RED HUMANA

Red Humana (literally: human net) was born out of a feeling that society could go down a path of sustained union and commu- nion. This docu-fictional experience arises from a physical challenge: linking ordinary people together in the region.

This project was carried out entirely in the city of Cordoba, in the heart of Argentina: A country in which the Covid-19 pandemic and other recent political and economic disruptions mean that society is experiencing a very sensitive moment. This project consi- ders where we are going and who we are going with. The neighbourhood I shot and filmed in is where I myself grew up and went to school until I was 18.

Red Humana is a group of 11 people (age 20-70) who form an experimental and spontaneous network with no initial connection to one another, intertwining their bodies like spiders and forming an amorphous chain that takes on a life of is own.

Four people in this group work with their bodies as performers in the Cordoba scene, playing with the myth of movement and contact and challenging the way they conceive of collective creativity.

The other seven people had no experiences with such projects: they were cast from the street, had no relationship to art and had never worked in disciplines using the body performatively. They were from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and professions, mixing performers with the «everyday people» from the street in a surprisingly harmonious way.

The encounter of these two groups led to a fluid choreography, achieved by listening to how the body manifests, supporting others regardless of heterogeneities and building a sense of empathy.

These exercises in trust were shot in real time. I adapted to the way the bodies communicated without intervening or directing; I was using analog still photography and recording video, filmed using a slow cinema technique, where the camera observes what happens without any need for sensationalism or manipulation. I was filming, but my gaze was that of an observer more so than a director. This was beyond something aesthetic: it was affirming a feeling of honest connection between disparate people, and may- be between myself and the country I came from.