THE SERPENT AND THE CANOE

In the first Wild Arrow, The Serpent and the Canoewe travel through contemporary scientific theories and the memories of ancestral cultures. The guiding thread of this episode weaves together two narratives: the snake canoe, an originary memory from Rio Negro peoples, and the cosmic snake, present in origin myths from different cultures, and understood as the double helix of DNA, a memory code present in everything that lives. The journey follows a sequence that interweaves indigenous knowledge and scientific hypotheses about the emergence of Life.

Based on the books:

• A Serpente cósmica, o DNA e a origem do saber, Jeremy Narby (Dantes, 2018)
• Antes o mundo não existia, Umusï Pãrõkumu – Firmiano Arantes Lana e Tõrãmü Këhíri –Luiz Gomes Lana (Dantes, 2019)
• O mundo Tukano antes dos brancos, Álvaro Tukano (Ayó, 2017)

Consultancy: Jeremy Narby

THE SUN AND THE FLOWER

The second Wild Arrow, The Sun and the Flower, combines different perspectives on the relationship between the Sun and life on Earth. It's a narrative about the profound interaction between cosmic rays and green matter, which transforms the Earth into a living superorganism. A vision of life in which everything is absolutely connected, from cyanobacteria to ozone. Photosynthesis is presented as the key to maintaining the dynamic balance and regulating the biosphere. Gaia's theory flows in dialogue with the suspension of the sky, as understood by the Yanomami.
Beyond the scientific narrative, it is a Wild Arrow propelled, in its essence, by the Guarani narrative about Nhanderu: the unfolding of the darkness into the sun and the sun into a flower.

Based on the books:

• Biosphere, Vladimir Vernadsky (Dantes, 2019)
• A Vida das Plantas, Emanuele Coccia (Cultura e Bárbarie, 2018)
• A Fala Sagrada, Mitos e Cantos Sagrados Guarani, Pierre Clastres (Papirus, 1990)
• A Queda do Céu, palavras de um xamã yanomami, Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert

Consultancy: Marcelo Gleiser and Carlos Papá (Cia das Letras, 2015)

METAMORPHOSIS

A transformation channel that takes life from one form to another. One same life connects several worlds. In the interweaving of particles that cross lives and bodies, we are chimeras, multi-species beings.
The Metamorphosis Arrow assembles knowledge from the Tukano peoples and features the participation of João Paulo Lima Barreto, author of the works Waimahsã: Fish and Humans and Kumuã na kahtiroti-ukuse, along with the initial narration by Daiara Tukano. The third Selvagem Arrow combines the philosophy of Emanuele Coccia with teachings from the Huni Kuï people encapsulated in the expression Shuku Shukuwe, "life is forever."

Based on the books:

• Metamorfoses [Metamorphoses], Emanuele Coccia (Dantes, 2019) 
• WAIMAHSÃ: Peixes e Humanos, João Paulo Lima Barreto 
• KUMUÃ NA KAHTIROTI-UKUSE: Uma “teoria” sobre o corpo e o conhecimento-prático dos especialistas indígenas, João Paulo Lima Barreto

Consultancy: Emanuele Coccia and João Paulo Lima Barreto

Support: The Roddick Foundation

THE JUNGLE AND THE SAP

The Jungle and the Sap is a Wild Arrow about plants, especially the teacher plants; those that open up the perception of the cosmic reality of life. The energy of life comes from the Sun and is absorbed by photosynthetic beings, a few bacteria, algae and plants. The energy of life is cosmic.
Wild Arrow 4 follows the path from light to elaborate sap and its power of vision and healing.

Based on the books:

• Una Isï Kayawa, Livro da cura do povo Huni Kuïn do rio Jordão (Dantes, 2014)
• Roça Barroca, Josely Vianna Baptista  (Cosac Naify, 2011)
• Carta psiconáutica, Pedro Luz (Dantes, 2015)

Consultancy: Dua Busë e Cristine Takuá

Support: Domitille Camus and IPÊ – Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas

AN INVISIBLE ARROW

An invisible arrow is aimed at the microcosm. It refers to a state of physical magnitude that is measurable on an infinitesimal scale; and, at the same time, it considers the invisible condition of the presence of other spiritual, parallel dimensions that have agency over life on the planet.

“Everything we see is an expression of the invisible.”

