Marta CarreirasBack

"We were in July 2021, the sun at its peak for both the day and the year. São Teotónio, in the same place where I had always seen it, São Teotónio, a part of me for many years. The meeting point was at the school gate. When we arrived, Madalena was already there, followed by Inês and Matilde. Then they began to arrive, and so did our journey. Throughout the year 2020, Romeu Costa and I were engaged in studying the dichotomy of Obedience/Disobedience in modern societies. We were interested in understanding who the subject is that enables major decisions, the extreme adherence that later makes the rise of dictators possible, whom Hannah Arendt refers to as monsters. We paid attention to various concepts to try to understand what a subject is, what is common, massification, ideology, and to understand the reasons that lead us to obey—empathy, fear, conviction, ignorance. We were interested in pondering these questions with groups of teenagers, believing that this is the moment in life when we are seeking and doing what will define us later. I knew about Madalena Victorino and Giacomo Scalisi's project, knew about their work in Costa Vicentina, knew that they had planned to work with girls and boys in the region. I knew it would be an incredible opportunity to work with the BOWING Project, but I didn't know the impact this encounter would have on me. We analyzed, drew conclusions, presented results in the academy and at the Foundation for Science and Technology, created a performative object, wrote reports, essays, but nothing captures the impact of the relationship with the group, nothing reports what stayed with me, what happened to me. Each and every one of us, within the games or during breaks, while we danced or wrote laws for a better world, while we shared ways of being together, something fundamental and rare happened to me, happened within me. That's what I carry today, and with which I write this paragraph that essentially tells a story of gratitude. To express gratitude, names must be written, and I have these, and it is to them that I turn and bow: Nena Trim, Laxmi Khadka, Mehak Jyoti, Kamal Prasad Upadhyaya, Simran Sen, Maitri Patel, Kabita Upadhyaya, Dawa Sherpa, Charanjot Kaur, Taranpreet Kaur Dhindsa, Aayush Kandel, Amrita Budha, Saima Sabin, Sneha Malla, Aashika Kandel, Daniel Wang, Arshpreet Kaur, Saimon Kandel, Gursanjpreet Kaur, Naima Sabin, Aria, Rani Pathak, Madalena Victorino, Matilde Real, Inês Melo Sousa. Thank you"