“A Flote” arose from the invocation of imaginaries that could allow us different ways of living in the world. This project consists of a series of different in-situ performances that speculate on the possibility of dys/u-topian presents and futures (such as partially-submerged landscapes, amphibious humans, multi-species relationships in droughts and pollution). It is about exploring how our relationship with nature conditions the way we shape our bodies and everyday lives. This piece in particular was performed in the part of the Pacific Ocean that borders Mexico. After thoroughly cleaning the beach, I crafted a veil and a pair of gloves using the plastic I had collected. Dressed up in this way, I went into the ocean, allowing myself to be carried by the waves’ coming and going.

Plastic impacts the environment as a living organism and devastates the marine ecosystem. The plastic that suffocates our oceans and beaches is the remnant of a product derived from fossil fuel extraction only to be quickly discarded. Plastic becomes much more active when it makes it to the sea, tangling and strangling animals. With time, the waves and the sun break plastic down into tiny particles that work like magnets for toxic substances that are then ingested by all types of marine fauna. Plastic makes its way to our insides, since we eat the fish that feed on the plastic that we ourselves disposed of in the ocean.

Plastic is a part of who we are—due to both its origin and our diet, its existence is permanently intertwined with our own. Wearing the veil and gloves made of plastic residue makes me interpolate the passivity of the material. The performance tangles us up in our responsibilities to the ecosystem. Considering these entanglements can open up pathways alternative to the consumerist and extractivist practices whereby our relationship with matter, landscape, and other species can go beyond an inert, passive, and exploitable resource.