Microgeia

Abstract

Nests and eggs hold potent symbols of comfort and (re)birth, respectively. During 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I lived on a farm in Mutá, in Jaguaripe, Bahia. There, I remained in close contact with natural cycles through observation of birds building nests and the birth of chicks and raising chickens and ducks, awakening my sensitivity to my surroundings. At the same time, close deaths and the consumption of eggs during that period generated a tension between hope-life-birth and fear-death, leading to reflections on the (in)finitude of life. Courses taken during my undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at EBA/UFBA motivated me to conduct academic work on nests from the perspective of comfort and security, as well as eggs as (re)birth. Poetics related to these elements gradually developed, and over time, questions arose about this symbolism. Obtaining an old family meat grinder and choosing ceramics as an artistic medium revived family values. Based on concepts related to Luigi Pareyson's Aesthetics of Formativity, the search for 'forms' combining nests and eggs generated new reflections and 'memories' in ceramics, leading to the work MICROGEIA – the individual world, what each person carries with them. It also generated a work that directly engages with nests and the head, which holds memories throughout life: THE HAIR IS THE NEST OF THE HEAD, a performance motif in which I cut my hair as a sign of letting go.