What happens if we take humanity away from the human being? If we rip from their chest what keeps their blood warm and sensitive? If, through lobotomy or magic, we extract the soft, grey part inside the skull? That thing is made of matter and form resembling half a nut or a cloud. And what if there were an abrupt break in the evolution of species and today, out of nowhere, homo ceases to be sapiens?
Vida Selvagem (Wild Life) proposes a practice that begins with what remains, with humans "like mortal beasts intertwined in myriad unfinished configurations of places, times, matter, meanings." It proposes introducing new rules of socialization, communication, touch, and speech. If we had to rely again on characteristics like speed, endurance, size, power, strength, swiftness, agility, what place would words, argument, debate, round tables, lectures, conferences, and readings have? Teamwork would have to be reclaimed to keep us alive, and the collective would be the weapon for survival.
In the fight-or-flight mechanism, triggered by the activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, the brain interprets the information as threatening. The hypothalamus induces the pituitary gland to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone, which in turn causes the adrenal cortex to release cortisol into the bloodstream. Simultaneously with this hormonal cascade, the hypothalamus sends messages through the sympathetic nervous system — the fight-or-flight part of the nervous system — to another part of the adrenal system, the medulla. The adrenal medulla manufactures and secretes adrenaline, which immediately stimulates the cardiovascular and nervous systems. This is a summary of what happens when we use the primitive, reptilian brain in a threatening situation. If we did not have the rational brain, the cortex, we would only have reactions without reflection, without consideration, with no possibility of waiting between reception and response.
The work with the performers will aim to approach a state devoid of the cerebral cortex, towards a life that uses only the reptilian brain to act. The rehearsals will be a kind of nonlinear progression of dehumanization.
