INET-md at BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts

Workshop “Lines of Tension. Art, Dance and Ecology”

On 18 July 2025, another session of the project “Lines of Tension. Art, Dance and Ecology” took place, this time at the Alcântara Library – José Dias Coelho, with the participation of Daniel Tércio (INET-md), author of both the project and the book of the same name, performer Rita Vilhena, and Alix Sarrouy (INET-md).

The project “Lines of Tension. Art, Dance and Ecology”, by Daniel Tércio, integrated researcher at INET-md, proposes an ecological perspective that goes beyond a strictly environmental focus. By linking ecology with art — and in particular, with dance — it broadens its scope to include the relationships between the human world and the whole of nature. Each session includes an inclusive workshop centred on imaginative creation of possible actions and objects, led by the author and guest artists, followed by a conversation around the book Lines of Tension. Art, Dance and Ecology.

In the first part of the Alcântara session, which was part of the programme of the 2025 BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts, performer Rita Vilhena led the workshop “Body-Plant: Transmission, Coexistence and Poetic-Sensitive Listening”. The workshop invited participants into a sensitive exploration of the relationship between body, nature, and artistic gesture, through practices that activate listening, coexistence, and automatic writing. Starting from the idea of transmission between bodies, it explored the embodiment of the “body-plant” concept, opening a space for the creation of a collective physical score rooted in affection, attention, and co-presence. The workshop emerged from an urgent need to rethink our relationship with the planet. In a time marked by ecological crisis and the separation between nature and culture, this gathering called for the creation of a space of reconnection — with the ground we walk on, with the bodies around us, with the rhythms of the Earth and gestures of care. Through bodily exercises, sharing practices, and moments of automatic writing, the workshop addressed issues relating to the Anthropocene, ecofeminism, and listening as both poetic and political tool.

Following the workshop, Alix Didier Sarrouy introduced the book and moderated a conversation between the author, Daniel Tércio, performer Rita Vilhena, and the audience. Authored by Daniel Tércio, the book is structured around nine essays: forest; plankton and whales; aggression and violence; transforming; transporting; sleeping and dreaming; wisdom of indigenous peoples; being wild; and enchanting-resonating. It also includes a postscript that invites a prospective exercise: what will our worlds look like, what will the Earth be like, in 2028? This question sets the challenge for the second phase of the project: what can we do now?

At the end of the event, copies of the book were distributed free of charge to all attendees.

Further information about the event can be found here.