Into the wild — A guide for bodies and the city they create

The flux of data traversing our bodies is bigger than our awareness can process. Words are not the main way of communication once we are in the wild. Our bodies instead learn to react to the environment by becoming more aware of an ecology of the sensual paying attention to what is in contact with our skin.

Our systems of non-conscious cognition establish a continuous flow of exchanges and reactions with the environment and with our fellow cognizers like animals and plants. Somatic markers and processes can reveal an alternative body awareness and its associated body images able to change our perception but also the meaning we give to our experiences. The result is a reformulation of borders and of the definition of bodies and environments. Wilderness emerges in this workshop from a different perspective over our urban bodies, and these bodies build another city.

Into the Wild was divided in three stages developed in the Gardens of the Cristal Palace and their surroundings: Nocturnal Garden, Animal Body and (E)Merging Bodies.

This workshop was aimed at students or professionals whose practice is concerned with the territory of intersection between the body and art, space, architecture or politics, but also more broadly with socio-cultural or ecological environments.

In the context of this project, Maria Auxiliadora Gálvez also presented an artist talk on July 21st, at 7pm, in the gardens of Palácio.

María Auxiliadora Gálvez é Doutora em Arquitectura, Paisagista, Professora do método Feldenkrais e Professora da USP-CEU em Madrid. Desde 2016, dirige a “Plataforma Somática para Arquitectura e Paisagem” (PSAAP) e o seu laboratório associado (LSAAP). Tem sido distinguida em concursos nacionais e internacionais de urbanismo e arquitectura, destacando-se as VI, VII e IX edições do EUROPAN. A sua obra tem sido publicada e exposta internacionalmente, destacando-se a sua presença na 8ª e 16ª Bienal de Arquitectura de Veneza. Como investigadora, foi co-directora de “We Are All able Bodies. From Sensory Deprivation to Sensory Augmentation” (2018) e é autora dos livros: “Espacio Somático. Cuerpos Múltiples” (2019) e “Descampados. Caminar los paisajes revolucionarios en la ciudad somática” (2022). Atualmente, trabalha em paisagem, arte e arquitetura a partir de um ponto de vista incorporado, explorando as possibilidades da “Arquitectura Somática”. É membro da “International Ambiances Network” (França); faz parte do diretório de investigação do “Centre for Sensory Studies” (Canadá) e participa no projeto internacional Blue Sky Research for the Arts “Navigating Dizziness Together” com sede em Viena.

Photography: Renato Cruz Santos