Through video, performance and installation, Landra’s work involves experimentation with local production methods and forms of art-life.  

Part of the ‘Institution(ing)s’ programme, the project ‘The Body in the Middle’ is a proposal that develops in two activities: a session of readings and a workshop. 

In this session, we will explore certain chapters from the books selected by the duo for this occasion. These are texts that explore the relationship between nature and social organisation, with a focus on how we can return to cohabiting with the natural elements of this planet in a more balanced way and to form more sustainable communities. 

With James C. Scott, we will start to think about cereals and the way we are so closely linked to them. Ever since the Roman invasion, our history has been largely imperial. In other parts of the planet, these small seeds are always a point in common between states and empires.  

Robin Wall Kimmerer will take us to the other side of the world, talking about forgotten communal experiences, or those forced out of our bodies, and the importance of living with what nature gives us, what comes from the trees and can be enjoyed and shared.  

Reading John Zerzan, we will ponder whether it might be possible to recover the primitive being, which could be of great use to us in a near future. Countering empires, countering the tyranny of states, corporations and global organisations, the primitive being can possess small signs of great futures that would be more cautious, more harmonious and sustainable.  

Finally, César Lema Costas gives us the tools, both theoretical and practical, to potentially return to coexisting with the climax forests that once covered the entire Iberian Peninsula. How can we, in the midst of a mixed oak grove, find autonomy in an acorn? 

These, among other readings, have supported Landra in their discovery of what it means to inhabit a place as a human being, believing that, in the face of current challenges, politics takes place from the largest to the smallest scale, with no need for concessions or exceptions.  

Planned for lunchtime, participants should bring their own food to this activity, so that we can read, eat and think together.  

The session will take place in Portuguese.

‘Institution(ing)s’ is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Creative Europe. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.