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[0:10]
This video is a crossing.
It weaves between the body and the landscape, the past and the future, bridging Glissant and the Ocean, the Forest and Monoculture, dance and the visual arts, poetry and concepts, the body and philosophy, between Emanuele Coccia and the butterfly, among the thousand names of Gaia.
They are letters thrown into the sea, directed to the landscapes that inhabit me, written with pieces of images and sounds that were inside my body/computer in these last years.
A mixture of personal materials and excerpts available on the internet.
Like an alphabet in ruins, a (un)alphabetical order.
Each word carries a letter and a landscape.
These, in turn, carry a journey in themselves: a way of doing and thinking about the body, Anthropocene, Ecology, and an invention of possible worlds.
The letters in this video article are not meant to be understood in their literal meaning as written documents sent by mail. These are letters of our days: a WhatsApp audio, a YouTube live, an excerpt from a favorite book. Pieces that make up and address the ideas proposed here.
Letters as texts spoken, read, dreamed or danced.
Landscapes here are human and non-human compositions cut from multiple spaces: real, digital, imaginary, and performed (by us and other artists).
Along with the letters, the landscapes address a possible alliance for thinking about the Anthropocene (or its multiple names).
One always writes letters from somewhere, to someone. Even if it is for oneself.
Letters to the Landscape
(or an Alphabet in Ruins)
A video article by Marina Guzzo & Mateus Guzzo
[01:32]
P
PERFORMANCE
Landscape: Apollo 11 Launch Countdown, Moon Landing Live, BBC America
Letter: Eleonora Fabião in an interview for the program Ensaio on 07/01/2016.
[Eleonora Fabião:]
This concept of “breaking” is great for performance, because
if there is something we are interested in, is breaking the molds, breaking the norms, breaking the habit, breaking the cognitive behavioral mechanics,
breaking.”
[Marina Guzzo:]
I heard once in an art history class that the ultimate in human performance was the rocket. For many, many years, I thought it was Nadia Comaneci.
Original Soundtrack by Mateus Guzzo
Narration by Marina Guzzo
Landscape: Nadia Comaneci – 1976 Gymnastics All Seven Perfect 10’s
[Journalist:]
Faultless. Absolutely faultless. Nadia Comaneci. Now what are the judgens going to say about that?
[2:31]
C
CELESTE
[CELESTIAL]
Landscape: “Celeste”, Concept and Direction: Marina Guzzo, 2018.
Letter: Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Juliana Fausto on the “Mil nomes de Gaia” seminar, 2012
[Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and Juliana Fausto:]
The contingency for the future too, the future is open
we are not compelled, or obligated to is…. we are not locked in a cage
We create a hole, but we can get out of it without digging deeper and deeper.
And again, there comes the question of narratives historicing, because not only is the past contingent, but the past does not need to remain the past that the official historiography tells us. In changing, in fabulating other pasts,
from underground stories, or whatever,
we make room for the creation of new futures, of other futures.
Which doesn’t mean, you know, as she says, that we don’t have to grieve, it’s… from what died and even if it is a question of salvation, there is no salvation.
She talks a lot about partial recovery, this is all about partial recovery, a way to try to live and die well on this earth. Because when you say that we were never individuals, you can imply that everything is connected to everything else.
Not everything is connected to everything.
everything is connected to something.
and keep those limits,
the limits, even the individual limits, all of this has a cost.
and we need to know what that cost is, and weigh that cost, each time we create each of these limits.”
[03:49]
C
COREOPOLÍTICA
[CHOREOPOLITICS]
Landscape: Kim Jong-Un’s car surrounded by jogging security guards | On Demand News
Letter: André Lepecki em aula proferida na ocasião de 20 anos da EAD, ECA USP, em 2020
[André Lepecki:]
The first thing,
the fundamental thing for choreography,
it is neither a body nor a movement,
the first thing that happens, that has to be defined, is the room, or the theater,
The room,
and what is the room?
thinking in what way, this writing of movement, is preceded by an imagination, which determines the specific place, and very special, in which this writing of movement can take place, which is a confinement space, in fact, that is, we are beginning to enter what Foucault called a disciplinary society.
and from the moment we start to enter the disciplinary society, we start to enter a certain… in another state of sovereignty, and in another understanding of the subject’s autonomy,
and this understanding of sovereignty has to do with its ability to move around, to move around.
