Æther is an audio-visual collaboration of Evelyn Bencicova and Samson G Balfour Smith - Screenoise. Æther engages in world-building, developing a narrative through body, voice, sound, and movement in the 3D realm. 

Chapter I stands for separation. Yet it explores not only the dismemberment, but also the subsequent re-membering and connecting to the origin of all. In it Earth is an animate shape-shifting form that speaks to us of the violent divide between humanity and the divine. Taking different manifestations, her whispers are fragmented, carried by wind or the signs buried deep in the ground, quiet but urgently calling for us to feel her, the all-encompassing oneness. 

Chapter I takes references from the early societies and beliefs that worshiped the female or androgynous deity as the creator of all, a representation of soil, elements, and cosmos. What emerges from matter is the symbol of the goddess,  the giver, not passive but all-providing, as well as an all-taking force of nature, which embraces us all. Venerated in several cultures independently, she had many names that were later forbidden, and forcefully removed, though not fully forgotten. This chapter is an attempt at recollection.

 I is also a moment of individuation that marks the shift in one’s worldview, symbolically from circular to vertical perception. Circular is cyclic, egalitarian, and infinite, while vertical is dichotomous, hierarchical, and anthropocentric, a view that rules most of the current society today. Identifying the earth/soil as a living body, active in all of us, magnifies the crime of its destruction. It breaks the established concept of seeing it purely as resources to be used and taken without reciprocity or even conscience. The concept of ownership divided a previously symbiotic relationship into the logic of subject and object, further exercised in colonialism, where one feels entitled to own, conquer, take, and destroy what was never their own. 

The change of belief and perception goes hand in hand with the steps of gradual exploitation of the Earth and condemnation of the goddess, followed by denouncing the societal position of women or indigenous peoples and their rights. The spiritual beliefs of early societies centred around care for their surroundings, collaborative efforts, and inventions used to cultivate the fruits of their shared nurturer. They were built on respect and ritual of the seasons, dictating the flow of social life. The matrilineal society had its center in the womb, which was the base for etymology for some of the earliest temples and places of worship. Olive groves and almond trees were revered, along with sacred springs that brought nourishment from the depths. The chapter explores the shift that was enabled by the conquests of these territories, specifically focusing on Europe and the Middle East (in the current world view), but serving as an example of similar expansions and violent suppressions of previous populations around the globe. 

Invaded by nomadic warrior tribes, superior in battle, not only territories but also beliefs and customs were forced to change to establish a new, largely different worldview and values. Conquerors worshiping a sky God (base for today’s monotheistic religions) condemned earth-bound beliefs and their practices. With the plan to seize all control, they destroyed sacred sites, idols, and manuscripts, and brutally suppressed the previously more culturally developed inhabitants. The transition was forced and bloody. The ancient knowledge was turned into profane and persecuted, with the underworld,  formerly sacred, being seen as demonic and evil. The division of above and light as high and below as dark, morally and spiritually redefined the new order. This was the turning point to patriarchal, invader culture, which persists to this day. 

It is the logic that gradually separates people from their environment and from each other. I is a line that divides, an erected wall. It is the one that is standing alone. One. Chapter I chronologically precedes Chapter 0; it is there before the writing of Genesis, but it is also one of its unfolding—the birth of one consciousness, replacing another. ”I” is an individual, calling for connection. It is ancient wisdom, the one we know without learning, which we can reawaken anytime. Ome only has to re-member, collect her parts. And listen.

2025: Immersion, Stiftung Reinbeckhallen, Berlin