Wild Arrow 5 also dialogues with the others. In The Serpent and the Canoe, we dive into the hidden galaxy with naked eyes. The Sun and the Flower is the activity of photosynthetic beings such as cyanobacteria. Metamorphosis provides an insight into the fundamental role of invisible beings for the permanence of life on Earth and its continuous transformation. The Jungle and the Sap reveals the wisdom contained in life's beautiful system of regulation.

Based on the books and Notebooks Selvagem:

• Livro dos Seres Invisíveis [Book of Invisible Beings],  Dorion Sagan (Dantes, 2021) 
• Seres criativos da floresta, Cristine Takuá (Cadernos Selvagem, 2020)
• Propriocepção, quando o ambiente se torna o corpo,  Lynn Margulis, Dorion Sagan, Ricardo Guerrero and Luis Rico (Cadernos Selvagem, 2020) 
• Carta do chefe Seattle comentada por Ailton Krenak (Caderno Selvagem, 2021)
• A Queda do Céu, palavras de um xamã yanomami, Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert (Cia das Letras, 2015)

Consultancy: Dua Busë and Cristine Takuá

Support: Ludivine Camus

TIME AND LOVE

The second law of thermodynamics is the only general law of physics that distinguishes between past and future. Like an arrow through time, heat only passes from hot bodies to cold ones, never the other way around. If nothing is provoked externally, a cold body does not become hot. This natural flow of dissipation dances with another: the biological flow of life, which agglutinates and involves Gaia in a continuous metamorphosis.
The biological flow, the Earth's metabolism, is love. It re-elaborates the elements and keeps the collective pulse going. Through the experience of weaving together scientific, artistic and traditional understandings, this Wild Arrow talks about entropy and syntropy, without mentioning these words.
It is a vision of Gaia in the cosmos, dreamt up by the Grandmother of the World, who is still watching us to this day, sitting on her white quartz stool. It's also a comment on humanity's fear of dealing with the nature of life and its quest to reverse the law of time with methods, machines, anti-ageing filters.
Perhaps it's a Wild Arrow about the spell that has dissociated humans from natural cycles. It was inspired by the beauty of collaborative relationships that are made over time and space, like planting a tree that will one day be the canoe of someone in the future. The consciousness that we gratefully inhabit the same planetary garden.
In Time and Love, Lygia Clark is the grandmother of the world, Arthur Bispo do Rosário is unconditional love. There's Miró and his wife dreaming of an escape, Thiago Rocha Pitta's Herança and many imagetic associations.
Time differs according to the observation point.
May this arrow multiply at every look, at every listen.

Based on the books: 

• Regenerants of Gaia cycle,  Fabio Scarano (Dantes, 2019) 
• A ordem do tempo,  Carlo Rovelli (Objetiva, 2018)

Consultancy: Alice Worcman and Luiz Guilherme Lutterbach

Support: Luiz Zerbini and Vert

THE FERAL AND THE SPHERE

He shot.

He shot and nobody saw.

It’s only Seven Arrows who knows

Where the arrow landed. *

The caboclo is an enchanted manifestation from the Brazilian woods. In Brazil, the Caboclo Sete Flechas emerges in the terreiros (yards) of Umbanda and Candomblé. The Seventh Wild Arrow is the latest in the series of audiovisuals created by Selvagem, a cycle of studies on life. Titled The Feral and the Sphere, this arrow "landed" in London, at the Barbican Centre, as part of the Our time on Earth exhibition..

The becoming of the arrow is the wound. This arrow crosses the Atlantic Ocean, taking the opposite route to that of European maritime expansion, and its destiny is to touch civilised hearts and to reverse the colonialist logic, reproduced to this day by the flow of consumerism that devours the planet and turns everything into merchandise, as Davi Kopenawa said.

The Feral and the Sphere is thus a Wild manifesto – a demand, a complaint, a claim, a plea – so that it finally becomes clear that we are part of a marvellous living system and that destroying it, due to blindness and greed, is a collective suicide perpetrated by a few humans. The cognitive transformation of the capitalist desire that dictates how to be in the world is fundamental, as is the allowing of the forest to re-infiltrate our senses.

* Ponto of the Caboclo Sete Flechas (Seven Arrows entity). Pontos are songs that, to the sound of atabaques, call and greet the presence of entities and orishas. Orishas are deities acknowledged by Yoruba culture.

Support: Barbican Centre, London