Dear Heleno
Cícero (António) the Brazilian contemporary poet wrote:
“Guardar uma coisa não é escondê-la ou trancá-la.
em cofre não se guarda coisa alguma.
em cofre perde-se a coisa à vista.
guardar uma coisa é olhá-la, fitá-la, mirá-la por
admirá-la, isto é, iluminá-la ou ser por ela iluminado.
Guardar uma coisa é vigiá-la, isto é, fazer vigília por ela,
isto é, velar por ela, isto é, estar acordado por ela,
isto é, estar por ela ou ser por ela.
Por isso melhor se guarda um vôo de um pássaro
do que um pássaro sem vôos.
Por isso se escreve, por isso se diz, por isso se publica,
por isso se declara e declama um poema:
Para guardá-lo:
para que ele, por sua vez, guarde o que guarda:
Guarde o que quer que guarda um poema:
Por isso o lance do poema:
Por guardar-se o que se quer guardar”
I thought about this poem when you ask me what is our tresure today…about our necessity to express it in order to be conscious of it.
Some how what we want is to keep our treasure beyond that mirror. As Cicero’s says in his poem, to keep is to look after it, is to work about it, to mention it…so our precious “thing” which I do not know exactly what it is, is the fact that we are conscious about it and we want to make something with it…may be our treasure is our dialogue, it is exactly our encounter on the 22nd April…curiously also the day when I was born 465 years later.
Yes, I have heard about the mirrors gift, but I haven’t thought…and I found it amazing and also extremely interesting the unconscious coincidence about proposing to use a mirror in our installation…who makes it even more meaningful…and, of course, has you said it is very interesting to work about that with a critical and contemporary vision.
The ambiguity of the mirror…that first was gifted as a powerful object, almost a magic tool to conquest the natives…is absolutely about to exert power giving to the other an artefact that makes him believe that is stronger because now his able to see his own image. But this poisonet present it is really about to colonized, to seduce, to impose power, contaminating…
But, still, the inner voice, the soul, is more important that to see and to be conscious of the reflex of our self’s in a certain mirror (remind Narciso myth),…that’s why in this little niche, at ex-Teresa, even if I will be able to see myself reflected on that mirror, even if that mirror will be a metaphor of the ones who pretend to be safe and stronger, the treasure is the soul of the real one who belongs to that earth. So the treasure is the “alma”, the “truth”, the inner us. How can you materialize “alma”. How can you go back to those indigenes…how can we feel them?
Silence…is one of the stronger tools of communication. How can we express silence? Wisdom?
I do not have a final vision yet I do believe and feel we are close…to materialise is for me one of the most difficult tasks, I found it extremely difficult to give shape to a certain thought or idea…I believe that we always fail when we do it and we always work out about the same because we are never satisfied with what we get so far…
What I like about the work I have seen from you, so far, is the aspect that there is not a predicted shape, or form…those last pieces you have shown me they are gestures, simple actions that translate an idea through that performative gesture.
Myself I have been working through that. How a gesture could translate a piece. I use my body to demonstrate that, and I like the mystery of that gesture trough that small action…
So, for our intervention in Ex Teresa in Mexico I am also interested into the body presence through small gestures.. And how these translates our idea….that’s why the mirror and that’s why the voice, the sound, the memory of a certain gesture or action…as we have talked before…for instance, the ping pong sound , the typing machine…both sounds created by body actions.
I believe we should keep on this stage of mind…what ever will be our treasure beyond… it should be translate it with a body gesture…even if just breathing. How interesting could be to see Me and to listening to Your breathing. To synchronized our breathing…for instance…
I am conscious that we have difficulties to generate sound, but maybe we found a solution. I haven’t got yet the time to investigate better this technical problem…but it can also be something else that it will bring your presence: a certain smell, a strong odour…a texture…something really that takes you beyond that mirror, something that will remove you from your reflex and makes you strongly conscientious and curious of the importance of the presence of the other.
I live you with the last 3 paragraphs of Pero Vaz de Caminho letter:
Esta terra, Senhor, parece-me que, da ponta que mais contra o sul vimos, até à outra ponta que contra o norte vem, de que nós deste porto houvemos vista, será tamanha que haverá nela bem vinte ou vinte e cinco léguas de costa. Traz ao longo do mar em algumas partes grandes barreiras, umas vermelhas, e outras brancas; e a terra de cima toda chã e muito cheia de grandes arvoredos. De ponta a ponta é toda praia… muito chã e muito formosa. Pelo sertão nos pareceu, vista do mar, muito grande; porque a estender olhos, não podíamos ver senão terra e arvoredos — terra que nos parecia muito extensa.
Até agora não pudemos saber se há ouro ou prata nela, ou outra coisa de metal, ou ferro; nem lha vimos. Contudo a terra em si é de muito bons ares frescos e temperados como os de Entre-Douro-e- -Minho, porque neste tempo d’agora assim os achávamos como os de lá. Águas são muitas; infinitas. Em tal maneira é graciosa que, querendo-a aproveitar, dar-se-á nela tudo; por causa das águas que tem!
Contudo, o melhor fruto que dela se pode tirar parece-me que será salvar esta gente. E esta deve ser a principal semente que Vossa Alteza em ela deve lançar. E que não houvesse mais do que ter Vossa Alteza aqui esta pousada para essa navegação de Calicute bastava. Quanto mais, disposição para se nela cumprir e fazer o que Vossa Alteza tanto deseja, a saber, acrescentamento da nossa fé!
Cristina
