{"id":1566,"date":"2023-02-16T20:51:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T20:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge2022\/?page_id=1566"},"modified":"2023-02-18T16:49:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T16:49:23","slug":"ungar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/change\/essay\/ungar\/","title":{"rendered":"Luisa Ungar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">The two following texts work in tandem. They talk about the same project, from different points of view. <strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><em>A Regurgitation is a Song is a Spell (Consultations to Recreate the Colonial Disease) <\/em>is a project by Luisa Ungar for <em>the Stomach and the Port, <\/em>the 2021 edition of the Liverpool Biennial. Initially meant to parasite the format of a guided tour around the city, activating several places linked to colonial history, the project dramatically shifted to adjust to the possibilities of the pandemic and took its final shape as private one on one calls between a clairvoyant and whoever signed up for a half an hour consultation. <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge2022\/change\/essay\/ceron\/\"><strong>The first text<\/strong><\/a>, a sensorial and rhythmical account of an audience member receiving a call, is written by Carolina Cer\u00f3n Castilla, a Colombian curator based in Bogot\u00e1. <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge2022\/change\/profiles\/ungar\/\"><strong>The second text<\/strong><\/a> is a conversation between Luisa Ungar and In\u00e9s Arango Guingue where processual aspects of the evolution of the work are explored, an example of how intuition and improvisation can be used to carry on with a project among difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><strong>A conversation between In\u00e9s Arango Guingue and Luisa Ungar on Ungar\u2019s work <em>A Regurgitation is a Song is a Spell (Consultations to Recreate the Colonial Disease)<\/em> (2021).<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\" style=\"font-size:14px\">English version<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge2022\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-1-744x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1642\" width=\"558\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-1-744x1024.png 744w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-1-218x300.png 218w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-1-768x1058.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-1.png 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 558px) 100vw, 558px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image 1 \/ Imagen 1. Image originally commissioned for the Liverpool Biennial Reader, 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>In\u00e9s Arango Guingue:&nbsp;<\/strong>Manuela Moscoso named this edition of the Biennial &#8220;The Stomach and the Port,&#8221; creating a direct relationship between that part of the human body and the city&#8217;s harbor, stating that &#8220;The stomach can be thought of as the port to the gut, a site where the outside environment comes to dock. [&#8230;] A stomach can&#8217;t ignore so-called foreignness and needs to engage with it, either by prepping it to transition into the body cells or by slowly deciding to send it back to the mouth.&#8221; How did you engage with this framework as an artist invited to create a new piece?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Luisa Ungar: <\/strong>When Manuela invited me to be part of the Biennial, we started an enriching conversation: the metaphor of the stomach led us to talk about notions such as&nbsp;porosity\/parasites\/fluids&nbsp;and, from there, to work from the body and with the body. I wondered about so called foreign elements and if these somehow implied some&nbsp;resistance&nbsp;to that colonial machine &#8220;that swallowed everything.&#8221; Seeking to &#8220;enter&#8221; that&nbsp;pit of the stomach,&nbsp;I approached some archives and collections of the port. I gradually found communicating vessels that guided me through Liverpool. I usually work this way, identifying specific strings that allow me to pull some of the colonial circuits that cross us in the present, following clues as signs of orientation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the first research trip, I reviewed archives at the Meyerside Maritime Museum, some from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine\u2019s collections\u2014Liverpool has active tropical disease research centers like other key port cities during the colonial period\u2014and others from the University of Liverpool\u2019s Dental School and the International Slavery Museum. I also explored the World Museum, its space crammed with pieces of various kinds from different regions of the world,&nbsp;manifestos&nbsp;of power and control, forms of systematization, and classification of knowledge and extraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some clues in this scenario led me to think about notions of contagion, possession, stigma, and hygiene and, simultaneously, in manifestations of kinship and porosity. Some objects emerged as nodes or &#8220;keys&#8221; in the circuits I was identifying and functioned as triggers with which I began to obsess, seeds that encapsulated incanting spirits of the past.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of these items was teeth. The University of Liverpool School of Dentistry has an extensive collection of teeth. These teeth are a &#8220;place&#8221; (a part of the body and a part of the world) where the colonial device begins to manifest itself: teeth start to be damaged by the importation, first exclusively and then massively, of sugar and tobacco. And the teeth of the upper classes began to be damaged first because they were the first to have access to these new products. The first dental prostheses were made with solid blocks of hippo, walrus, or elephant ivory; the next ones were extracted from the mouths of the dead soldiers in the battle of Waterloo or of people without resources who sold their teeth to survive: in these pieces, we can glimpse both the agency of the plants extracted from the colonized territories and the social practices of segregation (of humans and non-humans) generated by the growing capitalist system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, locating the system in which the object is inscribed opens up its meaning and its use in terms of performative possibilities. In this system, one thing leads to another, and so possible relationships emerge that open up its meanings. Understanding an object in its narrative system allows me to play with that system in some way. In Liverpool, dynamics that emerged in territories separated by enormous geographical and cultural distances, fed by the transatlantic traffic of enslaved people, converge and knot together. The popularization of soap in the city, for example, began with the importation of palm oil, which facilitated the creation of companies such as Lever &amp; Co, which around 1884 began mass-producing Sunlight soap, taking advantage of the Congo&#8217;s recent importation of palm oil produced by enslaved people. Over the years, Lever&#8217;s company would become Unilever, one of the world&#8217;s largest economic conglomerates. These objects were related to others that appeared in this system of relationships; Thus emerged the scolding bridle, or &#8220;brank,&#8221; (an object of torture used to hurt and humiliate women whose speech was deemed offensive) in its attempt to censor voices that implied resistance to the booming system (in the International Slavery Museum), and, at another end of the spectrum, an object such as the &#8220;headdress worn by naidugubele healers during consultations, Ivory Coast,&#8221; part of the African collection of the Museum of the World.