Bond I - Mutualism (2022),
Deborah Mora & Virginia Vivaldi
She/her + She/her — IT/NL
Exhibition: Mutation
Wednesday 8 June till Sunday 19 June — Dokzaal
Opening | 17:00—23:00 (free admission)
Tue - Fri | 13:00—20:00
Sat & Sun | 10:00—20:00
Mon | closed
Imagine you suddenly leave your human body, and mutate into a plant. Would you still feel yourself, and everyone around you? What part of the human experience remains when you transfer into the embodiment of moss? In this participatory meditation, you may experience that the distance between you and the natural world is not as big as it seems. Guided by voice and visuals, you are invited to inhabit a space in between a few centimeters above the soil and the underground where roots grow. As a human being, we are in constant connection to the natural environment. But our individuality often hinders us in realizing that these interconnections are mutual, and fluid. This work lets you and others experience what mutualism actually is; a form of symbiosis, where all species who are involved in the relationship profit from the commonality.
Bond I – Mutualism introduces a method to experience new forms of perception. It raises questions on the notion of individuality that is so strongly present in our neoliberal society. While shape-shifting, you are accompanied in the search of relating to yourself, others and other beings. By experiencing this work, you may learn that we are always affected by our surroundings, and forever changing and exchanging.
This work is the first iteration of multidisciplinary explorations between Deborah Mora and Virginia Vivaldi. The project itself is also shapeshifting between performance and installation. The sound design is created by Jordan Edge.
They build worlds by deconstructing human experience, and translating it into non-human experience; non-human sonic entities. Their process fabricates windows into sonic possible worlds, through the imagination of interspecies bodies, sounds and narratives.
This work and collaboration originated in FIBER’s Reassemble Lab
Deborah Mora is a visual artist and designer. Her research is situated at the intersecting space between the physical and the immaterial, creating moments for exploring mediated experiences. She approaches visual materialities to carve the openings for immersive environments, producing audio-visual installations and performances.
Virginia Vivaldi is an artist researcher and an embodiment mentor. They study, practice, teach and create methodologies for shifting presences. Part of their research happens while sensorially observing the physical subtle dimensions of relations among humans, other-than-humans and ecologies.
Jordan Edge works at the intersection of experience design, sound art and fictional worlding, presenting non-human narrative through material forms of expression.