from Teresa and Sor Juana to the martyred Carmelite sisters of the French Revolution—the piece reframes sacred music as a living engine of resistance and imagination. Sequedad Sobrenaturalizada invites listeners to dwell in the desert of the soul, where endurance becomes a generative act and new collective horizons begin to bloom. (tonofestival.com, documentjournal.com)
Sequedad Sobrenaturalizada opened as a two-week installation at Ex Teresa Arte Actual, culminating in a liturgical concert on 4 April performed by a four-voice professional choir through a twelve-speaker spatial array. More than 1,200 visitors experienced the dual environments: a nave made acoustically “dry” with red felt drapery and a secondary echo chamber saturated with the forbidden tritone. The complete performance was captured in multitrack audio and 4K video, material now being edited for a limited-edition vinyl album and an accompanying critical booklet.
The project’s most immediate outcome was my invitation to participate in the TONO Festival, whose programme foregrounds time-based pieces. TONO’s holistic production model—supporting not only the score but the full ecology of a live work—allowed me to push musical form further than ever while remaining within music’s lineage rather than being subsumed under the label “sound art.” I have begun developing new material derived from Sequedad for future TONO presentations, including extended techniques for voice and spatial electronics.
This freedom enabled the creation of a true Gesamtkunstwerk: I researched former Carmelite convents, re-engaged the order’s musical heritage, and presented the resulting concert in the structure of a mass. Treating architecture as physical music, the work reimagines historical concert, installation, and site-specific traditions for the present moment. The experience has decisively reshaped how I conceive, compose, and direct new works, confirming the viability of large-scale, research-driven performances and positioning me for more ambitious commissions that merge archival inquiry with immersive sonic architecture.
