[ Thinking(us) from the possibilities of our bodies ]
Intercultural Center Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
La Bienal en Resistencia, Guatemala.
Saturday, March 23, 2024.
Beto Pérez (Mexico)
Milko Delgado (Panama)
*
For a little more than a year we have been rehearsing in our conversations a guide that we will provisionally call affective pedagogy; and with it, we are interested in encouraging people to dare to share themselves and, spontaneously, to form communities that open the way to a knowledge of the different layers of human existence (physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual). By this we do not mean time, but rather intention. In our case, living with HIV has put us in contact even though we are three thousand kilometers apart. Conversation is a free act in which we have tried images that enunciate the discomfort that surrounds our diagnosis.
This form of learning links us from our own vulnerabilities and crises, since:
**
We have set up an offering to allow play to emerge among the attendees. We set aside the academic custom of exposing from the microphone to, on the same horizon, welcome others. This moment/highlight was possible thanks to the energetic contribution of those who spontaneously added their offerings to make the space possible. There was papel picado, which refers to the pills we take to keep the virus at bay in our bodies; floral arrangements prepared to commemorate the occasion, incense, sweets, a mole prepared with three hands and drinks.
We invited those who accompanied us to form pairs and facilitate a fake therapy. Created by artist Valentina Desideri, one person sets the intention to heal the other (in silence while the other rests on the floor) and with the assistance of indications read on three cards that were randomly selected from a bunch. There was the opportunity to exchange roles and both could be therapist and patient.
Beyond role playing, it has been a matter of bringing imaginative tools where we start from a simple premise: as beings moved by energy we all have the possibility to heal ourselves and others, we just don't do it because we don't know how. And from that place we think about the possibility of resignifying the relationship with our bodies.
We cannot write what has been shared with confidentiality (yes, professional secrecy also applies here), but we can talk about how the body has its own memory, from it also emerge archives that account for oppression and conflict, as well as enjoyment and vindication.
When was the last time you listened to, felt, thanked your body?
In the end, we thank everyone for their willingness to participate in this meeting. Although we met in words, we also let ourselves be carried away by the complicit silences.
Intercultural Center Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
La Bienal en Resistencia, Guatemala.
Saturday, March 23, 2024.
Beto Pérez (Mexico)
Milko Delgado (Panama)
*
For a little more than a year we have been rehearsing in our conversations a guide that we will provisionally call affective pedagogy; and with it, we are interested in encouraging people to dare to share themselves and, spontaneously, to form communities that open the way to a knowledge of the different layers of human existence (physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual). By this we do not mean time, but rather intention. In our case, living with HIV has put us in contact even though we are three thousand kilometers apart. Conversation is a free act in which we have tried images that enunciate the discomfort that surrounds our diagnosis.
This form of learning links us from our own vulnerabilities and crises, since:
- Western clinic and medicine, because of its mercantile logic, does not intend to accord the transit that seroconversion implies.
- In nature, collaborations are always present, including bacteria and viruses.
- And in its particular sense, part of our cultural and artistic practices have sought in the earth a relationship of landscape and refuge (rooting), while learning to coexist with uncertainty and chaos. If the river has lost its course, so will our body.
**
We have set up an offering to allow play to emerge among the attendees. We set aside the academic custom of exposing from the microphone to, on the same horizon, welcome others. This moment/highlight was possible thanks to the energetic contribution of those who spontaneously added their offerings to make the space possible. There was papel picado, which refers to the pills we take to keep the virus at bay in our bodies; floral arrangements prepared to commemorate the occasion, incense, sweets, a mole prepared with three hands and drinks.
We invited those who accompanied us to form pairs and facilitate a fake therapy. Created by artist Valentina Desideri, one person sets the intention to heal the other (in silence while the other rests on the floor) and with the assistance of indications read on three cards that were randomly selected from a bunch. There was the opportunity to exchange roles and both could be therapist and patient.
Beyond role playing, it has been a matter of bringing imaginative tools where we start from a simple premise: as beings moved by energy we all have the possibility to heal ourselves and others, we just don't do it because we don't know how. And from that place we think about the possibility of resignifying the relationship with our bodies.
We cannot write what has been shared with confidentiality (yes, professional secrecy also applies here), but we can talk about how the body has its own memory, from it also emerge archives that account for oppression and conflict, as well as enjoyment and vindication.
When was the last time you listened to, felt, thanked your body?
In the end, we thank everyone for their willingness to participate in this meeting. Although we met in words, we also let ourselves be carried away by the complicit silences.