06
arkhe
arkhḗ – remembrar el sentido acuático del futuro
esp.
Arkhḗ: remembrar el sentido acuático del futuro
Acto 1.
un cuerpo inmenso de agua
a la deriva
sin destino claro
algunos seres devienen dobles
o triples,
se presentan en distintos cuerpos
misteriosas conexiones
detritus de manifestaciones que exceden lo visible
las fronteras
viajando con el polvo
el viento
entre tiempos
sumergirse en lo intraducible
disolverse en el anonimato
en lo inorgánico
donde cada sonido es un portal y parte del paisaje indócil que deviene por dentro
barcos como estrellas fugaces
flores de sangre
color petroleo
como el fondo del mar
derivas
sin saber que se queda y que se deja
el tiempo es un pantano
Acto 2.
la abuela nos cuenta que devenimos de esponjas marinas llenas de agua de mar
vaiven de aguas cósmicas
desastres cíclicos
las ánimas guían
ser sustancia gelatinosa
que habita
en la orilla
acariciada por las lágrimas contenedoras de historias épicas
habitando el no tiempo
entre espasmos telúricos
continuidad de células, bacterias y estrellas
en las pieles se reflejan los planetas
mapeos lunares de tejido sideral
ser continuidad
cósmica
en la oscuridad encontrar tranquilidad
regresiones prematuras sincronizan con otras temporalidades fuera de las impuestas
¿dónde empieza y dónde acaba?
cantos corales
Acto 3.
una flor sale de mi pecho y se mueve con el viento
respiración colectiva de la
tierra
presentes profundos que explotan en fragmentos
en espiral
nudo en la garganta empuja y abre una grieta
se derraman las lágrimas de tristezas no olvidadas
goteos constantes de aguas indómitas marcan el compás de los días
vivir entre lenguas
entre mundos
sin saber muy bien por qué
llegaron con el mar escapando de las guerras
desde antes de nacer
practicamos el retorno en barcos de papel
Acto 3 a/sincrónicas
siente la acuosidad crustacea mientras florece
algunos cuerpos se sincronizan en el encuentro
grita
ruge
explota
retumba en lo terrestre
inundación
avalancha
en cada célula
lo que se calla, lo que se omite,
se esconde bajo la tierra
palpita
gotea
en el inframundo chiasma
grietas por las que se rebosan las aguas
en la abuela, la madre, las ancestras
remembrar para reparar
Acto 4.
hay lunares que dan cuenta de tus ancestras
si unes los puntos
abres la grieta
acua non grata
en la luna llena las flórez escuchan la violetera
las formas cambian
lo cíclico y circular permanece
afuera es sólo un suspiro
fuego azul
sueños nublados
futuros arácnidos brotan por los
desagües
cenizas de pájaro amarillo entre vestigios geológicos
lagartijas evocan
el olor de la primavera
burbujeantes
conjuros menguantes
¿recuerdas
el eclipse?
Acto 5.
olor a piedras del fondo del río
con la primera gota roja se renuevan los contratos cósmicos
portales ancestral con abuelas y madres
fuego azul
bailes ferales
en la noche
nace una cachorra
la luna se refleja en las aguas al amanecer
una yegua se desboca
color cobre
brújula oceánica
entre la niebla y las olas
fluctuaciones inefables
sensorialidades intuitivas anticipan la tormenta
particulas emergen como sudor en la epidermis
infra-estructuras resonantes se manifiestan en la molecularidad planetaria
Acto 6.
tiempos de siembra
erupciones hilvanadas a través de suspiros
tejidos c(u)ánticos
cada gota impulsa los ritmos de las vibraciones cósmicas
las nubes se desbordan
entre portales
arremeten los vientos
escurren el tiempo
sol negro
honramos los ríos de vida
y de muerte
bajo tierra quedan sinuosas
esquirlas de violencias que nunca se olvidan
en los intersticios y capas de la
existencia
dentro de una concha
palpitan las sombras
con la luna nueva descansan las hienas
¿recuerdas las risas de las abuelas a media mañana
un canto
un llanto
Acto 7.
