In search of a new symbiosis part III: amazonian kinship
Research investigation over 2 years in the Amazonas. Artist-in-residence at Correlación Contemporanea, Iquitos & Labverde, Manaus.
Concept
elena victoria pastor
work-in-progress
In
Search of a New Symbiosis, Part III: Amazonian Kinship is
an interdisciplinary artistic research project by Elena Victoria
Pastor that explores relationality emerging from Amazonian
cosmologies and posthumanist thought. Developed through fieldwork in
Peru and Brazil, it approaches the forest as a sentient community
where kinship extends beyond the human—resonating with "processual
kinship," where relatedness is actively made with plants,
animals, and spirits. Among them, the Socratea
exorrhiza—the
"walking palm"—appears as a quiet presence rooted in
ancestral narratives of movement and non-human personhood.
The research unfolds through video, sound, and installation, creating "aesthetic ecosystems" where human and more-than-human worlds co-compose reality.The Walking Palm materializes this inquiry: a three-meter aluminum sculpture with motorized roots and yanchamaleaves, accompanied by an ambient sound piece blending field recordings and 432 Hz frequencies. For Pastor, kinship means relating and making familiarities—in the Amazon, nothing is isolated. The work develops through collaboration across media, transforming the gallery into an immersive space where symbiosis is understood as always in motion, and knowing means becoming part of a field of meaningful relations.
Credits:
The Walking Tree, 2026
Sculpture aluminum and Yanchama fabric made in Amazonas with motorized roots of metal and 3D print horns, with ambient sound piece.
Concept elena victoria pastor
Work in Collaboration with:
Tech support and structure design Oliver Boardman
Sound piece Adrián Arias Pomontty
3D thorns print Fabulous St. Pauli
images: courtesy of the artist
The research unfolds through video, sound, and installation, creating "aesthetic ecosystems" where human and more-than-human worlds co-compose reality.The Walking Palm materializes this inquiry: a three-meter aluminum sculpture with motorized roots and yanchamaleaves, accompanied by an ambient sound piece blending field recordings and 432 Hz frequencies. For Pastor, kinship means relating and making familiarities—in the Amazon, nothing is isolated. The work develops through collaboration across media, transforming the gallery into an immersive space where symbiosis is understood as always in motion, and knowing means becoming part of a field of meaningful relations.
Credits:
The Walking Tree, 2026
Sculpture aluminum and Yanchama fabric made in Amazonas with motorized roots of metal and 3D print horns, with ambient sound piece.
Concept elena victoria pastor
Work in Collaboration with:
Tech support and structure design Oliver Boardman
Sound piece Adrián Arias Pomontty
3D thorns print Fabulous St. Pauli
images: courtesy of the artist