Linea Fusca
Anaïs Senli
“Linea Fusca” investigates the political potential of the experience of motherhood by analysing the relationship between care work and practical knowledge of the material world from the experience of reproduction and motherhood. Maternal activity -without being associated with a specific gender- requires the mother to respond to the material reality of human vulnerability. In this sense, what does an ethic based on the acceptance that we depend radically on the support granted by others imply? Can the experience of motherhood foster a society based on mutual cooperation?
In turn, “Linea Fusca” also investigates reproduction as a physical process based on the experience of otherness. Pregnancy implies a sudden intrusion of the gestating woman’s body by the Other. For nine months, the pregnant woman experiences carrying someone in her body, continuously recognizing the changes in and of her body and perceiving the growth of her future, child living an intense double life during this period of time. But this physical experience of otherness is not exclusive to reproduction; it continues after birth because of its relational nature. By bonding with the child, we change our way of perceiving and constructing ourselves as subjects, so our integrity or unity is undermined. Therefore, as individuals, we are divided by including the Other -the child- in the center of ourselves. What does it mean to say we are not constituted independently but in relation to the Other?
Linea Fusca: 4K Video loop, 20 min., 2020
Text: Eirik Sördal and Anaïs Senli
Sound: Stephen McEvoy
Voice: Ania Nowak
Camera: Mireia Guzmán
Video editing: Anaïs Senli
Flesh: Pilar Fonseca, Ignacio Español, Emil Sær Senli Sördal, Eirik Sördal and Anaïs Senli