Society has been discorporated. Worldwide we are governed by visions of measurability; governance has scrutinously creeped into our lives, our households, our bodies. We have lost the agency over our bodies and the possibility to physically connect with one another.
Society has been discorporated; we have lost our agency over our body and social discorporeality is the standard. I search for expressions that help us find back our lost bodies and new ways to govern and be governed.
Humans have been living in total abundance, blind for the fact that the planet is limited. Now we are paying the price for it, and it is maybe just the beginning of a prepayment. Despite of this -more then ever- we carry a collective hyper focus on measurability, exposure and quantitative recognition. Neo-liberalism wraps capitalism in a seducing packaging paper pretending to sell freedom, and we are enthusiastically buying it, assuming we are trading our merits for individual freedom and autonomy. In reality we maintain a rigid system in which we get further and further disintegrated from an individual agency and corporeal connection with others. The circle is vicious and we need to raise awareness in order to dilute this collective circumambulation, and ultimately stop it. Stop it to find back the body we lost. This is not a desperate reflection on nostalgia or an attempt to get back what ‘used to be’. No, this is a simple word on the need to be back in touch with what we all possess during our life span: our body. We are not aware that we have lost the drivers seat of our own body by unconsciously giving it away in the expectation for freedom.
Neo-liberalism preaches measurability and growing monetary models; faith in the unmeasurable is blasphemous. The quality of being unmeasurable, undefinable and actually free in being who and what we are, is in conflict with the current systems that governs us, everybody, every body. I think we cannot -and we are not allowed to- measure human beings, label them, define them, reduce them to concepts, constructs and frozen labels. More than everything, we are an unmeasurable multitude of identities, changing from moment to moment in constant transformation. Nobody can be measured, no body. Therefor we shouldn’t invest more than we already do in measuring the body. We should support, invest and engage in research which aims to find back the bodies we lost and the corporeality in the social landscape that has been taken away from us.
Our body is the theater of our feelings and performs unmistakenly the state of our conscious mind. Reversed, the modality of the mind can be trained by training the body; I stand for the interdependent, correlative relation between mind and body. Via the Cartesian mind-body dualism, Western (medical) sciences have inherited the Christian spirit-flesh dualism. I believe separating mind from body has been one of the most violent acts of Western civilization which situates the contemporary person both ethically and spiritually in a desolate field of dehumanization. My works attempt to create conditions and choreographic containers in which mind and body interact in a sensational mode for both performer and audience.
Our life inside our mother’s body, began with the fusion of an ovum and sperm; an encounter of two moving entities. This movement created a new entity; a manifestation of transcending the binary, a creation of life itself. This life enters into the world, the heart is pulsing and the screaming, expression of the young born inhales oxygen into its entire physiology. It is from this moment on we see and perceive the world and distinguish light and darkness, we captivate colors, forms, sounds, smell and taste. We are starting a journey of being exposed to the revealing of the world in our run for making sense of our life.
Un unborn creature responds to the pressures, sounds and movements from outside. After its birth it reaches out with a tiny hand in an attempt to grasp the fingers of an adult; a gesture immediately associated by the infant with pleasure, protection or an instinctive reflexion. Its eyes open in awe, astonishment and wonder, driven by the unpronounced question : “what does this all mean?” Rejoice, celebration and appreciation, but also mystery, solitude and consciousness of the existence of suffering play out in those exquisite moments. A simple smile and cry of a young born human touches us at the core of our being, often described as a warm, enthralling feeling which runs from the bottom of our spine up to the very top before it is registered by our brain.
My work s about the juxtaposition of the fragile and victorious nature of humans in a cultural, socio-political complex world. The body in my work plays a role of dichotomy, a role encapsulating intensity, laceration and awe.
On the one hand I see the body as an entity which is in constant process of getting older and subject to damage and disease. Our body has to bear the constant changes that surround us, it collapses, trembles and melts. I invite movements, situations and images of this kind in my work, there’s a real and honest dynamic and rhythm to it, it reveals that we simply are mortal beings made of flesh and blood. I like to show the frail, fragile, and painful things in life which make us feel that we are actually alive… now.
On the other hand I see the body’s victorious, heroic-like dimension. We can push our physical boundaries to astonishing heights. Increasingly we run faster, jump higher and our intellect shows an infinity in reason, expression and creativity. We catapult, strike, reach and throw our flesh and bones into infinite spaces. There’s this exuberant celebration of the human body which is exciting, inspiring and energizing. I believe we need to rejoice the life in pursuit of banishing our fears and demons. It is also a proof of our rich imagination and desire to live this very life to its maximum capacity.
I believe we are not this ór that, but this ánd that, we are a peculiar fleshed-out bridge between extremes of frailty and victory. Our emotions, thoughts and aspirations move constantly along this bridge making us aware of this dichotomy. A paradox? Certainly. Unification of opposites is what I am seeking for. For now I rejoice the spectrum of things that we are, everything in between all imaginable opposites.
Likewise, my work shows people who move between those opposites, celebrative, fearless, goofy and groovy, savage and uncivilized, but elegant and graceful… in stillness and emptiness, aware of loss and solitude, in pain and grief, but always full of motion and passionately driven to inspire and care for each other.