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge2022\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-2-754x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1649\" width=\"566\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-2-754x1024.png 754w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-2-221x300.png 221w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-2-768x1043.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-2.png 966w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 566px) 100vw, 566px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image 2 \/ Imagen 2. Image originally commissioned for the Liverpool Biennial Reader, 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG<\/strong>:&nbsp;How did this materialize in your project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU: <\/strong>I create the scripts of my performances in several layers, and the &#8220;how&#8221; emerges from the research itself. Revisiting epistemologies that question dominant narratives leads me to work with conversations I have with people I meet during the research. Orality, conversation and gossip are important elements in my work, I am interested in speculative systems of knowledge. We talked with Manuela from the beginning about the place of conversation in my work and how it is transformed into a means of contrast that is activated from the elements found in archives and collections which serve as clues, as I mentioned before. In this constellation, and in different senses, the mouth occupies a meaningful place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Liverpool I took city tours, and had various chats with locals following the threads I mentioned, talking with people about contagion and infection. In the MFA in performance at Hope University, we had meetings with Silvia Battista, Anna Laura Alifuoco, and their students. We also talked with the curator of the World Museum&#8217;s collection of African artifacts about notions of&nbsp;possession,&nbsp;stigma, and contagion, and with people from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, an institution that pioneered the &#8220;single-prick blood tests&#8221; developed to identify diseases brought back by soldiers fighting wars in tropical countries. The pricks, the contagion, and the notion of stigma and possession gave me clues to understand the &#8220;how&#8221; of the project. I started visiting the community drama sessions at Playhouse\/Life Rooms to identify possible non-acting women we could work with. While I was working on this, the pandemic hit. I had to quickly leave Liverpool and fly to Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG<\/strong>: Since your on-site research was abruptly halted by the pandemic, how did this project evolve while you were no longer in Liverpool?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU:&nbsp;<\/strong>From each other\u2019s distance and confinement, we kept meeting periodically with the production and education team of the Biennial and continued the conversations with Manuela. During the first months, we believed that it would be possible to do the project as we had initially conceived&nbsp; it and that we would only have to make some variations. It was going to be a performance in public space activated by the intersection between objects, narratives circulating in the city, and the responses of the people who came into contact with these mixed stories. It would be presented throughout the Biennial as a periodic guided tour, almost daily, and it would take place in the center of the city: from the World Museum, we would walk to St George&#8217;s Hall. Working on the action in public space in Liverpool from my room in Bogota had a kind of liberating effect. At the same time, the education team was eager to go out and try out the scripts as an excuse to get out of their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the pandemic progressed, we had to change the conditions of the piece: new regulations were constantly appearing that implied changes in the number of people allowed to be in groups in public and private spaces and the number of possible groups. We had to keep modifying sizes, number of spectators, and the voice amplification system in the locations, looking for mechanisms that did not require physical proximity between the public and the performers and thus reduce the possibility of contagion. Several times we had to find out about different sound amplification schemes. Each time the allowed size of the audience groups was reduced, the required distance between each &#8220;cluster&#8221; also increased. This implied some exciting challenges for the piece; thus, the notions of porosity, contagion, and kinship took on other dimensions. The online conversations were becoming more and more intense, and we were all in that state of pandemic, locked in the intimacy of our homes, talking and looking for ways to figure the piece out. At one point, we had to accept that we would not have a live public program at the Biennial.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were looking at options such as turning the piece into a sound work when I realized that virtual conversations were the key; it was through conversations that other forms of contagion were possible. The pandemic made us return to the intimacy of physical space while overexposing us to virtuality. Image-less conversations also responded to this issue. I began to review the call center idea. I liked to play with references taken from call center culture, remote work, and the implications that those modalities of labor have, even for the field of art. In addition to the idea of contagion, by that time the mouth and the voice were already essential elements of the project to both the research and the situation we were going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG:<\/strong> Working with clairvoyants was an essential part of this work. Let&#8217;s talk more about how the work with these people connected to the on-site research you did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU:<\/strong> The work with seers had to do with several factors that occurred in the process, because of the research and because of the change in the conditions of production generated by the pandemic. All this led to new