Casa Comum

An artistic research project inspired by the term ‘Common Home’ used in indigenous cosmovision. 

CASA COMUM, meaning Common Home, is a collaboration with RR Produções Artísticas in Brazil and 10 multidisciplinary Amazonian artists of different ethnicities.

Inspired by the words of indigenous leader Ailton Krenak, who talked about how not only the indigenous people, but the whole of humanity, should treat the terrestrial globe as a common home for all living beings, the project aims to explore indigenous culture, colonialism and the prescient warning of ecological collapse through the eyes of a culture closely connected to nature and acutely aware of the impact of human activity upon it. 

Casa Comum is an ongoing investigation into new ways of cross cultural artistic collaboration. The project began as a digital collaboration with team members attending meetings during COVID from across Brazil and the UK.

We invited the Amazonian artists to translate, through their artistic languages and world views, the idea of Planet Earth as a common home of all living beings, utilising art and technology as support mediums to deconstruct Western hegemonic narratives.

Initially in a digital environment, the research developed in the areas of artistic creativity and thinking, where each artist brought proposals related to the idea.

Subsequently the artists met in person for a residency within the Amazon forest itself, at the Sateré Mawé indigenous community, where they were joined by filmmakers Takumã Kuikuro and Rafael Ramos, and sound artist Daniel Castanheira. At the Waikiru village on the banks of the Rio Negro on the outskirts of Manaus, and then isolated in the forest at Tupana Mehua village, the artists, inspired by their surroundings, performed against the backdrop of the stunning natural settings.

The films and recordings of the artists’ performances were then taken into SDNA studio and compiled into a range of different formats for large scale projections, installations and digital distribution, . The work in progress was shown at Brixton Village for Casa Festival,  at the Pipe Factory for Cop26, at Festival Amazônia Mapping, at Mimo Festival in Porto and in various urban locations around East London.

Casa Comum was originally kindly supported by the Digital Collaboration Fund from the British Council in 2021. We are hoping to continue working on the project in 2024.