After six years of travelling through various territories of Abya Yala with the trilogy “Pacífico” in search of the cracks left by colonialism and capitalist barbarism, the question was obvious: What now, where do we go from here? What surface do we have to trace?
And the answer was to be found in the last verse of the trilogy “Pacific”: “Now, what we have to do is to slow down and listen. But which voice to listen to? Because after years of listening to human voices and stories, now we needed to listen to other voices. The voices of the elements that, despite making up the planet, are there, but are not. That, despite being part of the material basis of life, despite coexisting with us and being the foundation of our economic and cultural systems, are not recognised as subjects of rights.
The poet Joan Brossa said: “The trees will have the last word”; and it was with this in mind that we closed the “Pacific” trilogy.
But what if it wasn’t the trees, what if it was the rocks? Because the classification systems of nature are part of a scientific narrative, of one worldview among many. In them, the mineral is placed at the extreme opposite of the human and, therefore, of the living. And as such, it is considered free to be exploited to the ultimate consequences. Because its condition as inert matter, as a resource, is also the first excuse to exercise extractive barbarism on it. Uncontrolled and unregulated exploitation. Mineral barbarism.
Now, we embark on a new journey. A voyage in search of the sights of the mountains. Of the roar of the volcanoes. Of the crunch of the rocks. Of the vibration of a fault. A search, the first step of which consists of moving away from the centre of the scene to place the mountains, rocks and volcanoes there. And then to dissolve us, in a multiplication of porous relationships between their mineral components and our own.
Now, we embark on a new journey. A journey in search of the voices of the mountains. The roar of the volcanoes. The crunching of rocks. Of the vibration of a fault. An investigation whose first gesture consists of moving away from the centre of the scene to place the mountains, rocks and volcanoes there. And then to dissolve us in a multiplication of porous relations between their mineral components and ours.
Between their blood and our lava.