connections that responded incredibly to the clues found along the way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the one hand, the figure of the clairvoyant allowed me to create a connection between our current situation and the colonial disease. What role plays the narrative tool in all of this? Could we create a script that responds to one&#8217;s own life and tackle some of the elements present in the research? Working with clairvoyants allowed me to communicate that the transmissibility of history is not possible, that we can only tear it out of its context, fragmented and destroyed, crumbled and decomposed. They emerged as a key that could link the voices in different parts of the world with the locals; their work allowed porosity, and with them the caller could interact with some of the materials encountered while, at the same time, acknowledging the presence and agency of bacteria, spirits, animals, divinities, viruses, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, the research done in Liverpool talked about hygiene, contagion, gossip, and the persecution of women, but it also referred to the presence of women&#8217;s organizations in the city. It is impossible to review the colonial apparatus in the area without hearing about the presence of the forms of segregation that I pointed out to you at the beginning. When the colonial device begins to operate, there are presences that, from &#8220;inside the stomach,&#8221; are an obstacle and a threat to the growing capitalist system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following Silvia Federici&#8217;s perspective, I refer to the hundreds of thousands of women murdered in the framework of the persecution of the supposed &#8220;witches.&#8221; In Liverpool, besides the scold&#8217;s bridle (or &#8220;brank&#8221;), an instrument of punishment used to prove that these women were possessed was the Ducking Stool, which consisted of sinking them tied to chairs in the water of the canals of the city so that they would confess (one of such places was by St Patrick&#8217;s Cross). Another form of abuse was pricking, trying to check if blood drops were coming from their bodies; they also searched for supposed &#8220;marks of the devil &#8221;: traces on their skins that would prove their possession. In the 20th century, it would be demonstrated that these marks were granulomas resulting from the bite of ticks, another agent coming from America, which mainly bit farm and orchard workers and whose bacteria transmitted Lyme disease (<em>Borrelia burgdorferi<\/em>). Authors like M. Drymon have studied how afflictions associated with witchcraft kept appearing in the same places where this disease might have occurred. Relevant figures had emerged in the investigation, Mary Wilkinson for example occupies a relevant place in late nineteenth-century Liverpool, by demonstrating that cholera did not appear at washerwomen&#8217;s meetings. The work then resonated in its connections: forms of knowledge and practices that have been stigmatized and marginalized by the modern-capitalist world, and what various materials from the city could say about potential contamination between regimes of knowledge, revising forms of deprivation of women&#8217;s voices in connection to local history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG:&nbsp;<\/strong>The threads you wanted to pull were quite extensive. How did the project begin to take shape after all this research?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU<\/strong>: The decision to work with phone calls resulted in the piece entitled&nbsp;<em>A Regurgitation is a Song is a Spell (Consultations to Recreate the Colonial Disease<\/em>),&nbsp;where we worked with a group of clairvoyants around the various types of material from collections and archives in the city. The experts were available to the public to answer questions via phone calls. We invited the callers to &#8220;ask a question, share a concern or an urgency.&#8221; Anyone from any part of the world could call.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I decided to work with clairvoyants who identified themselves as women, we started the process of the casting to find them. Perhaps this was my favorite part of the whole process. With them, I put into play the critical elements of the script; from the research material and depending on the skills and methodologies of each one of them, the consultation was developed. The conversation brought together the current situation of the caller with the seer&#8217;s reading system and the elements of the collections. We did not invent the material. It was all part of the research. For me, drawing attention to the continuous work of simulating reality is essential.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The material was built around the question: how do we relate our current situation to the colonial disease? I then identified some elements I was interested in opening up: the collective body, porosity, contagion, kinship, and possession. It worked like this: the caller would ask any question, and, based on some keys we identified, the clairvoyant would &#8220;enter&#8221; one of these nodes. They could go, for example, on the side of the&nbsp;collective body&nbsp;or of&nbsp;porosity,&nbsp;etc. He would then use the research material that we had developed. This is a script with a lot of improvisation in which the seers put into practice their mediumistic powers, guided by predetermined tools. In this sense, it also functioned as a score made for improvisation, like saying to a musician: I&#8217;m going to give you three types of notes to improvise, and whatever you find along the way is yours. Here we can see an image used in the call to these women.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge2022\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-3-1024x729.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1653\" width=\"768\" height=\"547\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-3-1024x729.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-3-300x214.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-3-768x547.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-3.