Flesh of Wastelands

Within the context of the workshop Into the Wild, the architect Maria Auxiliadora Gálvez presented, in a conference open to the public, her recent work developed within the “Platform of Somatics for Architecture and Landscape” (PSAAP).

The lecture addressed the relation in between bodies and cities from the experience of the project “Wastegrounds. Walking the Revolutionary Landscapes in the Somatic City”, presented in book format, titled DESCAMPADOS, in 2022.

Along with the lecture it was also addressed walks, happenings, installations and performances occurred mainly in between 2015 and 2020 but also projects regarding the Somatic City: an urban entity able to assume in its systems and materiality the ecological and socio-political vicissitudes of multiple bodies. You just have to imagine a narrative where some people walk surrounding one of the most important highways of a western city. Day after day, in different seasons, observing, feeling in their bodies the morphology of the city and its composition which it is also their composition.

At the core of this approach lies the somatic laboratory, the instrument of research, discovery, learning and creation of PSAAP, that María Auxiliadora has been developing with cultural institutions, art centers and architecture or dance schools.

Photograpy: Renato Cruz Santos