Wet-Togetherness [2]—Decomposing: Daisy Bisenieks and Royce Ng (Zheng Mahler) and Tuo Wang presented by Shanghai Biennale

Bodies exceed humanity. They remind us that we are part of something vaster—and smaller—more complex, more connected than our mere existence as an atomized species. Our bodies, and bodies in general, are composed out of heterogeneity and multitudes. All bodies are wet collective bodies, defined by how they link to other bodies, places, environments, technologies. Think of breathing, clogging, decomposing, discharging, flushing, lubricating, melting, menstruating, transfusing. Bodies exist as trans- and extra-territorial beings. They live in hybridity. This porous condition produces a planetary wet-togetherness, a “commoning” force that constitutes all bodies as collective hydro-subjects.

Wet-Togetherness is a collaboration between e-flux and the 13th Shanghai Biennale, Bodies of Water, curated by Andrés Jaque, Marina Otero Verzier, Lucia Pietroiusti, Filipa Ramos and YOU Mi, and organized and promoted by the Power Station of Art. It consists of 9 sound pieces in which 21 artists, activists and researchers enact aqueousness through sound. The series has been edited by José Luis Espejo and Rubén Coll with the sound design of Tomoko Sauvage, coordination by Roberto González García, and locutions by Yang Yang.

Episode 2. Decomposing: Daisy Bisenieks and Royce Ng (Zheng Mahler) and Tuo Wang Organic bodies break down and decay, aided by other bodies. As microorganisms feed on dead plants, and animal and human remains, they deconstruct intricate life forms into their simplest components. Water, carbon dioxide and nutrients are building blocks of earth beings and their socio-natural collectives. We are in a continuous process of body breaking and making.

Image © Paula Vilaplana.