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image 3 \/ Imagen 3<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>This image shows the categories that we identified. Depending on the questions, the psychics placed the conversation in one of these categories. For instance, one of Carolina Cer\u00f3n&#8217;s calls was about body and voice. In that case, Conway, the medium with whom Carolina spoke to twice, identified the clues and decided in which direction to move as she was inspired. In the words in blue, we can see what I was interested in opening up during conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The medium identified the questions, for example, if she was asked about work, family, love, or money. As in previous projects, I recognized that many questions tend to be about these topics and are usually crossed by&nbsp;anxiety. Initially, the conversation is located in the immediate: the clothes you are wearing or how you wash them, your mouth, or your day at work. During the call, circuits are generated between the historical, the past, and the future intuitively, always shaped by the immediate situation and the urges uttered by the caller. Various conversations revolved around the extraction of materials and objects and their presence in museums. Trying to make the caller experience a way of critically accessing the material is complex and difficult to define; if the system opens up to other forms of exchange, it will hold some power that cannot be reduced to a formula. At its best, the medium&#8217;s exercise had a lot of power. They had some clues in their mind, but they responded with clairvoyance to what they were identifying, mixing it with the material conditions of the listener. When it worked, it generated strong connections that offered other meanings to the caller&#8217;s daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The images here are screenshots of some parts of the initial score.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge2022\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-4-1024x771.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-4-1024x771.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-4-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-4-768x578.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-4-1536x1156.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-4-1200x903.png 1200w, https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/144\/2023\/02\/LU-image-4.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image 4 \/ Imagen 4<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>This image shows the nodes they had in mind at the time of the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The audience was invited with the following sentence:&nbsp;<em>Reversal consultations can help you identify the nature of what you already ingested. Regurgitation is the way; constant rumination is a must. You have been colonized by uncountable hidden diseases. We might show you the symptoms. Pricking, a tooth, soap, ticks. Do you want to remember? Remove the center, and the universe will open for you. Clairvoyant skills to guide your way back and forth. Access what they tried to silence. Melt with the (im)pure margins. Custom-made spells harness the proximity of the Voice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG:&nbsp;<\/strong>Your work has always emphasized the use of performance. Now that we&#8217;ve talked a bit about the research and the process of making the script let&#8217;s go back and talk about the need you found to work with these seers and not just performers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU: <\/strong><em>Tropes, figures and images traverse time, reminding us that history is neither linear nor continuous nor transmissible, and that we access it in quotations and fragments;<\/em> some time ago I came across a story in Bogota of a girl whose father punished her for talking too much by cutting out her tongue. In the history of the so-called witches, for example, the question is not what the history of the witches is but what part of that history is still going through me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was looking for women with a talent for stories. Like the performer and the shaman, the seer prepares a way of acting. She rehearses a system, and this system comes to life. What I pointed out about &#8216;the continuous work of simulating reality&#8217; worked well whenever I interacted with someone who had experience in the performative and a capacity for clairvoyance. Someone who had no problem playing with the format and who, at the same time, took its clairvoyant power seriously. It was important for me to not instrumentalize the knowledge of the clairvoyants and, to achieve this, the relationship needed to be sincere with that kind of wisdom and practice. I talked to many women in Liverpool and found different ways of relating to local knowledge and collections.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have previously worked with local knowledge experts whose practices question modern differences between culture and nature in their making. As the work for this project involved a truly speculative conversation that would resonate with a specific research material and, at the same time, cut through the questioner (seeking how their current situation relates to colonial disease), it was clear that the answerer could not just repeat a pre-established script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG:&nbsp;<\/strong>How was your experience working with Manuela Moscoso during these weird moments of the pandemic?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU:&nbsp;<\/strong>The pandemic confronted Manuela with several challenges, some of them really strong. What impacted me the most was that she managed\u2014throughout this demanding process\u2014to maintain coherence between what the Biennial proposed in its contents and how we worked, especially under the limitations of the pandemic. She really applied kinship&nbsp;and all the other terms. She and her production and education team managed to maintain respectful working relationships with the artists all the time. When we had to transform the work along the way, it was amazing to see how she could remain caring and respectful besides being a generous listener. In my case, it would have been a safer bet to repeat a script and employ performers who were not mediums. But Manuela took a gamble and decided to go ahead with the experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am interested in questioning established hierarchies between forms of knowledge. That was an exciting challenge with Manuela, who understood it, took the plunge, and made experimentation, the body, and a flexible position prevail over the pre-established product. Manuela faced a very tough situation with a program that talked about kinship, porosity, and the body, and she could pull it off. She met all kinds of problems, which implies strength in management. She often had to stand firm in the face of different powers in the institution to protect practices of care and be consistent with the concepts proposed for The Stomach and The Port. All of that is challenging in terms of productivity and contemporary capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator aligncenter has-text-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-background is-style-wide\" style=\"background-color:#808080;color:#808080\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><strong>Una conversaci\u00f3n entre In\u00e9s Arango Guingue y Luisa Ungar sobre&nbsp; <em>A Regurgitation is a Song is a Spell (Consultations to Recreate the Colonial Disease)<\/em> (2021), obra de Ungar para la Bienal de Liverpool en 2021.