In this conversation, Madison Bycroft, Léo Landon Barret, Nana (Anaïs) Pinay, and Daniela Zyman discuss the genesis, working method, as well as the themes and figures animating the performance Carried Away: Beyond a Rooted Condition, written and choreographed for the Royal Botanical Garden of Cordoba. The performance premiered on June 5, 2022 as part of “Pasaje del agua | The Journeying Stream” curated by Sofia Lemos and Daniela Zyman. 

Departing from the questions of naming and classification, rootedness and dominant regimes of knowledge, they unpack the systems of power that underpin lineages, filiations, archives, and botanical collections. Whilst recounting the process and construction of the performance—from text to sound, from gestures to costumes and props—the artists address the political aspects of an “economy of understanding” and the joy of collaboration. As a space for thinking about transparency and opacity in language and representation, the conversation generates a meandering reflection on how to reconsider “parental” genealogies and histories in order to imagine non-hegemonic conditions of existence, at both an intimate and a planetary scale.

Access audio file here.