LabVerde Residency in Amazon Rainforest, Brazil

Into the Thoughts and Selves and Beings of the Forest, and what captured on the images of that very first entry in to the Adolpho Ducke Reserve.

That was an amazing, organically enchanting day time hike through the jungle thought density…

Here are the recollections of the day two of the Labverde program in the Amazon, Brazil.

Distilling the rich experience of the very first day in the Amazon, on the second day, it felt so very special and dream like to be a part of the Labverde in the middle of the Amazonas, being integrated into the community of artists, researchers and organisers, and sharing with everyone the passion for natural environment.

I thought about my project for this residency and I have tried to imagine the outcomes. The body of work I imagined to produce needs to match the experiences, its polyphonic qualities, the immense fecundity of the richest and diverse ecosystem on this planet. I have also been focusing on the effects of that richness on imagination, and radical thinking, the approach to research based on ‘radical openness, an edgy protean differentiating multiplicity’ (Karen Barad), and relevance of it to the issues I am exploring.

There is more to that feeling of connections than an intuition, more than ‘the notion’ of the existence of the global movement towards change. My desire is to contribute to the emergence of the global consciousness that is sensible to the world. Following my initial proposal and the earthly and empathetic method of gathering art/experiences on a spot, I also thought about the type of intuitive and imaginative discoveries, collections that, ‘decolonised artist/naturalist’ can bring from such expedition.

I have been reading the records of the 18th century naturalists such as Wallace, Bates and Spruce. Undoubtedly they have contributed hugely towards the western knowledge and natural collections! I thought, rather than searching and collecting for new species or phenomena, I wanted to collect observations and insights that can be transformative and can help our future thinking.

That second morning, we woke up on the boat mourned somewhere on a little island on the Rio Negro. On the beautiful beach right in the middle of the paradise. Stunning place on the black river, called by some’ Caribbean of the Amazonas’. The plan for the second day of the program included three visits to the local/indigenous communities. I did have a mixed feeling about that, As much as I am very interested in indigenous worlds and communities, and as much as I would love to have a chance to sensitively engage with it, I couldn’t stop thinking that the visits were  ‘touristy sort of atractions’ loaded with the colonial past, based on capitalistic exchange.

On that beach, we were welcomed by the mysterious crosses/cemetery veiled in the sad silence, the reminder of the past that is not forgotten.

We have been told to have a swim before breakfast. The ritual that can set the day, The communal submersion of the symbolic species. The warmth of that very first immersion in the river, was astonishingly pleasant and inviting.

That being with and becoming with, the part of organisms that always contains the same amount of water all over the planet.

Liquid thoughts that dissolve the boundaries reaching deep and deeper in the circular dis-continuity,

The vultures on the trees, cashew nuts trees with funny tasting fruits.

Warm sand, scattered with seeds of astonishing shapes and sizes, feeding the eyes and the souls, and continuing conversations,

brains of the land, seeds of change, ever ready for the right conditions to flourish, twigs that belong, the flux that is the landscape,

joyful conversations among the bodies immersed in water,

the bathing of the privileged expectations,

The flicking, floating substance of the landscape seen from the boat, continuity of it, the entanglement with and of the disappearing thoughts, its ebbs and flows, thoughts of belonging and care. All nature, all continuity, all from the place of consideration. Generated from the precious source of that most prolific encounters.

The biological cycle, with no regrets and no expectations, Tabula Rasa,

Clean mind, no baggage and no preconceptions, free range mind in the unfolding universe, with the eyes wide open, with the mind ready for unlimited thoughts,

that stretch right up across the horizons, arccos the mass of the forests and rivers and the moral obligation, the global obligation, the forces that shape the future.

Shaping the way of the wild imagination, wild visions of utopia in this wild place among the creatures of the entangled universe.

Passing through one of the largest river’s archipelagos.

The island is always right metaphor, in any circumstances,

the Amazonas type of adequate metaphor emerging among its beings and thinking matter.

Swimming with the pink dolphins, walking to the Amazonian alligator,

She said is her pet, she was cover in sadness, performing for the visitors eyes, fishes for dolphins,

in the shadows of the past-of the knowledge that has been lost, of the lost of cultures,

the mind of the sensitive obligation and the different type of future,

How does the wild dolphin interacts with the bodies from far away lands? It surely just appears domesticated,

What is really on the minds of these people? Do we share the same desires, do we dream the same dreams for better future? how do we communicate this type of communication?

We visited three different communities, I found these short visits moving and slightly upsetting,

we all breath the same air, we all need land and food and we all commodifying culture that is nature.

Being tourist is such a strange thing! Being an artist it is a completely different thing, it is an obligation!

Here is a recolection of the day one of the Labverde program and the beginning of the love for the place and its ambience.

