D04
“Florinda embarks on this process as an affect alien adopting a posthumanist feminist perspective, with the understanding that she is but one of a multitude of intertwined components forming a continuum of “zoe-geo-techno-matter” (Braidotti, 2022). Together with collaborators Romeo Roxman Gatt, Sarah Bonaci and Kamila Wolszczak, she overlaps the constant search of unveiling the unknown and unfamiliar using various living and non-living agents such as dough (zoe-), found objects, clay (geo-), dust (geo-), chemicals (geo-), biometric sensors (techno-) and data (techno-), among others. By overlapping movement and one or many of these agents, they navigate openly among aspects which appear or feel unsafe, shifting between the familiar and unfamiliar, returning to The Mill to recalibrate and regenerate. They make use of the various agents to question, trace, discover and uncover, compiling an archive of responses and movements merging the human and inhuman.”
from the curatorial note by Elyse Tonna
“The Mill never ceases to fill me with awe and inspiration. Within its walls, I feel safe and open, my curiosity is awakened. What if I can find this openness and curiosity in the public space around it? To feel open and curious in public spaces is to see things through a different lens, getting curious about things we are not normally curious about, like an alien landing on a new planet. It is to be affected, emotionally moved, by things in ways that you’re not meant to be affected. It is to be, what Sara Ahmed (2017) terms, an “affect alien”.
Affect aliens are playful explorers, and with the Mill as our mothership, courageous too. We investigate through our bodies by listening, feeling, and touching. We move curiously, are moved in curious ways, and create curious movement. We always already operate in constellations of human and inhuman agents. This exhibition shows some of our creations, through and across matters, media, and disciplines.”
from the artist’s note by Florinda Camilleri
Artistic direction, Performance, Research & Production Management - Florinda Camilleri
Collaborators - Romeo Roxman Gatt, Kamila Wolscszak, Sarah Bonaci
Curator - Elyse Tonna
Technical Support - Niels Plotard
SPRING Program Coordinator - Raffaella Zammit
Gabriel Caruana Foundation Team - Tina Camilleri
by invitation of the SPRING Program for Emerging Artists by the Gabriel Caruana Foundation, supported by Arts Council Malta and Culture Moves Europe
see some more writing about this work and the affect alien manifesto