Nigamon/Tunai sits in a challenging space: somewhere between sound installation, performance art and spiritual ritual, it draws on traditional practice and sophisticated scenography to generate an atmosphere that is, by turns, soothing and challenging. Émilie Monnet from Canada and Waira Nina from the Colombian Amazon explore the intrusion of mining companies into the territory of the Inga people and make claims for the sanctity of the indigenous people’s beliefs against capitalist exploitation.

Water is a key theme and presence. The space is filed with pools and water carriers; not only a life-giving substance, water offers a profound symbolic meaning in the resistance to industrial encroachment. The ritualistic process of these performers, the use of subtle lighting and a room filled with plants and stones, and the sudden, extended songs or musical pieces generate a reflective and contemplative experience. Only the sudden intrusion of machines on the soundtrack, or the details of the companies’ behaviour provoke a jarring intrusion.

Pushing away from generic ideas of performance, Nigamon/Tunai has a tragic melancholy but demands a different order of attention; it is seductive, tightly conceived, weaving together the ancient and the modern, and a timely change to the bustle and fuss of modernity.

Nigamon/Tunai, The Studio, Friday 16 & Saturday 17 August, 7.30pm, Sunday 18 August, 2.30pm, 7.30pm, as part of Edinburgh International Festival; main picture: Andrew Perry.