NOPUBLISH
FINAL EDIT:
Dear A,
Our letter consists of a few chapters. First we talked about the letters as format of individual versus collective feedback, but also whether or not we could see them as a part of an ongoing presentation. Forgive us for taking the liberty to take the letters as part of your presentation rather than just a tool for feedback.
Letters imply correspondence, so we were wondering if establishing a correspondence is something important to you. Also wether the presentation is part of the correspondence? Is it the first correspondence or is the presentation an answer to our letters from HWD? If there is no gap in time between the two presentations (as you mentioned the HWD presentations seemed 'yesterday'), does it mean that our letters have not or not yet been processed? And we were wondering how the letter we are writing now will be processed?
Can the letter be a format to generate more understanding and become part of the presentation/research setting? Or can we accept it as a tool for you and your practice to grow in your own way and time?
Several subjects were opened, several doors are open, but we feel, sometimes, that we're not carried through them. We didn't know what is behind the, and we wonder if the collective moment might be important to be able to go through these doors together. If the doors are opened for us, does it mean that the doors are already open for you, who opened them? We are wondering if this is your concern, or if it is only ours?
You mentioned that Edna had travelled all the way since ice age till today and reappeared with information gathered through the universe. Could you introduce us more to the stories being told, collected, passed on? Which stories are being told in the cycles of 70 to 11.000 years? Which language are these stories told in? How can we listen to them? How do we speak or interact with them? Do you have experience with this? We were willing to know more about those stories and what they might carry with them. What did you hear? Would you share that with us?
The work of situating through planets and natural elements, creates an entry point to the stories and to the sensorial. We thought you would create more space for situating, we would be greatful for that, but we didn't take that door. Expanding... What if you were the goddess of the sea?
We also wonder how all these planets are influencing us, or how can we also place our attention on that. In the beginning of your presentation today, you gave us a moment to sit with this question. Could these moments be created again throughout our encounter? How do these planets influence you and what you choose to share with us?
We were struck by the idea of centre. Is the self the centre? What is the periphery? What kind of proximities and distances, angles that are operating from the centre, or when do we decentre? Is it possible not to create a panopticon and be in the centre? Yesterday some of us heard a conversation between Fred Moten and Denise Ferreira da Silva. At a certain point the 'idea' or 'concept' of Homotopy and Heterotopy were disclosed. It was a striking thought that the same is constituded by the subjugation of difference plurals.
How could it happen that we are not fixed in the centre? How could we be like the moon: take out of the axis of the centre and be tilted or tilt ourselves in different positions? Or be like the woman whose fingers are cut off and become the animals and the sea itself. How can we all become the sea together with you? How can we be invited into the story of the sea better?
Sometimes we also feel that the way in which we gather around these stories, and how many and how evocative they are, creates an expectation to understand information. Can this information be either given, or the expectation be taken away? We think that you are positioning yourself in a constellation of planets that is invoked, but also in a series of problems: myths, the forest, the reality of the refuges problem in Poland and we would have appreciated more elaboration about that.
Do you understand that information is needed in order to position ourselves? In your movement to reach the stars, to read the relation between the planets, there is also this search for information, for stories and narratives that help you to make this movement. Is it the case that we should make this movement too?
Strategy of fragility. You are thinking in the moment, moving in the moment, dealing with some unexpected things, we saw you creating in the moment as a way to allow us to see you building the things at the same time it is being shared There is a key there as a structure for the experience or maybe for a performance: the spatial relation of you towards us.
There are some elements that in the first instance we might see as distractions: the fire not working, or not feeling well. But to what extent are these distractions, or are they part of the set-up? Can they generate attention, listening? The fire was implying the whole group, a desire for something. Was it a distraction from the ideal of a presentation, or is it the reality of dealing with chance elements.We think the accident (f.e. the fire not ligthning) could be a way to scatter the stories and the performative experience as a moment that can open up to the cosmos/something else... And how chance elements are 'life' itself.
How are you thinking or being in relation with the materials that you are bringing to us and the ones that are the unexpected ones is there some herarchy between the storytelling, the movements, the spaciallity,the collective experience?
On the one hand there is your gesture of reaching to the stars, for a map, for clarity, for materials, for meaning making, for holding relationships. On the other hand there is a reaching for understanding surrounding what is happening in Poland. It is like watching someone reach for an answer, clarity. It might be an impossible task. Is there resolution possible in the political environment? It is admirable and heartbreaking at the same time. Perhaps the implication of the audience is not the question, perhaps it's ok that we are not implicated in that reaching? Maybe we can become tools in trying to reach for this understanding but maybe we aren't.
It might be an exercise of hope. Or it might be setting the conditions for hope to occur.
Looking forward to meet you again, and maybe continue the conversation.
With love
ps: this letter was written collectively and in a restricted time frame, keep that in mind when you are reading. We would have loved to have more time to elaborate, but maybe this is something we can do together or alone in another moment.
NOTES:
Dear A,
Letters imply correspondence, so we were wondering if establishing a correspondence is something important to you. Also wether the performance is part of the correspondence? Is it the fist correspondence or is this performance an answer to our previous letters? If there is no gap in time between the 2 presentations, does it mean that our letters have not been processed?
Several subjects were opened, several doors are open, but we were not carried through them. We didn't know what is behind them. The collective moment is important to be able to go through these doors.
If the doors are opened for us, does it mean that the doors are already open for you? Is it your concern, or is it mine?
Storytelling. Which stories are being told in the cycles of 70 to 11.000 years. Which language are these stories told in? How do we listen? How do we speak?
The work of situating through planets and natural elements, they create an entry point to the stories and to the sensiorial. We thought you would create more space for situating, but we didn't take that door. Expanding... What if you were the goddess of the sea?
How are all these planets influencing us? or vice vera.
We were struck by the idea of centre. Is the self the centre? What is the periphery? What kind of proximities and distances, angles that are operating from the centre, or when we decentre? Is it possible not to create a panopticon and being in the centre?
How could it happen that we are not fixed in the centre? be like the moon: take out of the ax of the centre or be like the woman whose fingers are cut off and become the animals not everyone has the same distance to the centre.
Difficulty to understand what the research is about, because the thinking happens through the speaking. Can the letter be a format to generate more understanding and become part of the performance setting? There is an expectation to understand information: can this information be either given, or the expectation be taken away? You are positioning yourself in a constellation of planets that is invoked, but also in a series of problems: myths, the forest, but the latter is not really elaborated on.
Strategy of fragility. You are thinking in the moment, moving in the moment. There is a key there as a structure for performance: the spatial relation of you towards us.
The distraction of the fire not working, because it's the main technology. Or: not feeling well. To what extent are these distractions, or are they part of the set-up? Can they generate attention, listening? The fire was implying the whole group, a desire for something. Was it a distraction from the ideal of a performance, or is it the reality of dealing with chance elements.
The gesture of reaching to the starts, for a map, for clarity, for materials, for meaning making, for holding relationships, in combination with the reaching for Poland, is like watching someone reach for an answer, clarity. It might be an impossible task. Is there resolution possible in the political environment? It is admirable and heartbreaking at the same time. Perhaps the implication of the audience is not the question, perhaps it's ok that we are not implicated in that reaching?
It might be an exercise of hope.