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\" style=\"font-size:14px\">Spanish version<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In\u00e9s Arango Guingue:<\/strong> Manuela Moscoso titul\u00f3 esta edici\u00f3n de la bienal \u201cThe Stomach and the Port\u201d, <em>El Est\u00f3mago y el Puerto<\/em>, creando una relaci\u00f3n directa entre esta parte del cuerpo y el puerto de Liverpool. En el texto curatorial afirma que \u201cEl est\u00f3mago se puede pensar como el puerto de los intestinos, un lugar donde el exterior viene a desembarcar. [&#8230;] El est\u00f3mago no puede ignorar estos elementos \u201cextranjeros\u201d y debe interactuar con ellos, ya sea prepar\u00e1ndolos para su transici\u00f3n hacia las c\u00e9lulas del resto del cuerpo o decidiendo lentamente devolverlos a la boca.\u201d Como artista comisionada para crear una proyecto de sitio espec\u00edfico, \u00bfC\u00f3mo te involucraste con este contexto?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Luisa Ungar: <\/strong>Cuando Manuela me invit\u00f3 a formar parte de la Bienal, empezamos una conversaci\u00f3n enriquecedora: la met\u00e1fora del est\u00f3mago nos llev\u00f3 a hablar de nociones como porosidad\/par\u00e1sitos\/fluidos y, a partir de ah\u00ed, a trabajar desde el cuerpo y con el cuerpo. Me pregunt\u00e9 entonces por los cuerpos extra\u00f1os y si \u00e9stos implicaban de alguna manera cierta resistencia a esa m\u00e1quina colonial &#8220;que se lo tragaba todo&#8221;. Buscando &#8220;entrar&#8221; en esa boca del est\u00f3mago, me acerqu\u00e9 a algunos archivos y colecciones del puerto. Poco a poco fui encontrando vasos comunicantes que me guiaban por Liverpool. Suelo trabajar as\u00ed, identificando hilos que me permiten \u201cjalar\u201d algunos de los circuitos coloniales que nos atraviesan en el presente, siguiendo pistas como se\u00f1ales de orientaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>En el primer viaje de investigaci\u00f3n, revis\u00e9 archivos del Museo Mar\u00edtimo de Meyerside (Meyerside Maritime Museum), algunos procedentes de las colecciones de la Escuela de Medicina Tropical de Liverpool (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) &#8211; como otras ciudades portuarias claves durante el periodo colonial, Liverpool cuenta con centros activos de investigaci\u00f3n de enfermedades tropicales- y otros de la Escuela de Dentister\u00eda de la ciudad (University of Liverpool Dental School) y del Museo Internacional de la Esclavitud (International Slavery Museum). Tambi\u00e9n explor\u00e9 el Museo del Mundo (World Museum), su espacio atiborrado de piezas de todo tipo procedentes de distintas regiones del mundo, manifiestos de poder y control, formas de sistematizaci\u00f3n y clasificaci\u00f3n del conocimiento y la extracci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Las pistas que surgieron en este escenario me llevaron a pensar en nociones de contagio, posesi\u00f3n, estigma e higiene\u2026 y a la vez en manifestaciones de \u201ckinship\u201d y porosidad. Surgieron elementos a manera de nodos o \u201cclaves\u201d en los circuitos que iba identificando y que funcionaban como detonantes con los que me empec\u00e9 a obsesionar, semillas que encapsulan esp\u00edritus del pasado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uno de estos elementos fueron los dientes. La Escuela de Dentister\u00eda de la ciudad (University of Liverpool School of Dentistry) tiene una extensa colecci\u00f3n de dientes. Estos dientes son un \u201clugar\u201d (una parte del cuerpo y una parte del mundo), donde se empieza a manifestar el dispositivo colonial: los dientes se empiezan a da\u00f1ar por la importaci\u00f3n, primero exclusiva y despu\u00e9s masiva, de az\u00facar y tabaco. Y se empiezan a da\u00f1ar primero los dientes de las clases altas porque son los primeros que pueden acceder a esos nuevos productos. Las primeras pr\u00f3tesis dentales se fabricaban con bloques macizos de marfil de hipop\u00f3tamo, morsa o elefante; las siguientes fueron piezas extra\u00eddas de bocas de soldados muertos en la batalla de Waterloo o de personas sin recursos que las vend\u00edan&nbsp; para sobrevivir al creciente sistema: en esos dientes podemos vislumbrar tanto la agencia de las plantas extra\u00eddas de los territorios colonizados, como las pr\u00e1cticas sociales de segregaci\u00f3n (de humanos y no humanos) generadas por el creciente sistema capitalista.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Para m\u00ed, localizar el sistema en el que se inscribe el objeto abre su significado y su uso en t\u00e9rminos de posibilidades performativas. En este sistema, una cosa lleva a otra, y as\u00ed surgen posibles relaciones que abren sus significados. Entender un objeto en su sistema narrativo me permite jugar con ese sistema de alguna manera. En Liverpool confluyen y se anudan din\u00e1micas surgidas en territorios separados por enormes distancias geogr\u00e1ficas y culturales, alimentadas por el tr\u00e1fico transatl\u00e1ntico de personas esclavizadas. La popularizaci\u00f3n del jab\u00f3n en la ciudad, por ejemplo, comenz\u00f3 con la importaci\u00f3n de aceite de palma, lo que facilit\u00f3 la creaci\u00f3n de empresas como Lever &amp; Co, que hacia 1884 comenz\u00f3 a producir en masa el jab\u00f3n Sunlight, aprovechando la reciente importaci\u00f3n del Congo de aceite de palma producido por personas esclavizadas. Con los a\u00f1os, la empresa de Lever se convertir\u00eda en Unilever, uno de los mayores conglomerados econ\u00f3micos del mundo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Estos objetos se relacionaron con otros que fueron apareciendo en este sistema de relaciones; as\u00ed surgieron la brida de rega\u00f1ar, o &#8220;brank&#8221;, (un objeto de tortura utilizado para herir y humillar a las mujeres cuyo discurso se consideraba ofensivo) en su intento de censurar las voces que implicaban resistencia al sistema en auge (en el International Slavery Museum), y, en otro extremo del espectro, un objeto como el &#8220;tocado usado por los curanderos naidugubele durante las consultas, Costa de Marfil&#8221;,&nbsp; parte de la colecci\u00f3n africana del Museo del Mundo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG: <\/strong>\u00bfC\u00f3mo se materializ\u00f3 esto en tu proyecto?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU: <\/strong>Elaboro los guiones de mis performances en varias capas, y el &#8220;c\u00f3mo&#8221; surge de la propia investigaci\u00f3n. Revisar epistemolog\u00edas que cuestionen narrativas dominantes me lleva a trabajar con las conversaciones que mantengo con las personas que conozco durante la investigaci\u00f3n. La oralidad, la conversaci\u00f3n y el chisme son elementos importantes en mi trabajo, me interesan los sistemas especulativos de conocimiento. Hablamos con Manuela desde el principio sobre el lugar que ocupa la conversaci\u00f3n en mi obra y c\u00f3mo se transforma en un medio de contraste que se activa a partir de los elementos que se encuentran en archivos y colecciones que sirven de pistas, como he mencionado antes. En esta constelaci\u00f3n, y en diferentes sentidos, la boca ocupa un lugar significativo.