Coisas-do-arco-da-velha

Coisas-do-arco-da-velha was a 24 hour durational performance collaboration between the duo Sophia and Sofia at a megalithic rock formation in the Sintra Mountains of Portugal. A continuous strand of cordage was woven and twisted, expanding from either end through an interdependent system that rested on continuous reciprocal tension. Two pairs of hands wove together plant fibers, human hair, horse hair, inner tree bark, and pieces of river algae into the cordage, one that grew into a woven record of previously withheld information. The origin of the weaving is unclear and as time passed, their own identities themselves blend together and also disappear into the fibers. They alchemized something that language couldn’t express on its own, into a new form suspended by tension, twisting, and holding–a new way of being.