“Man is, therefore, a living organism. He incorporates the concept of action through his gestural expression. He ceases to be an object to himself and becomes the object of the other, reconnecting the process of introversion with that of extroversion. He inverts the concepts of home and body. Now the body is the home. It is a communal experience. There is no regression, because man is open to the world.”
— Lygia Clark¹
With these words by Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, I intertwine my artistic and research practices, where experience, corporeality, and somatic processes are central axes. Through drawing and movement, I explore the interrelation between bonds, care, and kinesthesia. My work spans various creative media—particularly drawing, performance, and installation—and is rooted in the study of materialities, the affective turn, and participatory artistic processes.
The body is central to my artistic production—understood as a living, porous entity, a materiality charged with both poetic and political meanings. From this perspective, my research unfolds from the affections, experiences, and memories that traverse the body, in dialogue with feminist politics and new materialist theories. My work is nourished by references such as Joan Tronto and Carol Gilligan, whose contributions to the ethics of care have been fundamental in feminist thought, as well as Sara Ahmed, whose approach to affect enables a deeper understanding of its impact on individual and collective experience.
This interest translates into durational actions that investigate the relational dimension of the body, addressing mutual care and affect through drawing and movement by creating atmospheres of intimacy and co-presence. In my recent performative proposals, the audience assumes an active role in the process, participating in dynamics of interaction and co-creation. Through gesture, contact, and trace, bodies move, meet, and intertwine in spontaneous choreographies that explore mutual care and corporeality as sites of resistance and collective transformation. This establishes a bridge between the intimate and the performative, fostering new forms of connection and shared experience.
Currently, I am immersed in a research project that delves into materiality and relationality in the act of drawing in (con)tact with other bodies—both human and non-human. From this perspective, my work revolves around a series of guiding questions: How do our bodies manifest with, in, and through drawing? How do our bodies transform drawing? And what role do care and affect play in collective creation?
This methodological approach is grounded in the principles of artistic research, conceiving practice as a form of knowledge production and transmission. Throughout the process, I incorporate critical tools such as reflexivity and field journals to analyze our relationship with different materialities and somatic practices. From this standpoint, I aim to investigate the body as a territory of experimentation and openness, generating a dialogue between the sensorial, the affective, and the biographical.
¹ CLARK, Lygia. O homem, estrutura viva de uma arquitetura biológica e celular. In: Lygia Clark: superfícies moduladas / Bichos / Manifestações. São Paulo: Galeria Ralph Camargo, 1971. (Own translation.)