A map is not the territory
Participants in the fourth working sessionThe commissioners meet in the fourth working session and begin to think about the commission and to situate it in the territory.
Today Lourdes, one of the commissioners, said that she would like the commission to be full of “joyful memory”. And that is what has been happening in this group since we began to know each other and to work. The project exudes the scent of the past, but not to revel in it, longing for a time that will never return, but to take note of the experiences of the people who came before us in order to live a kinder present and future. “To become aware of the hands that preceded us” was said in the first session during the month of February. And, little by little, a certain idea of commissioning is taking shape.
The rubble, the ashes, the empty lots, the ritual, working with what is no longer valid (human and more than human), restorative justice, a cemetery that moves, memory capsules, “being from” and “living in”, finding the circle to return to being a community or the impact on the “polis”. These are some of the concepts that we have been working with during these months and that today, more than any other day, have been present in our desires.
And we have placed these desires on a map to try to tell the rest of the participants where we think it would be good to place our commission for the whole community of Barruelo de Santullán. But as the map is never the territory, after this exercise we went out to visit these places as if it were a tourist visit, placing a small sign in that place. Imperceptible to eyes other than our own, but important because we are beginning to situate our desires outside a map.