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>En Liverpool realic\u00e9 tours por la ciudad y convers\u00e9 con personas siguiendo los hilos que he mencionado, gui\u00e1ndome por el contagio y la infecci\u00f3n. En el MFA en performance de Hope University, mantuvimos reuniones con Silvia Battista, Anna Laura Alifuoco y sus estudiantes. Tambi\u00e9n convers\u00e9 con el curador de la colecci\u00f3n de objetos africanos del Museo del Mundo sobre las nociones de posesi\u00f3n, estigma y contagio, y con expertos de la Escuela de Medicina Tropical de Liverpool, instituci\u00f3n pionera en los &#8220;an\u00e1lisis de sangre de un solo pinchazo&#8221; desarrollados para identificar las enfermedades que tra\u00edan los soldados que luchaban en guerras en pa\u00edses tropicales. Los pinchazos, el contagio y la noci\u00f3n de estigma y posesi\u00f3n me dieron pistas para entender el &#8220;c\u00f3mo&#8221; del proyecto. Empec\u00e9 a visitar las sesiones de teatro comunitario de Playhouse\/Life Rooms para identificar posibles mujeres no actores con las que pudi\u00e9ramos trabajar. Trabajando en esto llega la pandemia. Me toca entonces salir r\u00e1pidamente de la ciudad y volar a Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG<\/strong>: La pandemia interrumpi\u00f3 bruscamente tu investigaci\u00f3n sobre el terreno. \u00bfC\u00f3mo evolucion\u00f3 este proyecto mientras ya no estabas en Liverpool?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU<\/strong>: Desde la distancia y el encierro de cada uno de nosotros, nos reunimos peri\u00f3dicamente con el equipo de producci\u00f3n y educaci\u00f3n de la Bienal y seguimos las conversaciones con Manuela. Durante los primeros meses, cre\u00edmos que ser\u00eda posible hacer el proyecto tal y como lo hab\u00edamos pensado y que s\u00f3lo tendr\u00edamos que hacer algunas variaciones. Iba a ser una performance en el espacio p\u00fablico activada por la intersecci\u00f3n entre los objetos, las narrativas que circulaban por la ciudad y las respuestas de las personas que entraban en contacto con estas historias mezcladas. Se presentar\u00eda a lo largo de la Bienal como una visita guiada peri\u00f3dica, casi diaria, y tendr\u00eda lugar en el centro de la ciudad: desde el Museo del Mundo, caminar\u00edamos hasta St George&#8217;s Hall. Desde mi cuarto en Bogot\u00e1, trabajar en la acci\u00f3n en el espacio p\u00fablico de Liverpool tuvo una especie de efecto liberador. Al mismo tiempo, el equipo educativo estaba ansioso por salir y probar los guiones como excusa para salir de sus casas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A medida que avanzaba la pandemia, tuvimos que modificar las condiciones de la obra: constantemente aparec\u00edan nuevas normativas que implicaban cambios en el n\u00famero de personas que pod\u00edan estar en grupo en espacios p\u00fablicos y privados y en el n\u00famero de grupos posibles. Tuvimos que ir modificando los tama\u00f1os, el n\u00famero de espectadores y el sistema de amplificaci\u00f3n de la voz en las locaciones, buscando mecanismos que no requirieran proximidad f\u00edsica entre el p\u00fablico y las performers y reducir as\u00ed la posibilidad de contagio. Varias veces tuvimos que averiguar distintos sistemas de amplificaci\u00f3n del sonido. Cada vez que se reduc\u00eda el tama\u00f1o permitido de los grupos de p\u00fablico, tambi\u00e9n aumentaba la distancia requerida entre cada &#8220;clusters&#8221;. Esto supuso algunos retos apasionantes para la obra; as\u00ed, las nociones de porosidad, contagio y parentesco adquirieron otras dimensiones.&nbsp; Hasta que, en un momento dado, tuvimos que aceptar que no habr\u00eda programa p\u00fablico en la Bienal de Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Est\u00e1bamos revisando opciones para poder hacer alguna versi\u00f3n de la pieza, como convertirla en una pieza solamente en audio, cuando me di cuenta de que eran las conversaciones virtuales la clave de la obra: a trav\u00e9s de las conversaciones eran posibles otras formas de contagio. La pandemia nos volvi\u00f3 a la intimidad del espacio f\u00edsico mientras nos expon\u00eda a la sobre exposici\u00f3n de la virtualidad. Las conversaciones sin imagen respond\u00edan tambi\u00e9n a este asunto. Entonces empec\u00e9 a revisar la idea del call center. Me gustaba jugar con referencias tomadas de la cultura de los call centers, el trabajo a distancia y las implicaciones que esas modalidades de trabajo tienen, incluso para el campo del arte.&nbsp; Adem\u00e1s de la noci\u00f3n de contagio, para entonces, la boca y la voz ya eran elementos esenciales del proyecto, tanto de la investigaci\u00f3n como de la situaci\u00f3n que est\u00e1bamos viviendo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG<\/strong>: El trabajo con videntes fue una parte esencial de esta obra. Hablemos m\u00e1s sobre c\u00f3mo el trabajo con estas personas se conectaba con la investigaci\u00f3n in situ que hiciste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU:<\/strong> Claro, el trabajo con videntes tuvo que ver con varios factores que se dieron en el proceso, tanto desde la investigaci\u00f3n, como por el cambio en las condiciones de producci\u00f3n que gener\u00f3 la pandemia, y que resultar\u00edan en conexiones que respond\u00edan de forma incre\u00edble a las claves encontradas por el camino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Por un lado, la figura del clarividente nos permiti\u00f3 crear la conexi\u00f3n entre nuestra situaci\u00f3n actual y la enfermedad colonial. \u00bfQu\u00e9 papel juega la herramienta narrativa en todo esto? \u00bfPodr\u00edamos crear un gui\u00f3n que respondiera a nuestras vidas actuales y abordara algunos de los elementos presentes en la investigaci\u00f3n? Trabajar con clarividentes me permiti\u00f3 comunicar la experiencia de que la transmisibilidad de la historia no es posible, que s\u00f3lo podemos arrancarla de su contexto, fragmentada y destruida, desmenuzada y descompuesta. Ellas surgieron como una clave que pod\u00eda vincular las voces de distintas partes del mundo con las locales; su trabajo permit\u00eda la porosidad, y con ellos la persona que llamaba pod\u00eda interactuar con algunos de los materiales encontrados y, al mismo tiempo, reconocer la presencia y la agencia de bacterias, esp\u00edritus, animales, divinidades, virus, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Por otro lado, el trabajo de investigaci\u00f3n en Liverpool hablaba de higiene, contagio, chisme y persecuci\u00f3n de mujeres, y tambi\u00e9n se refer\u00eda a la presencia de organizaciones de mujeres en Liverpool. Es imposible pasar revista al dispositivo colonial en la zona sin o\u00edr hablar de la presencia de las formas de segregaci\u00f3n que les se\u00f1al\u00e9 al principio. Cuando el aparato colonial empieza a funcionar, hay presencias que, desde &#8220;dentro del est\u00f3mago&#8221;, son un obst\u00e1culo y una amenaza para el creciente sistema capitalista.