[05:23]
N
NATUREZA
[NATURE]
Landscape: Árvore, recorded by Marina Guzzo in Campinas, 2020
Letter: Édouard Glissant Interview with Laure Adler in “The Invitation to Travel” in 2004
[Eduard Glissant:]
We are called to know even by our imagination all the places in the world
because everywhere in the world today, today in the modern state, everywhere in the world is connected, and is in shock.
there are wars, there are genocides,
there are massacres
there are epidemics
there are famines
there are floods
there are fires
earthquakes
but there is also something new that we all have the feeling that we are living the same dimension that I call “worldliness”
we live this dimension is that ours, we become inseparable
like it or not,
but that’s what’s exciting
it’s because we can’t decide that mechanically,
because the world is inextricable
you need extraordinary intuition to try to understand, that these calamities that I spoke of, are happening beyond anything, what is happening is, perhaps, I say perhaps, to join us one day.
[07:05]
F
FLORESTA
[FOREST]
[07:49]
D
DOMESTICAÇÃO
[DOMESTICATION]
Landscape: Mushroom growth timelapse | RedEye Timelapses
Letter: Marina Guzzo lendo Anna Tsing e Édouard Glissant.
Original Soundtrack: Mateus Guzzo
[Marina Guzzo:]
Consider the abundant diversity that borders the roads.
Nobody lives everywhere; Everyone lives somewhere.
Nothing is connected to everything; everything is connected to something.
Domination, domestication and love are firmly intertwined.
Or consider mushrooms.
Wandering in the murmuring forest, under tall trees and giant flowers.
Nobody, it’s true.
Not a bird, not a cell, not an immigrant, not a capitalist.
The thought of tremor explodes everywhere.
Landscape: 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, The Telegraph
[08:48]
M
MEDUSA
Landscape: 21 ações para mulheres e plantas”, Concept and Direction Marina Guzzo
Letter: Alana Moraes in a meeting during the artistic residency to create
[Alana Moraes: ]
I saw Mama Oxum at the waterfall…
She is a Gorgon,
and she lives underground.
She is a figure that, unlike Olympus, which is a place of enlightenment, of the gods, and heroes,
the Medusa dwells with the other Gorgons,
although she is the only mortal gorgon,
so she also has this force of mortality.
And she inhabits the underground, so Medusa is a very earthly figure.
Medusa, from the Greek, this word, it means guardian,
it is not known for sure what Medusa was guarding,
so there’s also an interesting secret there
that Medusa protects,
and that, in a way, was not revealed yet.
And I think this is also very important
for people to think about this figure,
which is a figure from the earth.
And a third interesting aspect of the myth,
is the fact that she is a figure who emerges from a history of punishment.
Medusa gets the serpents, because she was punished,.
And it’’ interesting how this aspect of punishment,
the woman who is punished
because she disobeys in some way.
How she is an important and trans-historical figure
for people to think a lot about
this colonial, racist, and patriarchal architecture.
[11:10]
F
FERAL
Landscape: “IARA” Direction and concept by Marina Guzzo
Letter and Sound: Anna Tsing, on the occasion of the launch of Feral Atlas, 2020.
Music by Conrado Federici
[Anna Tsing:]
Dinâmicas ferais emergem da interação de entidades não humanas
e da infraestrutura humana construída.
O dióxido de carbono é liberado da queima de combustíveis fósseis,
toxinas são liberadas na agricultura industrial,
invasões de várias espécies acompanham a conquista humana,
cada um deles mostra os processos nos quais entidades ferais nascem.
E então, o que você encontrará é um mundo que você não pode esperar, que você não
está acostumado a ver.
Precisamente porque estamos focados nesses relacionamentos emaranhados.
[12:03]
G
GAIA
Landscape: GAIA – Earth is not just a place | Iperó, 2020.
Research, concept, and direction Marina Guzzo
Eduardo Viveiros de Castro in a lecture “The revolution makes good weather”, at the seminar “Mil Nomes de Gaia”, in 2012.
Music by Flavia Maia
[Eduardo Viveiros de Castro:]
It has never been possible to separate humanity from the environment. As it is not about putting one in and one out. One setting and one setting.
It is much more a question, it seems to me, of two ways, of talking about Gaia and talking about humanity, or any other avatar of the subject,
It is much more about two ways of starting a journey.
one can start with Gaia, or with the Anthropos, or with the humus, with the humanus, with the living being, and reach the other side without any discontinuity, because it is only one side.
which is not to say there isn’t a bend, a fold, a twist in this one-sided figure.
