Octavio Paz wrote
not what you say, what you forget is what you say.
I forgot humor
it takes lightness and humor to survive.
to choose to walk with a smile
despite being a deviant of the imagination
how did you survive? How do you survive?
mistakes, there are always mistakes
to be a trespasser
in a world of systems
to choose to smile
the twinkle in the eyes evades words for now
the twinkle of the yes
the lightness that contrasts the weight
how do you sleep at night?
Safely thank you
to transform the intensity of the pain into life
to distill the cruelty into drops of absurdity
to distill the absurdity into drops of mischief
that dissolve the reason imposed
to use this absurdity as a playing field
to play within the crippling armor of fear
to hold on to ones arbitrary survival
to look at the innocent
knowing what they are capable of
to play. to love. to kill
how far will they go?
to live with that knowledge to lay with it
to play on it to cry with it
to simply smile
It takes lightness and humor to survive
Catherine Hamel’s interests lie the repercussions of objects made in their ability to activate space and its inhabitants towards a more just society. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, themes investigated in her work include identity and estrangement in the context of post-war reconstruction and exile, memory in the scarred body and the voicing of political experiences in public space. What agitates her is not the sides people take, but the lines they draw to be able to take them. She is associate professor (Architecture) at the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape at the University of Calgary, Canada.