LOÏE. 07

Radical tenderness is … 

20 de November de 2020
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A living manifesto written by Dani D’Emilia and Daniel B. Chávez 

 

Tenderness is to be critical and loving, at the same time

Radical tenderness is to understand how to use strength as a caress

Radical tenderness is to know how to accompany one another, among friends and lovers, at different distances and speeds

Radical tenderness is writing this text at the same time, from two faraway continents

…from the same bed

Writing whilst caressing

Radical tenderness is to know to say “no”

Is to carry the weight of another body as if it were your own

…is to share sweat with a stranger

Radical tenderness is to dance among dissident bodies in a workshop

…to be completely overwhelmed and maintain our smiles and celebrations

Radical tenderness is to allow yourself to be seen; to allow yourself to be taken

Radical tenderness is to not collapse in the face of our contradictions

Radical tenderness is to not allow our existential demons to become permanent cynicism

It is to not always be the same, las mismas, los mismos, les mismes

Is to embody in lak’ech

Because you are my other me

And vice versa

Radical tenderness is to not be afraid of fear

Radical tenderness is to live ephemeral love

Is to invent other temporalities

Radical tenderness is to embrace fragility

Is to confront others’ neurosis with creativity

Radical tenderness is to embody performative gestures that you would normally reject

Radical tenderness is to assume leadership when your community asks it of you, although you may not know what to do, or how to do it! 

Radical tenderness is to lend your guts to others

Is to wear your lover’s pussy as a beard

Is to risk loving against the grain

Radical tenderness is to believe in the architecture of affects

Is to find one another from the muscles closest to the bone

Is to believe in the political effect of internal movements

Radical tenderness is to not insist on being the center of attention

Is to have peripheral vision; to believe in what cannot be seen

Radical tenderness is to turn a tremor into a dance and a sigh into a mantra

Is to dissent with maximum respect

…to transit in spaces you do not understand

Radical tenderness is to accept the ambiguous

Is to not initiate all thought by navel gazing

Is to break with affective patterns, without clear expectations

Radical tenderness is to share dreams, wildness

To tune in with, not just empathize with

It is to find a galaxy in the eyes of another and not break the gaze

To read the body of another as a palimpsest

Radical tenderness is to channel irresistible energies and convert them into untaimable embodiments

Is to activate sensorial memory

Is to recognize the other by their scent

Radical tenderness is to feel the possibility in every doubt

Is to allow yourself to be pierced by the unknown

Radical tenderness is to give a narcissist the option of adapting or rethinking their position

Radical tenderness is to embrace thorns

Radical tenderness is to coexist with lack

Is to face things head on by looking at them from the love of wanting to see

Is to sustain ourselves from distinct places though not all of them are ‘beautiful’

Radical tenderness is a concept that is appropriable and ever-changing

Radical tenderness is something

That is not necessary

To define

 

Dani D’Emilia and Daniel Chavez (currently Daniel B. Coleman) are performance artists, transfeminist activists and educators who met in 2011 and collaborated on several transcontinental performance-pedagogy projects as core members of the collectives La Pocha nostra until 2016 (Dani from 2011, Daniel from 2014) and Proyecto Inmiscuir between 2015-17.

They first encountered the term radical tenderness whilst working as part of La Pocha nostra (LPN). As ex-members of the troupe, with this manifesto they want to honor its origin and its continuous reverberation in projects they were/are engaged with around the globe. This text was created as part of the research Dani was undertaking on radical tenderness within the context of an MA at PEI/MACBA, Barcelona. It was born out of an online poetic jam started in 2015, in which they asked themselves what radical tenderness meant for them, in their lives and work within and outside of LPN. Can tenderness be radical? Can radical be tender? 

Dani and Daniel wish to thank all who have been part of this journey with them, particularly the founders of LPN who began using the term in the 90s, the various artists that have worked with the troupe  and all who have participated in the multiple performance-pedagogy workshops in which they have been exploring radical tenderness from different perspectives and practices throughout the years.

