Creation Residence  
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Neti Neti
L'animal a l'esquena (Celrà)
From 19/07/2021 to 24/07/2021
Presentation :
On 29/07/2021 at 18:00 in Teatre Ateneu (Celrà)

Amalia Fernández
( Amalia Fernández )


A project by Amalia Fernández accompanied by Monica Muntaner and Catherine Sardella. Neti Neti is a Hindu concept meaning something like “neither this nor that”. It is a method for growing closer to the comprehension of the divine, the absolute, the origin of existence, or whatever you care to call it. This understanding not only cannot be reached by intellectual means, but demands that you should avoid logical reasoning if it is to be achieved.



Something like an epiphany…

Amalia approaches this research as a conversation between three people, so as to understand things from different points of view and go beyond her own. So as to look and be looked at. So as to be a part and at the same time the whole …

So that all the time there is that intermediate space that makes things of value neither exactly this nor that (neti neti), but some other, unattainable thing we belong to (like noodles in soup) and which allows us connection, fun and love.

Think of the idea of the body being at the centre. The body itself is nothing. It’s more a huge list of possibilities. Even if you stay still, the possibilities are always there.

I think of the body of a quadriplegic person. An inert body hanging from a living head. A body that is a nuisance as well as a hope, or a memory, or an object for the care of others.

Think of the body of a baby, with all the impulses exploding at once without any chance of directing the movement towards any end. Did you know that what the brain does during the first two years of life of a human being is not create connections but inhibit them? So that we can move our arm to pick up a glass of water and take it to our mouth, the brain has to prevent thousands of other movements. If it were not for that, it would not be possible to do anything or understand any situation.

“I find the word ‘dance’ uncomfortable. I feel I haven’t succeeded in giving content to this word that has any real meaning for me. For my body. For my mind.”

“When I say ‘dance’ I have to presuppose what this word means according to the context in which it is used. But I realise that I don’t know what it means to me.”

I believe that I’ve always danced as an imitation of the shapes made by others who had danced before me. And I always felt that my efforts to imitate did not bring me either happiness, freedom or peace.”