trespassing

"Trespassing: Polemos"

"War is the mother and queen of all things" (Heraclitus of Ephesus, the Obscure)

"Trespass: Enter someone's land or property without permission" (Oxford Dictionary of English)

Spears are one of the most powerful symbols of war. There are various types of war, all united by the idea of invading others' territories. War between tribes. Between one country and another. However, the most atrocious is the one we fight against ourselves, seeking to reclaim our territory forbidden by life. This is a war where spears hit the mark - always towards the space of our self - and are relentless over time. Spears pierced the bodies of Trojans and Achaeans who wanted to conquer Troy. A spear pierced the body of Christ on the cross (a space exclusive to suffering!).

"Trespassing," the project by Brazilian artist Marcos Saboya, embraces all these meanings, carrying within it an aesthetic of pain, but also of overcoming pain. It accepts the bellicose invasion of our states of grace/disgrace. "Trespassing" is not a requiem for humanity. It is humanity itself, in its continuous war of barbarism and sacrifice and the strength of overcoming through spilled blood. 

This act of torture, which could also be an act of mercy, is the end and the beginning of things: in the perfect circle of existence, the undue invasion pierces our dark spaces. Saboya shows us that the END is also the BEGINNING of a human and civilizing process, which is not fulfilled without violence. A vital process that, echoing Heraclitus, emerges from war (Polemos), from fire, and from the spear! And that, despite ourselves, enclosed in our bubble, we will be pierced by the lightning bolt of Zeus or by the hand of a child.

"Trespassing" advances between the playful and the tragic. It advances imperatively and, for those who cross the luminous threshold of joy, it dances.

Silvana Nassar de Oliveira, Philosopher, University of São Paulo, Brazil.