COSMOVE. Clara Federica Crescini
COSMOVE is a body based artistic and political movement practice.
The research is focused on the relationship with Nature.
My artistic work is body based, it has a somatic approach and a special interest in ecosomatic practices, where the body is proposed as carrying its own “intelligence”, the result of an integrated, long-lasting organism-environment relationship. In this view the elements that are valorized are proprioception and sensing the concrete contact with natural agents in a protected frame, the interrelation between the bodymind, and the possibilities of expressions as it activates a deep listening of these resources. COSMOVE refined movement practices in Nature to find access keys for the creation of
artistic work that has a clear socio-political relationship with the themes of post-anthropocene, ecology and equanimity of living species. Craft the practice carefully meant to develop an original artistic method based on the ecosomatic experience. The project was developed in three different artistic forms. An experiential lecture performance that took place in the newborn museum MIAM, a series of workshops held in the Liepnitzsee beech forest in Berlin and a podcast of interviews with national and international artists on the topic of art and Care.
One of the main principles of the practice is to meet the earth. It might sound like an easy task. The body is invited to slowly go down until it reaches the earth and it is encouraged to stay there. The process of letting go and releasing tensions accumulated in the city’s environment allowed a great result of expression of the human nervous system and its related healing natural processes. Another main object of the practice is the way it is suggested to practice in wood, as an example, with the feet touching directly the soil. To prevent the cold it is suggested to use neoprene socks. Those material prevent from humid and wet but keep high sensitivity of the feet. When feet touch directly the ground, like rotten leaves, earth or grass the nervous system of the human body has an immediate release of electromagnetic charge.
Important partners of the ecosomatic movement research in wood are trees. In this particular year COSMOVE focused on walnut trees and beech trees. Exploring the relation with trees through sensitivity of the body using tools like touch, giving the wait, resting, crawling, smelling, hearing, stillness, waiting, listening and silence permits us to reciprocally exchange information. In order to be able to listen to an individum other than a human it is suggestable to respectfully enter the relationship and to use tools of communication that can be exchanged both ways. Taking this posture as an information of
state in order to enter the sacred space of the organism forest (in this particular case the forest, but it can be applied to a specific tree or other environments, for example a lake) it is eventually possible to listen to the forest voice. Every individum has its own specificity and lives in a specific manner. The walnut tree is well known by the popular tradition in Italy to be the tree of the witches and it is suggested to not sleep under it. Science today explained to us that it is because his leaves have got a polluted spore that might cause headaches if inhaled for too long. Practicing with a walnut tree required loneliness and a specific amount of time. The tree is famous also for not living in community but for being hungry of sun and space to grow in peace.
Walnut tree has been the first individum encountered to develop COSMOVE, the relationship provided a sense of uniqueness in movement and it permitted to especially develop hanging moves from the trunk. Beech trees bring another unique quality for example the community teaching. Their roots are interlaced one to another and constitute a whole one organism underneath and above. Their trunks are large and very tall. Having the opportunity to practice with them could inform the bodymindsystem with such information as renegotiation of the spine vertical line, reciprocal support, empathy and respect. Part of the practice consists in the creation of temporary dances that are gifted to the forest organism, or to the single tree individum, as a reward for the hospitality. This act is borrowed from ancient lineage traditional rituals of respect for the living being. Dances can be translated also into actual objects made of natural materials to leave to the organism as a present and reciprocal engagement of the relationship. COSMOVE experimented with a diverse type of ritual macramè cords. Last part of the project consisted in a series of interviews with national and international artists that are dealing with Nature, Art and Healing. The aim of the podcasts is to create a network around the topic and to support and inspire future generations on the theme. For the first three episodes I want to thank Victoriamaria Bodymettaspore, Jared Gradinger and Shelly Etkin.