With understandably  tired mind, and the biological clock slightly out of balance (I have arrived in Brazil that late night of the first day of Labverde), I was eager to start the art/ nature immersion and meet the organizers, and all the participants of the program. The first two days were planned to spend on the boat, on the river in and around Manaus.

The heat from the sun was strong, my mind was open and ready for the adventure!

That very morning there, I was thinking about how astonishingly our bodies can cope with the huge changes, long travel, lack of sleep. how strange and amazing that we can actually travel such vast distances in such short time!

I wanted to stay with that highten body awareness, the embodied feeling and cognition, staying in and with the body and with the excitement and curiosity.

I concentrated on that what can emerge from such highten awereness, I am putting that at the centre of my practice/ methodology. Focusing on the flow like experience, and observing what unfolds.
To situate myself in this new and unknown landscape and context, in a manner that is sympathetic to the existing structures, at the same time holding to the openness and attitude based on respect and wonder, is crucial to research that deeply rooted entanglement between mind/landscape/body/culture/nature.

For the first few days I was keeping reflective diary,  more sort of scribled reflections, poetic encounters and observations. The days were loaded with activities, all new and stimulating. So much to take in, and to take away, to absorb and then to release, and make the experiences visable through shared  fragments of it!

Many views, loads of eyes, and important note to myself- what emerges is crucial and of value!

The moment and movement in the spectacular meeting of the two rivers! The Amazon River-Rio Solimoes meets the Rio Negro!

The Phenomena that makes sense, that connects and persist!

One white, one black, the symbolic encounter,

The forces that shape the landscape!

The poetic encounter, one river forces into another to establish one, the unity, one flow, one force. The focus of the eye of the mind in the landscape.

Five meters long alligators, friendly monkeys, circular giant lily pods, captured sloth, people and their land,

Precious wild observations,

to many words drown in the black river, setting off with the sunset!

How we talk about things, about that nature culture continuity? How we throw our gazes? How we research and gather images?

In the Amazonas, so much stuff is the grandest, biggest, largest, special, everything is a ‘wow factor’ ‘image’ to take,

I will offer a bit of myself, breath for a jungle exchange,

The size of lungs to fit the organism!

The growth that enables! The human beings that can conquer their minds, to break away from the narrowing logic and the reductionsts hegemony of knowledge we too used to!

To think with the land!

The size of things never seen before, the smells, sounds and the atmosphere!

Trees that are growing in the water, abundant life of different shapes and sizes. The insects difficult to comprehend!

the white bird bigger than limited gaze in the familiar biological cycle, the whole bigger then me!

Dream like experience of diversity, overwhelmingly imprinting the patterns into the living mind!

Enveloping in the feeling of some strange return.

The happy forest of abundance with the species I have never seen before, unknown names in that perfect ecosystem.

Undomesticated wonder. The flowers on the trees, life size mimosas, yukkas in its place.

Lovely company, amazing food during the long journey on the boat up the Rio Negro. Amazonian dreams in a rocking hammocks, the night sky and the stars! Humbled mind was listening to the sounds of the nigh jungle!

I have always dreamt about visiting the Amazon Rainforest, and the idea of having an opportunity for artistic engagement with such landscape had a dream like quality. For quite a while, I have been interested in the indigenous knowledges and the notion of nature culture continuum. I could clearly see how the research into the Amazonian Rainforest would fit with, and inform my wider artistic interest and practice.

I came across LabVerde sometimes a while ago, and it struck me by its location and methodology for a short but intense art residency. I have applied to take part in it, and I was lucky to receive Arts Council Support (Artist international Development Fund) that enabled me to participate in the residency. Labverde is a well thought programme of activities and events that is focused on providing environments, community, and creating the conditions for creative immersion in the Amazon Rainforest.

‘LABVERDE is designed for artists and creators who are eager to reflect on nature and landscape. The program will promote an intensive experience in the Amazon rainforest aiming to explore the connection between science, art and the natural environment.’ https://www.labverde.com/

My proposed project for LabVerde continued my ongoing thematic concern into the relationship between human knowledge, aesthetic experience and the natural environment, and it would further expand the visionary scenario of a positive and desirable infection of the ineffable state, the state which enables transition and transformation towards better, sustainable futures.

Drawing from anthropological ideas such as semiotic beings (all life is semiotic) (Eduardo Kohn ‘How Forests Think, Towards Anthropology Beyond Human’), and the framework of the ‘four ontologies’- animism, totemism, naturalism and analogism (‘Beyond Nature and Culture Dychotomy’ P. Descola), and deriving tools for research based on this progressive anthropologies, I would look for ‘the thinking matter’, ‘the manifestations of the virus’, ‘ interconnected patterns’, ‘The Infectious Agent’ of and in the researched place- the Amazon. Using this approach, and through imagining, written text and biomorphic drawings, I would creatively explore how we profoundly interact with complex ecosystems, and how mindful, humane and sustainable politics can grow out from appreciative and sensitive engagement with nature.