Miles Greenberg: "It's Hard to Ignore the Body's Particular Poetry"

"When you're working with the body on an extended timescale, it becomes harder and harder to ignore its own particular poetry. There's not a lot you can do about the very pronounced physiological impulses that will inevitably make themselves known."

"Vodun happens to be a system of beliefs that is in my genetic make-up, my DNA. As I've learnt, first in Haiti and now in Benin, where Haiti's entire system of belief originated, there's a lot that is parallel to how I move, how I think and feel and exchange energy."

"Watching a lot of the rituals in Benin, the ways in which people move, the way that the audience is implicated energetically in exchanging and holding some kind of pulse - these are all codes that my body, or something of me, remembered through generations."

Miles Greenberg, a Montreal-born performance artist, explores his West African ancestry through Vodun during a research trip to Benin. He connects his physical performances to the ancestral beliefs and rituals of Vodun, emphasizing the importance of physiological impulses and generational memory. Observing the Vodun Days festival, he notes the nuanced exchanges and energetic connections among participants, which resonate with his own artistic practice. This experience deepens his understanding of how ancestry informs movement, thought, and emotional expression in his work.

Read at AnOther