The communicative power of artisticity in the region of the Tupana River: a study of housebodies and their ancestral knowledge.

• Grant number: 25/15507-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts
• Principal Investigator: Christine Greiner
• Grantee: Dimitri Leite Buriti
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Comunicação, Letras e Artes. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 25/01865-2 - Laboratory of Experiments to Co-Imagine Possible Worlds: Commonism, Anarchic Composting and other Seedings., AP.R

Abstract

The objective of this project is to analyze the concept of artistry, starting with a literature review on the topic and then documenting experiments related to the cycle of community constructions on the Tupana River (Amazon). The main aspect to be analyzed are the strategies created by communities to co-imagine worlds, converting alterities into states of creation (Greiner, 2017). The worlds we refer to refer to human and more-than-human communities, aiming to observe modes of communication between different animacities of the forest. As Chen (2025) points out, the concept of animacy converts the dichotomy between animate and inanimate into rates of animacy, with an emphasis on the movements that exist in apparent immobility. We will focus on wood and straw buildings, ephemeral by nature. In these constructions (corposcasa), the body plays a central role in all actions: the use of weaving (machete), various manual extraction skills, canoeing, and tying materials together, among others. The result is procedures that challenge architectural language, bringing it closer to performance and philosophy. The project is theoretically grounded in the notions of corpomedia (Greiner and Katz), artistry (Manning, Noë, and Yuasa), animacy (Chen), and confluences (Bispo dos Santos and Krenak). The preliminary objects of study will be two specific constructions: Chapéu de Palha and Casa Ribeirinha. At PUC-SP, we will lay the theoretical foundation for the studies and, later, we will work with residents of the community located on the Tupana River, in the municipality of Careiro. The BR 319 highway-built during Brazil's military dictatorship-crosses the Tupana River and presents a contradiction in the face of the abundant ecosystem. The road is the departure point for families, a base for drug trafficking and new technologies, and a bridge to the big city. This is where young people leave, tempered by the hope of unbridled progress. Those who remain enjoy the forest's bounty, and among them are those who build corpocasas, placing the body at the center of creation. In addition to the authors already mentioned, there is an extensive bibliography that teaches how to combat the dichotomies between body and environment, nature and culture. In this sense, we highlight Donna Haraway (2023), who proposes the term natureculture-affirming that rather than fueling dichotomies, it is essential to engage with situated knowledge to understand, in each context, how stories tell stories. According to Haraway, imaginative processes, dreams, desires, and metaphors also constitute materialities. There is a connection between her discussions and the way buildings are conceived in the Amazon, since, in the forest, storytelling is also a way of constructing knowledge and dealing with artistic expressions. Philosophers Alva Noë (2015 and 2023) and Yasuo Yuasa (1987) reinforce this proposal, explaining how art has always been absolutely fundamental to the constitution of cultures. Noë speaks of art as a "strange tool" that spans human history, challenging the assumptions of cause, effect, and productivity. Yuasa, on the other hand, asserts that artistry is a form of bodymind cultivation. Erin Manning (2016), one of the fundamental references for the larger project of regular aid, also uses the term artistry, emphasizing that art collaborates with other areas of knowledge by emphasizing the process rather than the products. By using the logic of art (artisticity), more questions are generated than answers. This is what corpocasa feeds on. By creating bridges between foreign and indigenous authors such as Ailton Krenak and Davi Kopenawa, we will seek to analyze the selected constructions, as well as collaborate in discussions regarding diverse situated knowledge that make us think about complex topics such as the boundaries between animate and inanimate, life and art, nature and culture.