MANIFESTO
From my perspective, art is a way to understand how deeply as humans we are embedded in the world and a possible tool against the aridity of current times. For this to happen, we have to begin by acknowledging both the perpetrated and incurred losses: of cultures and natures, traditions, species and systems. It is from the understanding of the losses we cause and suffer that we can care for the world again.
The care mentioned here has to do with grievability, and a sensitive awareness that comes with it. Judith Butler states that every life is precarious from the very first moment it comes in the world, and understanding a being as precarious and vulnerable is the initial step to care and feel responsible for it. But as Joshua Trey Barnett states in “Grievable water”: “We only grieve what we know” as there is a human limit in grieving for what we don’t see or we think is far from us. Barnett also writes that as humans we have the ethical obligation to make life possible and it is from the interest in noticing and nurturing vulnerability, grievability and making visible what is not seen that works as “Minimum Elements for a home” and “Silent foundations” take inspiration.
Paraphrasing Jacques Derrida, Barnett enunciates that it is important to give names to things, because once things have a name, then they are in a way more comprehensible, and it is when names vanish that we become detached from our environment. Nowadays we are letting names vanish, and we are disconnected from life forms we are interconnected and dependent on. For instance, “Faðmur”works as an attempt to conversing with garden birds in Iceland, one of the species that struggle the most in winter due to food scarcity. Through the act of studying with experts the different species of little birds present in Reykjavik, how they behave and what they need to fight the freezing cold of the winter, the work becomes a daily act of care and mediation. Another work that is deeply rooted to the need of giving names to things is “Where we meet”, where words and branches take over the space in a ritual of remembering.
To experience art and life this way it is necessary to be emotionally and mentally open to the world, to be present and let things touch you. This perspective allows us to relate with the surroundings as we would do with an interpersonal relation, bringing in a sense of intimacy and as a consequence the freedom of being vulnerable. When we feel safe we accept to be open to the world, and this brings with it a sense of fulfillment that naturally needs to be given back. The ongoing project “LANDSLEG” works in this case as a place for resting and sheltering from the harsh weather while being in direct contact with the land and the soil. It is a gentle gesture that merge with the landscape and gives a safe mossy womb. Going back to the need of mourning the loss previously mentioned in connection to Barnett text: grief is stronger when born out of intimacy. If it is hard to imagine the loss of a human, it gets even harder to think about the loss of an entire ecosystem. The key here is to be open to the world, to let it touch us and from this exchange, to learn how to mourn and care again.
“We have learned to think that to be free is to live an unbound life. But it is not detachment that makes us free: only belonging can give us freedom” (Trike Haapoja)