Barbara Gamper: At the Level of the Bone

About

The departure point for this project lies in the work and legacy of Marija Gimbutas, a Lithuanian archeologist, who devoted her lifetime to create a vast woven understanding of the Neolithic culture and religion in what she calls 'Old Europe'; a peaceful, egalitarian, nature-revering society, wherein patriarchy did not rule, war and violence was not assumed as a cultural norm. This was especially articulated through the unearthing of female figurines across different parts of Europe, that demonstrated the centrality of goddesses and of mother earth as the source of life. 
Gamper attempts to span Gimbutas' ideas from the ancient past to the present, specifically referring to the current era, which Donna Haraway elaborates as the Chthulucene. Both Gimbutas and Haraway draw on ideas around symbiosis, hybridity and kinship as potential strategies to de-construct history and inherent biases that have been formulated by Western philosophy and political economics and to formulate new perspectives and methodologies for, as Haraway states, living and dying together on a damaged planet. 

Weaving connections between the two theorists and reflecting upon a present need to find new symbolisms, languages and practices that are centred in the body, Gamper’s works become fluid spaces for troubling our relation to material his/her stories and present forms. Stretching across different media, these works-in-progress draw fragmentary patterns that invite us to reflect and intervene upon, and build our connections with, the material of research.