No ser ni la sombra de lo que se fue. Quotes and Excerpts

Lecture-performance by María Jerez

I consider the shadow to be both an internal and external movement of the body, whether it be living, dead, or inert. It is something that is always present and moves in contact with intermediate bodies. When we see a shadow, we tend to try and discover where it comes from, especially when it shouldn't be there. But, sometimes, the cause of the shadow is not concrete: no physical body is involved, or the shadow arises from our memory, hallucination, desire, or love.

Not to be a shadow of what was is an investigation that forgets the actual cause of the shadow to focus on its phenomenon as a source of movement—as a new image that is no longer generated by a single body, but is itself also another body. A body that is always in relation: with the light, with the surface upon which it is projected, with other distant bodies. Overlaps, fragments, prejudices, residues, distances, reflections, spirits, ghosts…

In this way, we release the image from the idea of having to be original, complete, or essential. The image no longer has to choose between reality and fiction; it no longer needs to be hyper-visible. After all, every experience is only a fraction of a whole: to embrace the shadow means to renounce totality. We are never in a place from which we can see everything. A part always remains in the shadow.


— María Jerez