Leitura de Seres Vegetais, 2020
A Reading of Vegetable Beings: oracles for the re-enchantment of the Earth
Ana Rita Teodoro’s research and creative process is developed in the context of the Terra Batida project. A final performance will be presented in 2021.
Terra Batida is a constellation of people, practices and knowledge taking a stand against ecological violence and politics of abandonment. Local knowledge of socio-environmental conflicts combined with an active network create a context for resistance to extractive abuses and, also, for practices of care — speculation, fabulation, and building visions and reflections of the future for our weary, worn-out worlds.
“Dreams often fail for lack of inspired interpreters.”
Yemisi Aribisala in “Dreams, the jurisdiction of the mouth, and non-conclusions on hunger.”
Where does the enchantment of the earth and the landscape drain to? Where did the image of the desert become fixed? Do we tend towards an opaque and mono-cultural vision? Where do food and affects reconnect? We need to denounce the spreading swaths of intensive and superintensive monocultures that are spreading: olive trees, almond trees, solar panels, berries… We need to recover an attentive, diverse, translucid way of looking at the landscape. We need to reformulate our relationship to food: domesticate or care for, produce or accompany? We need to reduce the empty consumption of food and landscape and reconnect our senses to thoughts, dreams, and desire. We need to tell other stories and let other beings speak.
A reading of Vegetable Beings takes the form of an oracle, in which questions are asked. The goal is not to foretell the future, but to carefully observe the sovereignty of the vegetable being, its form, colour, texture, taste and smell. Through conversation and collective speculation, we seek possible answers or new perspectives for our questions.
This work was done with artistic complicity with Alina Ruiz Folini, luminous and warm design by Leticia Skrycky and the hands of Sara Vieira Marques in performance fanzines.
Thanks to all those who took part in the readings so far: Márcia Lança, Carolina Campos, Vincent Richeux, Dimitri Rey, Bruno Caracol, Josefa Pereira, Alexandre da Silva, Rita Natálio, Rafael, Teresa Castro and thanks to all those who gave themselves to the reading.
parasita.eu/projecto/terra-batida/