 

www.danidemilia.com / www.danielbcoleman.com

 

 

Ternura radical es ser crítico y amoroso, al mismo tiempo 

Ternura radical es entender cómo utilizar la fuerza como una caricia

Ternura radical es saber acompañarnos entre amigos y amantes, 

a distintas distancias y velocidades 

Ternura radical es escribir este texto al mismo tiempo, desde dos continentes lejanos 

…desde la misma cama

Escribiendo al acariciar

Ternura radical es saber decir que no

Es cargar el peso de otro cuerpo como si fuera tuyo

…es compartir el sudor con un extraño

Ternura radical es bailar entre cuerpos disidentes en un taller

…estar encimadxs y mantener la sonrisa y la fiesta

Ternura radical es dejarse mirar; dejarse llevar

Ternura radical es no desplomarse frente a nuestras contradicciones 

Ternura radical es no permitir que los demonios existenciales se conviertan en cinismos permanentes

Es no ser siempre las mismas, los mismos, les mismes

Es encarnar in lak’ech

…porque tú eres mi otro yo

Y viceversa

Ternura radical es no tenerle miedo al miedo

Ternura radical es vivir el amor efímero

Es inventar otras temporalidades

Ternura radical es abrazar la fragilidad

Es enfrentar la neurosis de lxs demás con creatividad

Ternura radical es encarnar gestos performativos que normalmente rechazarías

Ternura radical es asumir el liderazgo cuando tu comunidad te lo pide, aunque no sepas que hacer, ¡ni cómo hacerlo! 

Ternura radical es prestarle tus tripas a los demás

Es ponerte el coño de tu amante como bigote

Es arriesgarse a amar a contra pelo

Ternura radical es creer en la arquitectura de los afectos

Es encontrarnos desde los músculos más cercanos al hueso

Es creer en el efecto político de los movimientos internos

Ternura radical es no insistir en ser el centro de atención

Es tener visión periférica; creer en lo que no es visible

Ternura radical es hacer del temblor un baile y del suspiro un mantra 

Es disentir con el máximo respeto

…transitar en espacios que no entiendes

Ternura radical es aceptar lo ambiguo

Es no pensar dándole vueltas a tu ombligo

Es romper con patrones afectivos, sin expectativas claras

 

Ternura radical es compartir sueños, locura

Sintonizar, no solo empatizar

Es encontrar una galaxia en los ojos de otrx y no dejar de mirar

Es leer el cuerpo del otrx como un palimpsesto

Ternura radical es canalizar energías irresistibles y convertirlas en encarnaciones indominables

Es activar la memoria sensorial

Es reconocer al otro por su olor

Ternura radical es sentir la posibilidad en cada duda

Es dejarse atravesar por lo desconocido

Ternura radical es darle la opción a un narcisista de acoplarse,

o re/pensarse

Ternura radical es acariciar espinas

Ternura radical es convivir con la falta

Es mirar a las cosas a la cara con el cariño de quien las quiere ver

Es sostenerse desde distintos lugares, aunque no todos sean ‘hermosos’

Ternura radical es un concepto apropiable y mutante

Ternura radical es algo

Que no hace falta

Definir

 

 

 

About:

Francesca Carol Rolla

Francesca Carol Rolla (Venice, 1986) is a performance art curator, writer, and PhD candidate in Visual Arts at the Doctoral School of Humanities of the University of Strasbourg (FR) with the thesis “Letters to a Radical Performance Curator”. Aligning the curatorial practice with a performative mode of research, and with the aims to set foundations for radical interaction and new terms of exchange, she explores new contemporary approaches to artistic creation and reflection, there where the meaning and value for a responsible and independent co-authorship involves both artists and curators in co-creative processes. She has trained, worked and collaborated with artists such as Bill Viola, Alejandro Jodorowski, Marilyn Arsem, Preach R Sun, VestAndPage, Marcel•lí Antúnez Roca, Antonio Manuel, Guillermo Gomez-Peña and ORLAN, among others.
Since 2014, she is an associate curator of the Venice International Performance Art Week, and coordinator of its Educational Learning Program realized in collaboration with Live Arts Cultures and other international partner organizations. Since 2017, she is an honorary member of La Pocha Nostra.
Since 2019, Francesca Carol Rolla is on the board of LOÏE. Magazine as Director of the “Performance Archive” section, with a strong interest of exploring the journey between curating research and performance writing.
| www.collectivesignatures.com |

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