This fold is perhaps rightly called the Anthropocene.”
[13:40]
Z
ZIG-ZAG
Landscape: “Travessia” by Marina Guzzo. Santos, 2021.
Letter: Emanuele Coccia in an interview conducted on August 2, 2020 at the Orto Botanico in Rome, by journalist Damiano Fedeli journalist, from the cultural section La Lettura – Corriere della Sera of the daily Corriere della Sera.
Original Soundtrack by Mateus Guzzo
[Emanuele Coccia:]
We are used to thinking
that being is something we can get around
in a way of life,
an ethos, a character,
while the caterpillar and the butterfly show us that this is not how it works
Also from the point of view of ethos,
life passes easily from one form to another
and it is never reducible to the same world.
Deep down, in the metamorphosis process of insects,
passes from one world to another
and life is what allows these two worlds to come together.
The thesis of the book is that this same relationship,
that unites a being through two bodies,
two forms of life,
two different worlds,
is the relationship that exists
among all individuals of a species,
all species among them,
and all species of the earth where we dwell.
In what sense?
The idea is that there is absolute continuity
among all individuals belonging to the same species,
and the proof of this is that metamorphosis that each of us goes through at birth.
To be born means to appropriate a body.
Actually, from two bodies that once lived.
That is, the body, the flesh of our mother and father,
and submit it a second time,
make her live again.”
[15:10]
Direction, Research, and Choreography by
MARINA GUZZO
Assembly, Editing, Finishing, and Original Soundtrack
MATEUS GUZZO
Subtitles and translations
Marina Guzzo
Collaboration
Tarcísio Almeida
Inspiration
Deleuze ABC with Claire Parnet
Édouard Glissant’s thought of tremor
Research Platform
Lab Corpo e Arte – UNIFESP – Baixada Santista
Production
Marina Guzzo, Mateus Guzzo and Corpo Rastreado
Thanks
Sonia Sobral
Sidnei Casetto
Conrado Federici
Lia Damasceno
Cau Fonseca
Raquel Guzzo
João Simão
References
P
Performance
Landscape
Apollo 11 Launch Countdown | Moon Landing Live | BBC America
Nadia Comaneci – 1976 Gymnastics All Seven Perfect 10’s
Letter
Eleonora Fabião in an interview for the program Ensaio. 01/07/2016
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwsAeHp8EhU.
C
Celeste
[Celestial]
Landscape
Guzzo, M,. (2018) Celeste. Sesc Pompéia. Available at: https://cargocollective.com/marinaguzzo/Celeste. (Accessed: [12/01/2024]).
Letter
Viveiros de Castro, E. and Fausto, J. (2012) Entrevista com Donna Haraway no seminário Mil nomes de Gaia. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg0oyW9-rA0 (Accessed: 30/09/2023).
C
Coreopolítica
[Coreopolitics]
Landscape
On Demand News (Date Unknown) Kim Jong-Un’s car surrounded by jogging security guards. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM40H9yAPvo (Accessed: 4/02/2021).
Letter
Lepecki, A. (2020) Lecture on the occasion of 20 years of EAD, ECA_USP. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMeByhGMxfQ (Accessed: [Date of Access]).
N
Natureza
[Nature]
Landscape
Guzzo, M. (2020) Árvores. Campinas.
Letter
Glissant, É. (2004) Interview with Laure Adler in “O convite para viajar”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htIto1xtYBw (Accessed: 3/02/2021).
Forest
Letter and Landscape
Guzzo, M. and Simão, J. (2020) Floresta – Live during the program SESC em Casa. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLDH2am-BJs (Accessed: 4/02/2021).
F
Floresta
[Forest]
Letter and Landscape
Live held on August 18, 2020, during the SESC em Casa program.
Conception, choreography and performance: Marina Guzzo | Soundscape and performance: João Simão | Artistic support: Tarcisio Almeida | Collaboration: José Simão, Marli Pedroso, Gabi Gonçalves, Anita Meduna, Susana Prado, Conrado Federici and Lia Damasceno | Soundtrack: João Simão and Bruno Buarque
Interlocution: Marta Soares | Special thanks: Raquel Guzzo and Sítio Angelina Iperó
Photography: Gui Galembeck | Inspired by: “The Vegetable Turn” by Emanuele Coccia (2020), “Enchantment: on the Politics of Life” by Luiz Rufino and Antonio Simas and “The Dream” by Henri Rousseau (1910).
