Walking lovink: Reimagining and rewriting the notion of love
beyond binaries is the title of this practice- as-research. It is
situated in the intersection of feminist, queer and crip theory,
post-humanism and expanded choreography. The research
project used walking as a choreographic-relational practice in
which love could be re-imagined through building alternative
bonds of intimacy through sensory awareness on our body
and the more-than- human bodies of the city.
Initiated by a personal need to overcome my cynicism about
love after a breakup, this research was finally driven by a
broader urgency to criticize the commodification of love
into a romantic product that perpetuates (hetero)normative
narratives responsible for uneven power distribution. Through
data (un)collection, literature and field review and practice as
research, this philosophical and artistic exploration illustrates
love as a not-yet place by framing it as a dialogical, relational,
influx practice that addresses more than human bodies. It
aims to address the performativity of love and create a space
where love can be imagined, practiced, and performed
beyond fixed ideas about it, having as guidelines love ethics
that oppose power and domination.
I propose rethinking the ethics of love and care aiming to
inform performance practices towards a more diverse
and democratic participation and the creation of a maker
audience relationship that could question hierarchies.
A horizontal approach could enable the creation of a ground
of coexistence and reciprocity. It also allows critical thinking
about power and domination thus enclosing the potential of
co-creating a more just world.