“The End as Interlude” was originally planned as part of the cancelled “A Melancholic Melody / A Will To An End – A series of works by Ligia Lewis”. Instead of speaking on the stage of HAU2, the artist and theorist Jota Mombaça has written a text that we will publish in three episodes on HAU3000 until the end of the season. Based on world events in times of the Corona pandemic, Mombaça conceives a diffuse future, one in which borders, escape and freedom of thought play a central role.
to Ligia Lewis
And I’ll see you
And you’ll see me
And I’ll see you in the branches that blow
In the breeze
Jimmy Scott
There’s this song I can’t stop singing since you left. It’s hot-glued in my head. Every morning, when I wake up, I repeat to myself, “I’ll see you in the trees…” It’s my way of keeping the door open. I miss the connection we had, but almost ten years have passed, and none of you have ever shown up again. I sensed part of your movement that night. When Adama split, I knew I had lost her. Even if I could feel that part of her reaching for you, I knew her body was gone. I tried to reach her at the last minute, to convince her to wait, but there was nothing I could do. That massive, unbreakable wall we felt separating her from us was her conviction, her stupid self-righteousness.
I was pissed off at first. And maybe I am still a little bit angry about the way you both disappeared that night. Angry at myself too, for I was the first to retreat. But it was never meant for me to be alone. I fled for us. I wanted to build a safe space out of this mess – a place where we could live together without having to fear Frontex or any other European police force.
Of course, I was naive to think it could happen. There is no peace after you spend your whole life running, and the police are always the police. Even when they pass by, missing you, you can still feel a part of yourself being dragged by the violence of its mere presence in the world. So, you get used to paranoia, and it becomes hard for you to let it go. Especially when you’re a telepath, and it’s so easy to navigate other people’s intentions, to tune in this destructive desire that lies underneath sociality. Everyone’s so fucked up, and you’re no exception. We are no exception. When I think about everything we did as The Community, I can no longer be proud. I am just tired.
In the end, we lost, didn’t we? We lost each other, and we were everything we had. Frontex is still out there, and the borders are still fenced up and policed. Even more than before. It’s 2039 now. I don’t even know how I managed to stay alive all this time, all by myself. Unless this song I can’t stop singing is the reason.
“I’ll see you in the trees…”