Witness Clay // Clay as Witness 

Join us for a presentation and workshop alongside our resident artist Amara Abdal Figueroa in conversation with Franco-Palestinian artist Maïa Beyrouti to share a moment and ask ourselves questions around the idea of clay as witness,* and explore how we witness clay. What does this act of witnessing mean? What is being witnessed? Where are the subjective tendencies of material? Of the human? This is not an act of discovery, not a drive towards conservation, but towards a shared process of listening with our hands.

Together with Jorge Vega Matos and Maïa Beyrouthi, Amara Abdal Figueroa travelled to an abandoned clay mine in Brandenburg and collected various raw materials that had fallen from a stratified clay cliff. The layers of colors revealed a reading of the material through time, and in this workshop the artist invites you to explore the notions of time and witness, in direct contact with these collected materials.

In essence, clay is formed from the weathering of rock. It is a particle that can take thousands or millions of years to form, which is in essence the time it takes for the rock to decay – to transform. As humans, we usually don’t perceive rocks as anything more than a hard, inanimate object – we are not granted the time to witness its transformation. Our time on this earth is insignificant compared to the forming of clay. We are ladybugs passing through a sliver in time, privileged in our interactions with this ancient matter. What has the clay witnessed? And when we have the audacity to give it form anew, what does it call for us to create?
Amara works with clay as a collaborating entity – a negotiating entity. Clay has its own material desires. It might reject us, it might dry too slowly, too fast. It demands a dialogue, a constant adaptation to its needs and demands. It demands of us that if we seek to wield it, to mold it, we must first and foremost listen to it. 
   

Lift the Siege on Gaza
La tierra misma no reconoce las fronteras
Las aguas nos conectan  1000 boats every day 
Son aguas internacionales 

Arde mi corazón  Ese llamar telúrico 
Al ruido del tambor  Y una vena de barro que late

Las Naciones Oceánicas  Inland Nations
Navegar Entre Mares  Between Lands

Arcilla y aserrín  Un filtro cerámico 
Que atrapa los patógenos

Entre las grietas  Tensión superficial 
Se fue la marina de Vieques  Que se vaya la marina de todas las marinas
De Guam, de Samoa Americana, de las Islas Marianas, 
Y de las Islas Vírgenes de los Estados Desunidos 
Que nos atrevemos, desde todos los países con bases militares 
Con tierras contaminadas por ente ajena  Que se vayan
Fuera de Jácana y de Todas las Aguas
El Cuerpo de Ingenieros de los Estados Desunidos
Río Baramaya  Libre Serás  Jácana, No estás olvidada
Que se derrita i.c.e.

La voluntad del material  Piedra, Grava, Arena, Limo, Arcilla
El legado del particulado  La meteorización  La erosión
The legacy of war on land  The way toxins lodge into clay particles
Bioremediation  End occupation  End genocide which is also ecocide

Reza por mi cuando estoy en vida y no cuando estoy muerta 
Reza por mi cuando estoy en vida y no cuando estoy muerta

Reza por mi para que me quede en mi tierra
Reza por mi, reza por ti 

Para que nos quedemos en nuestra tierraaa

De qué tierraa––soy––tierraaaaa

Te tengo un consuelo, la diáspora es un relevo 

Guía para sanar la cuerpa--tierra  Guide to heal the landbody 
    Amasar + Masajear       To wedge + To massage
    = Amasajear          = To massagewedge (or wedgemassage)

Sanar la cuerpa--agua   Atrapar el sedimento en objeto cerámico 
Del deslizamiento al mar  Del río al mar 
Desde Borikén a Falasteen 
Gracias tierra, por tu abundancia y tu generosidad 
Agua limpia para todxs lxs seres
End Occupation Everywhere 

The title for this presentation was developed in conversation with Maria Cano.

Amara Abdal Figueroa  was born in Borikén (Puerto Rico) and lives between Kuwait and Borikén. Amara proposes a hyper-local ceramic practice as a tool for land and water conservation by foraging materials from sites that require landslide mitigation.Through studying clay content for ceramic viability, her research provides an alternative for imported materials and the development of a ceramic pour over water filter, Tierrafiltra.