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Siguiendo la perspectiva de Silvia Federici, me refiero a los cientos de miles de mujeres asesinadas en el marco de la persecuci\u00f3n de las supuestas &#8220;brujas&#8221;. En Liverpool, adem\u00e1s de la brida de rega\u00f1ar (o &#8220;brank&#8221;), un instrumento de castigo utilizado para demostrar que estas mujeres estaban pose\u00eddas era el Ducking Stool, que consist\u00eda en hundirlas atadas a sillas en el agua de los canales de la ciudad para que confesaran (uno de esos lugares estaba junto a St Patrick&#8217;s Cross). Otra forma de maltrato eran los pinchazos, con los que se intentaba comprobar si sal\u00edan gotas de sangre de sus cuerpos; tambi\u00e9n se buscaban supuestas &#8220;marcas del diablo&#8221;: rastros en sus pieles que probaran su posesi\u00f3n. En el siglo XX se demostrar\u00eda que esas marcas eran granulomas resultantes de la picadura de garrapatas, otro agente procedente de Am\u00e9rica, que picaba sobre todo a los trabajadores de granjas y huertos y cuyas bacterias generan la enfermedad de Lyme (Borrelia burgdorferi). Autores como M. Drymon han estudiado c\u00f3mo afecciones asociadas a la brujer\u00eda segu\u00edan apareciendo en los mismos lugares en los que podr\u00eda haberse producido esta enfermedad. Tambi\u00e9n hab\u00edan aparecido figuras relevantes en la investigaci\u00f3n, como Mary Wilkinson, quien ocupa un lugar&nbsp; en el Liverpool de finales del siglo XIX, al demostrar que el c\u00f3lera no se manifestaba en las reuniones de lavanderas locales. El trabajo reson\u00f3 entonces en sus diversas conexiones: formas de conocimiento y pr\u00e1cticas que han sido estigmatizadas y marginadas por el mundo moderno-capitalista, y lo que diversos materiales de la ciudad podr\u00edan decir sobre contaminaciones potenciales entre reg\u00edmenes de conocimiento, revisando formas de privaci\u00f3n de las voces de las mujeres en conexi\u00f3n con la historia local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG:<\/strong> Los hilos que quer\u00edas jalar eran, de cierta manera, bastante amplios. \u00bfC\u00f3mo empez\u00f3 a tomar forma el proyecto despu\u00e9s de toda esta investigaci\u00f3n?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU: <\/strong>La decisi\u00f3n de trabajar con llamadas telef\u00f3nicas dio lugar a la pieza titulada Una regurgitaci\u00f3n es una canci\u00f3n es un conjuro (Consultas para recrear la enfermedad colonial), en la que trabajamos con un grupo de clarividentes en torno a diversos tipos de material procedente de colecciones y archivos de la ciudad. Las expertas estaban a disposici\u00f3n del p\u00fablico para responder a sus preguntas a trav\u00e9s de llamadas telef\u00f3nicas. Invitamos a los que llamaban a &#8220;hacer una pregunta, compartir una preocupaci\u00f3n o una urgencia&#8221;. Pod\u00eda llamar cualquier persona de cualquier parte del mundo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cuando decid\u00ed trabajar con clarividentes que se identificaban como mujeres, iniciamos el proceso del casting para encontrarlas. Quiz\u00e1 esto fue lo que m\u00e1s me gust\u00f3 de todo el proceso. Con ellas, puse en juego los elementos cr\u00edticos del gui\u00f3n; a partir del material de investigaci\u00f3n y en funci\u00f3n de las habilidades, experiencia en el contexto y metodolog\u00edas de cada una, se desarroll\u00f3 la consulta. La conversaci\u00f3n pon\u00eda en relaci\u00f3n la situaci\u00f3n actual del consultante con el sistema de lectura de la vidente y los elementos de las colecciones. No inventamos el material. Todo formaba parte de la investigaci\u00f3n. Para m\u00ed, llamar la atenci\u00f3n sobre el trabajo continuo de simulaci\u00f3n de la realidad es esencial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>El material se construy\u00f3 en torno a la pregunta: \u00bfc\u00f3mo relacionamos nuestra situaci\u00f3n actual con la enfermedad colonial? Entonces identifiqu\u00e9 algunos elementos que me interesaba abrir: el cuerpo colectivo, la porosidad, el contagio, el parentesco y la posesi\u00f3n. Funcionaba as\u00ed: la persona que llamaba hac\u00eda una pregunta cualquiera y, a partir de unas claves que identificamos, la clarividente &#8220;entraba&#8221; en uno de esos nodos. Pod\u00edan ir, por ejemplo, por el lado del cuerpo colectivo o de la porosidad, etc. A continuaci\u00f3n, la clarividente utilizar\u00eda el material de investigaci\u00f3n que hab\u00edamos elaborado. Se trataba de un gui\u00f3n con improvisaci\u00f3n en el que las videntes pon\u00edan en pr\u00e1ctica sus poderes medi\u00famnicos, guiados por herramientas predeterminadas. En este sentido, tambi\u00e9n funcionaba como una partitura hecha para la improvisaci\u00f3n, como decirle a un m\u00fasico: Te voy a dar tres tipos de notas para que improvises, y lo que encuentres por el camino es tuyo. En la <strong>imagen 3<\/strong> se puede ver una parte del gui\u00f3n utilizado en las llamadas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Esa imagen muestra las categor\u00edas que identificamos. Dependiendo de las preguntas, las videntes situaron la conversaci\u00f3n en una de estas categor\u00edas. Por ejemplo, una de las llamadas de Carolina Cer\u00f3n trataba sobre el cuerpo y la voz. En ese caso, Conway, la m\u00e9dium con la que Carolina habl\u00f3 dos veces, identific\u00f3 las pistas y decidi\u00f3 en qu\u00e9 direcci\u00f3n moverse seg\u00fan su lectura. En las palabras en azul podemos ver lo que me interesaba abrir en la conversaci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>La clarividente identificaba las preguntas en categor\u00edas, como el trabajo, la familia, el amor o el dinero. Como en proyectos anteriores, reconoc\u00ed que muchas preguntas suelen versar sobre estos temas y suelen estar atravesadas por la ansiedad. Inicialmente, la conversaci\u00f3n se situaba aparentemente en lo inmediato: la ropa que quien llamaba llevaba puesta o c\u00f3mo la lavaba, c\u00f3mo estaba su boca o qu\u00e9 tal hab\u00eda sido el d\u00eda de trabajo. Durante la llamada, se generaban circuitos entre lo hist\u00f3rico, el pasado y el futuro de forma intuitiva, siempre moldeados por la situaci\u00f3n inmediata y las urgencias expresadas por quien llamaba. Varias conversaciones giraron en torno a la extracci\u00f3n y los objetos de los museos de la ciudad, y c\u00f3mo fueron robados de sus lugares de origen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Intentar que quien llama experimente una forma de acceder al material de forma cr\u00edtica es complejo y dif\u00edcil de definir; si el sistema realmente se abre a otras formas de intercambio tendr\u00e1 una potencia que no es reducible a una f\u00f3rmula. Porque cuando funcionaba, la lectura de las m\u00e9dium ten\u00eda mucho poder. Ellas ten\u00edan en su mente algunas claves pero realmente respond\u00edan con clarividencia con lo que iban identificando, mezcl\u00e1ndolo con las condiciones materiales del oyente. Cuando funcionaba generaba unas conexiones fuertes que ofrec\u00edan otros sentidos a la cotidianidad de la persona que llamaba. La <strong>imagen 4 <\/strong>es un pantallazo de algunas partes del gui\u00f3n inicial y muestra algunos nodos que ellas deb\u00edan tener en mente en el momento de la llamada.