The Source. A Visual Epilogue of an Art Practice inTimes of Collapse

Abstract

The Source is a visual essay that constitutes the epilogue to the doctoral research Art as an Experience of the Dissolution of the Self. Towards an Art Practice in Times of Collapse, which is developed through a range of arts-based and practice-led methodologies, as well as autoethnography grounded in situated knowledge and transformative methodologies, bringing together artistic, research, activist, and personal identity transformation dimensions within a long intellectual and life journey. The Source emerges from an experience of inner exile in the year I of the post-Walk era and understands artistic practice as a vehicle capable of transforming life and redefining one’s relationship with the self, while establishing new forms of connection with the natural world. Through experimentation with our subjectivities and the expansion of consciousness, this practice prefigures new existential scenarios. Developed over several months, it took place in the context of extreme drought in rural Catalonia in early 2024 and was documented through a series of photographs, a colour video, a black-and-white video, along with an accompanying essay. The visual documentation depicts the daily action of a woman walking to transport water from a fountain, while the written component reveals the background of precariousness experienced during weeks of isolation in a caravan, alongside personal, spiritual, and political reflections related to deep adaptation in response to the climate, ecological, and civilizational crisis.