Place X

©Sónia Godinho

“They started putting x’s on the places without treasure, without pleasure in their memories, without hope [. . .]
that was when the people realized there had to be something after giving up, because there were no more places to leave. What do you do with a planet of excuses, scarred in unwelcome, inviting only absence? X marks the spot: not here”
(Alexis Pauline Gumbs)

Place X departs from the poem by Alexis Pauline Gumbs to reflect, on the mechanisms of extracting value from bodies, ecosystems, life, relationships. Extractivism marks the place of the treasure with an X. At this moment, no place, body, or form of life remains unmarked. This project intends to create fictional maps of the places where we don't want or we can't return, because there isn’t any treasure to extract, nor any pleasure to discover. And, at the same time, to investigate camouflage actions to create narratives about what we still want and can preserve.

Place X digs the gestures we need to remain alive, within devastation; the actions that recreate, summon, remember life. How to create bodies out ruins, ghosts and debts?

In this project, I want to work on the mirage of what I call ‘places of common’: places that are still, apparently, empty of a capitalistic function; places of encounter between unusual life forms; places that haven’t been appropriated or that, as they are abandoned and obsolete, open themselves to improvised uses beyond the narratives of value and capital.

RESIDENCIES
1 – 30 APR 2023: Vagabundas, promoted by Companhia Cepa Torta (Mina de São Domingos)
21 AUG – 1 SEP 2023: Biblioteca de Marvila (Lisboa)
2 – 7 FEB 2024: Criação Crítica / A Oficina (Guimarães)
2024: A Gráfica- Centro de Criação Artística / Câmara Municipal de Setúbal

PRESENTATIONS
27 APR 2023: Vagabundas’23 (Mina de São Domingos)
17 OCT 2023: Biblioteca de Marvila (Lisbon)
7 FEB 2023: Espaço Oficina (Guimarães)

Artistic direction, creation and performance: Catarina Vieira
Coproduction: Câmara Municipal de Setúbal under de program “Bolsa de Criação Artística”
Support: Companhia Cepa Torta

Artistic Residencies: Vagabundas, promoted by Companhia Cepa Torta (Mina de São Domingos); Biblioteca de Marvila (Lisbon); Piscina (Lisbon); Criação Crítica / A Oficina (Guimarães); A Gráfica- Centro de Criação Artística / Câmara Municipal de Setúbal