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>La invitaci\u00f3n a los p\u00fablicos a participar de las llamadas fue la siguiente: Estas consultas inversas pueden ayudarte a identificar la naturaleza de lo que has ingerido. La regurgitaci\u00f3n es el camino; la rumiaci\u00f3n constante es indispensable. Usted ha sido colonizadx por incontables enfermedades ocultas. Podemos mostrarte los s\u00edntomas. Pinchazos, un diente, jab\u00f3n, garrapatas. \u00bfQuieres recordar? Remueve el centro, y el universo se abrir\u00e1 para ti. Habilidades clarividentes para guiar tu camino de ida y vuelta. Accede a lo que intentaron silenciar. F\u00fandete con los m\u00e1rgenes (im)puros.&nbsp; Conjuros personalizados que aprovechan la proximidad de la Voz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG:<\/strong> Tu trabajo siempre ha hecho \u00e9nfasis en el uso del performance. Ahora que ya hablamos un poco sobre la investigaci\u00f3n y el proceso de&nbsp; hacer el gui\u00f3n, devolv\u00e1monos un poco y hablemos sobre la necesidad que encontraste de trabajar con estas videntes y no solo con performers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU:&nbsp; <\/strong>Los tropos, figuras e im\u00e1genes atraviesan el tiempo, record\u00e1ndonos que la historia no es lineal ni continua ni transmisible, sino que accedemos a ella en citas y fragmentos. Hace un tiempo conoc\u00ed en Bogot\u00e1 la historia de una ni\u00f1a a la que su padre castig\u00f3 cort\u00e1ndole la lengua por hablar demasiado. En la historia de las as\u00ed llamadas brujas, por ejemplo, la cuesti\u00f3n no es cu\u00e1l es la historia de las brujas, sino qu\u00e9 parte de esa historia sigue atraves\u00e1ndome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Buscaba mujeres con talento para las historias. Al igual que la int\u00e9rprete o el cham\u00e1n, la vidente prepara una forma de actuar. Ensaya un sistema, y este sistema cobra vida. Lo que se\u00f1al\u00e9 sobre &#8220;el trabajo continuo de simulaci\u00f3n de la realidad&#8221; funcion\u00f3 bien siempre que me un\u00ed a alguien que tuviera experiencia en lo performativo y capacidad de clarividencia. Alguien que no tuviera problemas en jugar con el formato y que, al mismo tiempo, se tomara en serio su poder de medium. Para m\u00ed era importante no instrumentalizar el conocimiento de las clarividentes y, para lograrlo, la relaci\u00f3n deb\u00eda ser sincera con ese tipo de sabidur\u00eda y pr\u00e1ctica. Habl\u00e9 con diferentes mujeres de Liverpool y encontr\u00e9 distintas formas de relacionarme con los conocimientos y las colecciones locales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anteriormente he trabajado con expertos y expertas en conocimientos locales cuyas pr\u00e1cticas cuestionan las diferencias modernas entre cultura y naturaleza. Como el trabajo para este proyecto implicaba una conversaci\u00f3n verdaderamente especulativa que resonara con el material de investigaci\u00f3n y, al mismo tiempo, atravesara a quien preguntaba, (buscando c\u00f3mo se relaciona su situaci\u00f3n actual con la enfermedad colonial), estaba claro que quien contestaba no pod\u00eda limitarse a repetir un gui\u00f3n preestablecido.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IAG:&nbsp;<\/strong>\u00bfC\u00f3mo fue tu experiencia trabajando con Manuela Moscoso durante estos extra\u00f1os momentos de la pandemia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LU:&nbsp;<\/strong>La pandemia enfrent\u00f3 a Manuela con varios desaf\u00edos, algunos de ellos realmente fuertes. Lo que m\u00e1s me impact\u00f3 fue que ella logr\u00f3 \u2014a lo largo de este exigente proceso\u2014 mantener la coherencia entre lo que la Bienal propon\u00eda en sus contenidos y c\u00f3mo trabaj\u00e1bamos, especialmente bajo las limitaciones de la pandemia. Realmente aplic\u00f3 parentesco y todos los dem\u00e1s t\u00e9rminos. Ella y su equipo de producci\u00f3n y educaci\u00f3n lograron mantener relaciones de trabajo respetuosas con los artistas todo el tiempo. Cuando tuvimos que transformar el trabajo en el camino, fue incre\u00edble ver c\u00f3mo ella pod\u00eda seguir siendo cari\u00f1osa y respetuosa adem\u00e1s de ser una oyente generosa. En mi caso, hubiera sido una apuesta m\u00e1s segura repetir un gui\u00f3n y emplear a actores que no fueran m\u00e9diums. Pero Manuela se arriesg\u00f3 y decidi\u00f3 seguir adelante con el experimento.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Me interesa cuestionar las jerarqu\u00edas establecidas entre diferentes formas de conocimiento. Ese fue un reto apasionante con Manuela, que lo entendi\u00f3, dio el paso, e hizo prevalecer la experimentaci\u00f3n, el cuerpo y una postura flexible sobre el producto preestablecido. Manuela enfrent\u00f3 una situaci\u00f3n muy dif\u00edcil con un programa que hablaba de parentesco, porosidad y cuerpo, y lo pudo sacar adelante. Enfrent\u00f3 todo tipo de problemas, lo que implica solidez en la gesti\u00f3n. Muchas veces tuvo que mantenerse firme frente a los diferentes poderes de la instituci\u00f3n para proteger las pr\u00e1cticas de cuidado y ser consecuente con los conceptos propuestos para El Est\u00f3mago y El Puerto. Todo eso es un desaf\u00edo en t\u00e9rminos de productividad y capitalismo contempor\u00e1neo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator aligncenter has-text-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-background is-style-wide\" style=\"background-color:#e5e5e5;color:#e5e5e5\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Luisa Ungar<\/strong> &nbsp;lives in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, and Berlin, Germany. Ungar\u00b4s multidisciplinary practice explores how social norms are constructed and institutionalized through language. She is interested in mechanisms that question ways in which local history is constructed, using didactic strategies that trace colonial structures implicit in our ways of learning, communicating and speaking. She looks for threads on animality and the non-human which shape our behavior, and her performances are often built on conversations from the local environment and interweave micro-stories with seemingly disjointed historical narratives and archaeological remains in order to build new layers of meaning. Recent exhibitions and performances include Liverpool Biennial (2021); MKHA, Belgium (2018); Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands (2017); Ar\/Ge Kunst, Italy (2017); and BienalSur, Argentina (2017). In 2019 she curated the performance and education program for Colombia\u00b4s Biennial 45SNA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The two following texts work in tandem. They talk about the same project, from different points of view. &nbsp;A Regurgitation is a Song is a Spell (Consultations to Recreate the Colonial Disease) is a project by Luisa Ungar for the Stomach and the Port, the 2021 edition of the Liverpool Biennial. Initially meant to parasite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"parent":1716,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1566","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1566"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1877,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1566\/revisions\/1877"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/emerge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}