Casting Futures in the Thick Present: Talk in ArtEZ Time Matters, Nov 5, 2019

I was honoured to contribute to the seminar Casting Futures in the Thick Present, in the Series Time Matters, organised by Peter Sonderen, Professor, and Sharon Stewart, researcher for the Professorship Theory in the Arts at the ArtEZ, in Deventer, the Netherlands. My talk went around how time is manifested in the project INTIMAL:

Abstract 

“Time in INTIMAL: In-between fragments of dreams and migrations, responses to awaken realities. 

The project has engaged initially nine Colombian migrant women living in Europe, in listening deeply to their dreams as vehicles of their migrations. Listening  to our dreams is inspired by the teachings of the writer and dream expert IONE, as part of the Deep Listening practice.  As a compass, the process in INTIMAL has questioned spaces and times, as well as sounds that are manifested in the dreams. Specifically, their engagement has been through the focus on my proposal of four spheres of migratory memory to navigate through:

• body stories,
• social body,
• native land,
• and hostland.

In the context of Colombian and world conflict, these spheres bring a cycle of renewal of stories that emerge through a myriad of emotions and can transform opening paths for healing experiences of loss. Loss could be related to the “no future”, particularly in territories that immerse us in various layers of conflict, and when the option of future is seen as “leaving” to other lands, to migrate. Time then might freeze, in the native and in the hostland. Time then could define what we perceive as our identities: embodied, colour, race, language, gender. Time emerges in this context as a malleable category to reinvent ourselves and to, actually, migrate.”

In the talk, my reflection involved the possibility of expanding time, through dreams, migration, and telematics, for the opening of possible futures.

Thanks to the organisers for this amazing opportunity!