El Mar son las Raíces

(2022-23)

In my ongoing research El mar son las raíces, I explore the Mediterranean(s) as a more-than-human ancestor and how this idea can have an impact on the way we experience grief, memory and belonging.

Grief brings with it a sense of rootlessness, a yearning for belonging. What happens when we cannot fulfill this desire by looking into a human lineage? Can we look into the territory for that purpose? Perhaps into the Mediterranean(s)? And if so, how does this approach change our relationship with the more-than-human? These inquiries take me inevitably into the broad and vague realms of animism, a term that, as Donna Haraway points out, is highly problematic due to its colonial connotations. But how can we connect to ancestry in a decolonial way? Can we do so by acknowledging the roots of the abused and devalued practices we are tending to? And may this new sense of belonging help us fight racism and nationalism?

In the intersection between the spiritual and the political, these questions also challenge my preconceived ideas about the Mediterranean. By considering water’s capacity to keep memories and sound, I want to look into this space where happy childhood and summerish memories converge with ecological catastrophe and human terror.

Exhibitions:
2022 Return to the Real, Art of Future, online
El Mar son las Raíces, Centre Cívic Guinardó, Barcelona, ES
Comes in Waves, MyMuseum Gallery, Budapest, HU (duo show with Eirini Sourgiadaki)