PAVILION OF
EMBRACES
The participatory social-art project was born out of awareness that our lives are inevitably woven from our relationships with our fellow human beings. In the midst of the contemporary individualistic preoccupation with self, image, identity and intangible internet “connectedness” the project consciously emphasizes that Zulu concept of Ubuntu (“I am because we are”), and aims at shedding light on the significance of our embodied, felt relationships. Through the suggested somatic practice with clay it is designed as a context and an opportunity where participants can dedicate, celebrate, affirm, empower, commemorate, transform and perhaps even heal those relationships that (have) meaningfully shape(d) their lives. Further, by intertwining geographically distant or culturally different communities (with special attention and respect for Indigenous people and their knowledge), the project states that caring for fellow human beings is not a matter of geo-cultural proximity or similarity, but of empathy, power of mind, spirit and heart. That humanity and sociality are universal human characteristics: part of an incredibly diverse, yet inevitably shared human story. The incorporation of the seemingly “distant” thread into the shared relational fabric – woven not only in/by our minds but also physically, through matter -, is also my gesture of redefining the dangerous general perception, exemplified by the phrase “far from the eyes, far from the heart”. By and large, and grounded in various sensorial practices which include relations with othen-than-human beings, the project brings attention towards all-humans and more-than-human interconnectedness.
CLUES
Relationship = something in-between, born, formed and developed
as individuals reach out to each other. A dimension of co-existence.
The practice = a present to people that gives the full experience of
being-with-one-another.
Clay = a malleable material that absorbs, stores, transforms & heals
(pressure, touch, contact, skin, energies, messages, memories, etc.).
Sculpture = a unique object, that can evoke
the experienced interconnectedness.
An artifact of interpersonal landscapes and existential dimensions.
Eagle wings = an instrument & effect, spreading through space, by which
the nature of man as an individual and collective/social being is revealed.
Exhibition = a garden of relation(ship)s
in which connectedness & transcendence embrace its full poetics of human life.
ABOUT CLAY
Clay has always been an element of interpersonal and intercultural communication – both in terms of cultural exchange of objects (trade) and in terms of mastery of skills (e.g. the transmission of knowledge). Thus, it has always formed a link between contemporaries and ancestors. A bridge between material and spiritual culture. As an earthly material, it is also a link between all beings on the planet. The practice & the project are thus also designed as a gift-exchange, as a women-to-women support, and altogether a way of co-creating collective wings of friendship.
Clay is a master teacher: of patience, being present and listening. Moreover, it also has healing properties. It is a fundamental reminder of the time, attention and energy needed to establish and transform relationships. Considering that sociality (social sense) is a fundamental, universal human trait, and relationality a property of all living, dimension has been widely wounded, the project could well be seen as a collective “ritual of healing all our relations”.
[other practices & notes]
The entire project Pavilion of embraces is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
The part of the project, Embraces to go, is co-supported by the Culture Moves Europe Mobility fund – European Union, Goethe Institute
This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
