How to look back, over, under and inside out

This workshop seeked to reflect on the possible dimensions of an artistic practice deeply rooted in its surroundings, in this case the Gardens of Palácio de Cristal. What are the dynamics and experiences of beings and elements beyond ourselves? What happens when we collapse the cement walls that surround us, and slow down the pace? In what ways, by looking not only forward but also backwards, above, below and inside out, can we recover ancestral ecological relationships? What are the digestive possibilities of a place – and how does digestion bring us closer to it?

Through collective walks, observation exercises, performance, breathing, automatic writing and fermentation, we investigated and reflected on the empathic possibilities with our surroundings. Discarding the human superiority that characterises the Anthropocene, we rooted ourselves in the landscape that welcomes us, meeting its inherent abundance.

This workshop thus rejects capitalist thinking of scarcity – hierarchical, extractivist and linear – to adopt a symbiotic, horizontal and multi-species perspective in all directions.

Inês Neto dos Santos is a multidisciplinary artist, currently based in Brussels. She holds a Master of Arts in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art (2016) and a degree in Graphic and Media Design and Illustration at the London College of Communication (2013). Her artistic practice exists between performance and installation, making use of food, people and spaces as metaphors to rethink the socio-political contexts we find ourselves in. In her practice, Inês creates environments and structures through which themes such as ecology, symbiosis and gestures of care between species are explored.

As part of this workshop, the first day also included an artist talk by Asunción Molinos Gordos.

Photography: Renato Cruz Santos