seanaut

"Can we understand depth without first lingering on the surface of deep water?" – Gaston Bachelard (Water and Dreams)

I am happy alone in silence with the sea. Or in the company of another, but in silence. Even when I am accompanied, I seek a moment of solitude with the sea. I leave. I feel how my emotions quiet in the sea, in its presence. They calm down, find themselves in all that immensity and density, in that insatiability. They spread within it. I give them space before the sea horizon. On the rocks I inhabit that edge, from which I have always kept my distance out of fear. On any rock, by any sea, I find that place where I always love to return, where suspended memories come alive.

I remember dropping a fishing net into the sea, mediomundo – an object that fascinated me. It had to fall straight, evenly, without tangling. I dropped it into the water and my attention scattered. It was fascinating to watch how water flowed out of the holes in the mediomundo and to know that I was somehow connecting with what was happening down there, with what is not visible. A part of the sea was mine for a few seconds.

I always take time before entering the sea. I observe it for a good few hours. I spend time on the shore, watching waves, currents, whirlpools. Diving is for me a way to emerge again, salir a flote. It lightens me, shakes me, renews my vitality, my wild spirit. I love to swim at night, jump from rocks into the depths and swim back to shore. I always love to go to the last rock, to the very edge, as far as it goes.

"Salir a flote" is a Spanish expression meaning recovery from crisis or difficult situation and moving forward despite adversity – resilience and the ability to rise above problems.

Carolina Arandia

Carolina Arandia is an interdisciplinary artist fascinated by diving in the sea. In her work, she explores various ways of experiencing time and moves between micro and macro spheres of nature, life, and other lesser-known forces.

She grew up in Buenos Aires, now lives in Prague and develops her craft as a choreographer, dancer, and pedagogue.