6. “To make a home in the world and then
with others.”
Hanna Arendt
Last week I shared this text with a friend
that made me think again in the importance of approaching things through the
right points:
The preacher Miguel Brun told me that a
few years ago he had
visited the Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco. He was part of
an evangelizing mission. The missionaries visited a chief who
was considered very wise. The chief, a quiet, fat man, listened
without blinking to the religious propaganda that they read
to him in his own language. When they finished, the missionaries
awaited a reaction.
The chief took his time, then said:
"That scratches. It scratches hard and it
scratches very well."
And then he added:
"But it scratches where there isn't any
itch."
The Book of Embraces, E. Galeano, W. W.
Norton Co. N.Y., London, 1989 (p. 30)
7. Trying to hide inside a box
By chance I’ve watched the movie “The price
of milk” the other day. There was a delicious detail about the movie: a dog
that had a phobia of being outside, so he would only go outside covered by a
box. A walking-barking box. Beautiful. Back to fears and defence mechanisms.
Keywords:
-
Defence mechanisms: camouflage
8. On belonging: Feminine universes as
private spaces for sharing secrets
I’ve watched the movie “Persepolis” about a
woman’s life in Iran, which tells her story and the story of her family during
all the political changes in Iran. There’s a beautiful scene where she goes to
the “black market” trying to buy forbidden music that some guys on the street
are selling.
(Buying the exotic, forbidden fruit)
Next to that, I’ve seen excerpts from the movie “Caramel”
that reflects the dynamics and interactions of women inside a hairdresser.
I decided to start having aerobic classes
in Kanaleneiland, in a class for women, once a week, as a way of getting to know people from the
neighbourhood in an exclusive environment. This activity matches incredibly
well with my drive towards amateurism (last year I was doing tap dance classes
for a project).
Keywords:
- Exclusive spaces
This is a piece that was in Lisbon a few
years ago, by the German choreographer Helena Waldmann I don’t want to focus
too much about the feminist discourse from the piece, since it is complicated
territory, but what I found amazing and want to focus on in this moment was is
the idea of tent like the box was for the dog, or the astronaut suit for the
boy with the problem in his immune system. And especially in this moment, with
the occupy movement, the tent assumes new specific connotations.
Keywords:
- Tent
10. Letters to V.: urban/rural
synchronicity
Verónica goes to a residency where she will
intervene in a rural space. A small village near Lisbon, where she will be
focusing on traditional techniques to intervene in the façades of the houses,
as part of her PHD research. Abandoned houses, memory, public space. She
decides to start writing about her experiences on her letters to me. I’m
interested in finding some parallels between our experiences and see where they
can meet.
Keywords:
- Rural and urban spaces
11. Walk, Walk, Tan - Go –
Close: It Takes Two to Tango
This is the
situation: there’s a space. I observe you and observe myself observing you. I
recognize myself in you. I invite you. There’s a place we share within this
space: let’s call it social imaginary for now. This place is something we
share, where there is a possibility for reciprocal recognition and mutual
respect.
(Choreography:
an action that leads to another action.
Choreographic
objects: notations of generic movements that can be specifically placed in a
given site and situation.)
I invite you
for something.
We play a
game of experiences and expectations. Let’s call it a tango for now. In this
tango we establish some temporary rules. Our own rules. We establish our own
temporary rules for this specific situation. We think them through differently
from what we know. We re-shape this place we have in common by altering its
parameters. We change our mental coordinates or better saying, we change the
steps. We dance.
We
transform a space into a place by defining acts of social imagination. We tell
the story we both know, but differently. We temporarily re-frame and re-adjust
the parameters of our being in the world. We share it with others.
12. ACCEPT THE
RULES, comme il faut! / Profanations
For a long time
I’ve been thinking about social rules and norms and how people behave towards
what they consider to be expected from them. Not knowing the rules can be
liberating. I came up with the idea of trying to provide the experience of
trying comme
il faut female
tango
shoes in the neighbourhood, in a public space, like the market for instance. I
don’t know yet if I will follow it or not, but for the moment I like it since
it entertains the notion of ritual, displacing an experience from a place (in
Argentina) to another one, through the experience of buying shoes. And I
imagined transforming a tent into a comme il faut shop. It also plays
with the idea of exclusive spaces.
Let’s see where it will take me.
Keywords:
-
Rules/Norms
-
Ritual/Play