terracua subterránea eriza las pestañas
por las vetas se alimentan las grietas
lengua mineral
luna roja
viento húmedo
gota de montaña
bestiario fluvial
conjuros de plantas olvidadas en el intestino del universo
elusivas
la supervivencias sónica
que deviene entre espacios-tiempos
en nuestro cuerpos
se derrama entre sueños
confiar en el instinto
las estrías imanentes de las historias que palpitan entre aguas subterraneas
acaricia las puntadas
las liquidificaciones constantemente nos conectan con los estuarios oníricos
retornando a nuestras ancestras
nos tejen milenios de minerales electromagnéticos que gestan en sus fluidos vida y muerte
acua eléctrica
cascada constante de energía psíquica
para remembrar que el flujo es la constante del presente profundo
para remembrar el sentido acuático del futuro
eng.
arkhḗ: remembering the aquatic sense of the future
elizabeth gallon Droste & diana droste flórez
Act 1
an immense body of water
adrift
with no clear destination
some beings become double
or triple,
appearing in different bodies
mysterious connections
detritus of manifestations beyond the visible
crossing borders
traveling with dust
with the wind
across time
plunge into the untranslatable
dissolve into anonymity
into the inorganic
where each sound is a portal, a part of the untamed landscape that stirs within
boats like shooting stars
blooms of blood
oil-colored
like the ocean's depths
uncertain of what stays and what leaves
time is a swamp
Act 2
grandmother tells us we descend from sea sponges brimming with seawater
cosmic tides ebb and flow
cyclic disasters
animas guide
become a gelatinous being
dwelling on the shore
caressed by tears that cradle epic stories
inhabiting the no-time
among tectonic spasms
continuity of cells, bacteria, and stars
on our skin, planets reflect
lunar maps of stellar threads
to be cosmic continuity
find peace in the darkness
premature regressions sync with other timelines outside the imposed
where does it begin, and where does it end
choral songs
Act 3
a flower emerges from my chest and sways with the wind
the earth's collective breath
deeply present moments explode in fragments
spiraling
a knot in my throat pushes,
opens a crack
tears spillover
unforgotten griefs
dripping wild waters mark the beat of the days
living between tongues
between worlds
not knowing quite why
they came with the sea, fleeing wars
since before birth
we practice the return on paper boats
Act 3 a/synchronicities
feel the crustacean moisture as it blooms
some bodies sync in the encounter
scream
roar
explode
echo in the terrestrial
flood
avalanche
in each cell
what’s silenced, what’s omitted,
hides underground
it pulses
it drips
in the underworld
chiasma
cracks through which waters overflow
in grandmothers, mothers, the ancestresses
remembering to repair
Act 4
there are moles that speak of your foremothers
if you connect the dots
you open the thresholds
acua non grata
under the full moon,
flowers listen to the violetera
forms change
the cyclic and circular remain
outside, it’s just a breath
blue fire
clouded dreams
spider-like futures seep from the drains
ashes of yellow bird among geological remains
lizards evoke
the scent of spring
bubbling
waning spells
do you remember the eclipse?
Act 5
the scent of stones from the river’s depths
with the first red drop, cosmic contracts renew
ancestral portals with shewolfs
blue fire
feral dances
at night
a cub is born
the moon reflects on the waters at dawn
a mare runs wild
copper-colored
ocean compass
between the mist and waves
ineffable fluctuations
intuitive sensorialities anticipate the storm
particles emerge like sweat on the skin
resonant infrastructures manifest in planetary molecularity
Act 6
seeding times
eruptions woven through sighs
quantum threads
each drop fuels the rhythms of cosmic vibrations
the clouds overflow
between portals
winds surge
time drips
black sun
we honor the rivers of life
and of death
beneath the earth linger sinuous shards of violences never forgotten
in the interstices and layers of existence
inside a shell
shadows pulse
under the new moon,
the hyenas rest
do you remember the grandmothers’ laughter at mid-morning
a song
a weep
Act 7
terracua underground bristles the lashes
through veins, cracks are nourished
mineral tongue
red moon
damp wind
mountain drop
river bestiary
conjurings of forgotten plants in the universe’s gut
elusive
sonic survival
becoming across space-times
in our bodies
spilling through dreams
trust the instinct
immanent streaks of histories pulsing in subterranean waters
caress the stitches
liquidifications constantly link us to dream estuaries
returning to our foremothers
they weave millennia of electromagnetic minerals, gestating in their fluids life and death
electric aqua
constant cascade of psychic energy
to remember that flow is the constant of the deep present
to remember the aquatic sense of the future
woven from the intersticies, unfoldings and afterlives of sounds that traverse us, spiraling from asynchrone and inner caverns, my mother and i drift through murmuring tides, and rivers beneath the rivers, tracing the contours of be-longing, home, and identity. in this flow, waters carry us across worlds and times, stitching and unstitching as they go. stories collide, reshape, and surge like waves—ancestral whispers, moon cycles, and the magnetic currents of continuous bodies from oniric and teluric realms. together, we follow the question where does all begin, and where does all end, and dip into rhythms that reveal roots and routes, the journeys of bodies bound to waters, and the transformations they shape in us.