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLDH2am-BJs
D
Domesticação
[Domestication]
Landscape
RedEye Timelapses; The Telegraph (Date Unknown) Mushroom growth timelapse; Hiroshima: 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3_0D2h8BY (Accessed: 12/2/2021).
Letter
Guzzo, M. (2021) Reading Anna Tsing and Édouard Glissant.
M
Medusa
Landscape
Guzzo, M. (2020). 21 actions for women and plants. Available in: https://climacom.mudancasclimaticas.net.br/mulhereseplantas/
Letter
Moraes, A. (2020) Lecture in the residence “Woman and plants”. Santos.
F
Feral
Landscape
IARA | Sesc May 24th | March, 2020
Research, direction and performance: Marina Guzzo | Sound performance: Conrado Federici | Collaboration: Leticia Doretto, Camila Miranda, Landa Mendonça, Maira Pedroso, Isabel Lögren, Calixto Neto, João Simão, Dafne Michellepes, Marta Soares and Cau Fonseca, Fixxa, Marília Guarita, Kidauane Regina, Susana Barbosa, Mats Hjelm, Sheila Areas and Lia Damascene | Seamstress: Maria Bezzerra | Mask: Jamille Queiroz | Costume design: Marina Guzzo | Costume Consulting: Lia Damasceno | Video and editing: Patricia Araujo
Letter
Anna Tsing, on the occasion of the launch of Feral Atlas, 2020.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVMrLLLU630
G
Gaia
Landscape
Guzzo, M. (2021). GAIA: a Terra não é um lugar. ClimaCom – Coexistências e cocriações [online], Campinas, ano 8, n. 20, abril. Available from: https://climacom.mudancasclimaticas.net.br/gaia-a-terra-nao-e-um-lugar/
Letter
Viveiros de Castro, E. (2012). Lecture titled “The revolution makes good weather,” presented at the seminar “The thousand names of Gaia.” Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjbU1jO6rmE
Z
ZigZag
Landscape
Guzzo, M. (2021) Crossing. Santos, Brazil.
Letter
Coccia, E. (2020). Interview conducted on August 2, 2020 at the Orto Botanico in Rome by journalist Damiano Fedeli from the cultural section La Lettura – Corriere della Sera of the daily Corriere della Sera. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHwW7DvAk8&t=159s
Abstract
This article is a crossing through the Anthropocene. Between the body and the landscape, between the past and the future, between concepts and dances, between Edouard Glissant and the Atlantic Ocean, between tremor and uncertainty, between the Forest and Monoculture, between dance and the visual arts, between poetry and concepts, between the body and philosophy, between the animal and the plant, between what I desire and what I get, between Emanuele Coccia and the butterfly, between the thousand names of Gaia, the anthropology and what remains of our planet. They are letters thrown into the sea, directed to the landscapes that inhabit me, written with pieces of images and sounds that were inside my body/computer in these last years of journey. Shared in a list, like an alphabet in ruins, a (un)alphabetical order. Each letter carries a journey in itself: a way of doing and thinking about dance, an invention of a world that is possible to imagine today.
Keywords: Anthropocene, Art, Crossing, Performance.
About the Authors
Marina Guzzo
Federal University of São Paulo
Artist and researcher Marina Guzzo concentrates her creations on the interface of the body and the landscape, mixing dance, performance, and circus when tensioning the limits of subjectivity in cities and nature. Since 2011, the climate crisis and the role of the artist in the production of imagery for crossing a ruined world in the Anthropocene have been at the center of her research. She works in partnership with health, culture and social assistance equipment, thinking of art as a political action that weaves a complex network of people, institutions, objects, and nature. The artist has a post-doctorate from the Department of Performing Arts at ECA-USP and a master’s and doctorate in Social Psychology from PUC-SP. She is an Adjunct Professor at Unifesp at the Baixada Santista Campus and a researcher at the Corpo e Arte Laboratory in the Society and Health Institute.
Mateus Guzzo
Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University
Mateus Guzzo (Campinas, Brazil, 1992) is a multi-modal researcher, designer, and producer interested in the deceptive character of images and their increasingly globalized social production. Guzzo started as a documentarist, actively covering and participating in social movements in Brazil from 2010 to 2017. With the rise of social media, Guzzo shifted his focus to media democracy and design, seeking to uncover and understand the role that (interfacial) images play in public understanding. After graduating with an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California in San Diego, Guzzo works as a program designer for the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.