PROJECTING THE WOUND: RITUALITY, COMMUNITY AND MEMORY by Eduardo Caballero
A wound must be reopened if there are signs of infection or if it is failing to heal properly, as this can cause chronic pain or reduced mobility. And if the wound closed with foreign bodies trapped inside, it must also be reopened to remove them.
Can there be such a thing as shared wounds? Personally I think there can, that they are increasingly numerous and that they are not necessarily shared by bonds of proximity. Nor do I think we know exactly where these wounds are; what we do know is that they hurt or at least niggle away at us and prevent free movement.
If we don’t know where these wounds are, where do we open to heal them? We sense, we sense foreign bodies with which we long to maintain a more direct bond, to undo their alienness, to find the wound and do what is necessary. But, they have long been trapped beneath the sutures of an improperly treated wound. The alternative, then, lies in the possibility of developing a form of spectral diagnosis, delving into the ability to explore the non-visible, to perceive the resonances that remain trapped, engaging in dialogue with ghosts, with the non-living, to bring into the present traumas of the past that still hurt us deeply today, deep inside, wounds cauterised with lead, whose toxic sequelae now hamper the possibility of healing. The spectral demand that we inhabit a dislocated time that moves freely between and interlocks past and present, which transcends the imposed logic of a linear time and warns us that what appears to be distant is perhaps much closer.
Opening and reopening these wounds allows us to delve into the stories that have been hidden beneath the scars, into the life stories of Others that are partly responsible today for preventing the eternal advancement of Otherness as one of the foundations of the world we inhabit, obstructing the dignity of most of those who live in it.
We inhabit such a deeply rooted framework of reality that it becomes invisible to us. We move within it, transform ourselves within its boundaries, without stopping to notice its presence, question its contours, detect the wounds that it inscribes on our body. Complex and necessary is the exercise of situating oneself within the boundaries, within the unintelligible, of questioning language because even words are traitorous in the construction of an alternative reality; they are regulated, imposed from the centre and from above, supplanting other communication systems such as the orality of indigenous cultures that have not only been a vehicle of information, but also form deep connections with the environment, collective memory and the spiritual plane.
The piece Yo Merezco [I am worthy] by Romina Rivero was constructed in a community of five women, which gives the work a unique and distinctive power. Paradoxical as it may seem, at this present time, the gesture of taking on a vital act—in this case, the construction of a work of art—collectively, is itself a disruptive act. The system that strangles us today has focused its strategy of the actions on individualism, fraying the bonds that sustain communality. Reversing this dynamic is an urgent necessity if we are to begin tackling the ecosocial crisis that transects us today.
The piece is born through the formulation of a text that acts almost like a mantra, a ritual, which, through the repetition of “I am worthy” at the beginning of each statement, becomes a performative tool of resistance and affirmation of being. In essence, the text alludes to human dignity and the right to lead a fulfilling, whole life, which should be intrinsic to existence, but which ends up being something that we must lay claim to or become aware of its absence.
What is presented in this work is the acoustic record of this text, where the sound wave form materialises in two ways: on the one hand, through a graphic made of gold leaf; on the other, by suturing the fabric of the canvas, which in turn reveals a wound. From it, the energy generated by the sound of the ritual emerges in gold, laying claim to something that should be guaranteed to us as human beings. The suture of the wound passes through those folds where we must open to promote the healing of all that makes human dignity and the enjoyment of a full life impossible.
The vegetation, the flowers, grow vertically supported by the intervals that the suture and the sound graphic generate. A non-human presence bursts forward, calling on us to reflect on all the above, showing that the possibility of a full life must necessarily include the full life of other species. In turn, this vegetation ties in with the notion of feminine care for the ritual, the wound, the scar, which women have practiced and mastered since time immemorial, gathering knowledge of medicinal plants and the way they are used, laying the foundations for modern medicine. According to ecofeminist researcher Carolyn Merchant, the modern scientific method replaced the organic worldview that saw nature, women and the Earth as protective mothers, with another worldview that degraded them to the category of permanent resources.
The piece Cicatrices sin dolor [Scars without pain] has a much more intimate component, a personal cosmos that weaves a lifeline in search of the dignity and wholeness mentioned previously. The two pieces are intertwined in an indispensable symbiotic relationship: it is not a question of opposing individuality and collectivity, but of reconstituting their balance. Healing and care must regain their community dimension without nullifying individual autonomy, recognising that wholeness is only possible through interdependence.