following a multimodal autoethnographic and collaborative process, based on sensorial realms of intergenerational experiences that traverse us through conversations based on our feelings as women, daughter, mother, the women family experiences in a broader socio-political context, their struggles and fights, our growing and living between tongues and places, we prioritize mediation over representation, as an ongoing act of re-imagination. drawing on sara ahmed’s positioning of emotions as orientations that shape both our past, present and our future, emotions, like water, shape our pathways; they orient us toward certain futures and possibilities, tugging us into relationships of belonging and kinship with our past and present. here, belonging becomes, as bell hooks describes, the ground of our becoming, a dynamic experience that reaches through repertoires. inspired by michael taussig’s call for ethnographic writing acknowledging the “scrapbooks”— those containers where the fragments of the inner and outerworlds encounter and transform, this essay delves within the distortions and mutations that arise when the familiar becomes an “underwater world”. this is what I have been calling the multimodal fieldwork diaries, based on the sensorial and embodied experiences of ethnographic and artisitc re-search.
in this sense, through fragments, non-linear narratives, and multitemporal soundscapes, a sound-visual essay emerges—not merely an essay, but a vessel, confluences of currents, experiences and intergenerational (t)her(e)-stories; a montage that opens thresholds unfolding where remembrances weave together. as a “carrier bag” of stories, in ursula k. le guin’s words, without searching for linearity, without fixing them in place. instead, it offers a space to dwell within these lives, to feel the flow of histories as they shift and reverberate within us. an embodied, living archive—gathers, holds, and carries our collective journey through the intergenerational tides.
echoing astrida neimanis’ bodies of water, our bodies feel porous, viscous and relational, part of the vast aquatic ecology we become within. water, a carrier of memory and futurality, is a force of continuity and disruption, a medium of transformation that connects us through time and space. waters of all kinds encounter: the estuary’s dense tides, where rivers and seas merge and counteract; the amniotic fluids of becoming, of arrival and return. these waters embody memory and the urge to forget, sweeping through porous boundaries. they are sorrow and fury of ancestral women, dissolving and reassembling, a river of ceaseless continuity tugging us toward belonging beyond the self. words as drops, from the dephts of subterranean currents, electromagnetic currents weave us—pulses that carry inwards, knots as nodes that reassamble. immersed in multitemporal cycles, we honor the matrilineal echoes of our bodies, borne on intricate flows. these waters, beyond mere h₂o, carry stories, dense with lives once lived and dissolved, as resonances of intuitions and dreams. submerged encounters are more than memory; we sense futures within unseen tides in which beings and places, through tensions, contractions, affections, spirals, and countercurrents, come back together. in these meandering cycles, we sense, we glimpse, a pulse, a sound, a remembrance of the aquatic sense of the future. we engage in storytelling as an attunement—a means of sensing, remembering, and imagining, to remediate and repeair, a way of re-imagining belonging within the cosmic and planetary mesh, where time is a swamp. this essay is dedicated to my grandmother lola flórez and her sisters.
- Elizabeth Gallón Droste was born in bogotá and based in berlin. she is an artistic researcher who develops fieldwork-based research by combining different media. her work focuses on the stories told and sung by territo~rivers and the ecosystems they weave, composed of multiple beings, temporalities, materialities, traces, and layers. she is currently part of the artistic research process ~pes, which includes activated listening sessions, participatory actions through hydrophonic tuning, and mimetic acts of reciprocity with bodies of water.