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For Lucia聽Sendagorta,聽an art history and global communications double major, the choice of聽Capstone project was an opportunity to explore Western art from聽outside a French or American perspective. 鈥淚聽realized聽I didn鈥檛 know any contemporary Spanish or Hispanic artists,鈥� she explained.听鈥淚 wanted to explore this different field聽through聽my thesis.鈥澛燩rofessor聽Herv茅聽Vanel聽helped her frame the project in the context of bringing lesser-known artists into the foreground of Western art history.听聽

After researching Spanish artist Esther Ferrer,聽Lucia聽decided to focus on聽Ferrer鈥檚聽ephemeral performance,聽The Musical Thread, as the subject of her Capstone research.听Ferrer鈥檚 work聽as a performance artist聽spans six decades; the聽show聽in question took place in 1978. Ferrer was part of a collective performance, which took place聽over three days聽on a train traveling several routes聽around the聽Italian聽cities聽of Bologna聽and Ravenna. The聽event聽was organized by the American composer聽John Cage and聽was聽called聽John Cage鈥檚 Train:聽In Search of Lost Silence.听

Lucia鈥檚聽thesis聽aimed to interrogate the role of the photograph in documenting a performance, which is聽by definition an ephemeral artform.听鈥淧rofessor聽Vanel聽gave me great advice,鈥澛爏ays Lucia. 鈥淲e had聽several聽technical conversations about the role of documentation in performance art.鈥澛燭here聽was little archival evidence of聽The Musical Thread, so instead聽Lucia went聽directly to the people involved聽in staging it. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 easy, but everything came together,鈥� she said. 鈥淚nstead of finding documents, I was calling artists and museums. It was fun to be a detective!鈥澛燗mong others, Lucia聽spoke to a filmmaker who聽made a documentary about聽Cage鈥檚 train, which聽meant聽she聽was able聽to聽watch聽a re-enactment of the performance聽as聽documented in the聽film.听

Lucia first reached out to Ferrer on International Women鈥檚 Day 鈥� March 8, 2020. 鈥淪he told me she鈥檇 just got back from a protest!鈥� says Lucia. 鈥淪he was happy to see young people involved in the movement. It was great to talk to her about something humane.鈥� Ferrer invited Lucia to meet in person, and, though Lucia聽says聽it was nerve-wracking聽to conduct the interview, the聽conversation formed the basis of her thesis.听鈥淭he function of my聽work聽was to create reference material that wasn鈥檛 already there, rather than to聽add preconceived notions of interpretation,鈥� she explains.听The full transcript聽of their interview聽is published online and available here.听