The guest, the host & the ghost
2023
Video / 25:00’’
In collaboration with Fernanda Libman and Thessa Torsing (upsammy)
“We are not just human, we are many things”, says Lorena Solís Bravo (1991). In their work, the artist investigates what it means to be human and how we are inextricably linked to the world around us. They start from the symbiotic idea that evolution is driven by cooperation rather than by struggle. Instead of microorganisms eating each other millions of years ago, they started forming new living structures that made new forms of life possible.
Solís Bravo's work builds on this harmonious idea by asking questions about what makes us human and what defines our identity. A recurring theme is the idea of 'the other': who you are is determined by how you relate to the people around you, but also by everything non-human around us, such as bacteria, living and non-living matter, and anything that deviates from the 'norm'.
In the process of creating and filming the video work The guest, the host & the ghost, Solís Bravo left for Brazil and developed workshops and choreography for 7 performers, in collaboration with choreographer Fernanda Libman and music producer upsammy. The artist has created a video work in which the body is presented as a landscape. Solís Bravo calls it a landscape because they argue that there is no such thing as a sole individual, but rather an assemblage of diverse living species which together form an ecological unit. We are all collections of microorganisms that just so happen to live within the landscapes of our bodies.
Text written by Milo Vermeire
For video click here (under password, if you wish to view it please write to: solisbravolorena@gmail.com)