The Funambulist Atmosphere

Funambulist bodies move about, careful not to fall into each other, mindful of the drop below, pulsating along the tension of the ropes beneath. Bodies construct atmosphere on the arch of their move-ment. Atmosphere constructs bodies between its folds. On one hand are atmospheres of tension or rest, engineered or emergent, prom-ised or promising. On the other hand are bodies of flesh as well as discourse, materialities that keep on fluctuating between the abstract and the concrete, bodies of human tissue, of technology, of animal-ity, vegetable bodies whose roots extend to my feet. Where am I? The installations of Tomas Saraceno can help as a visual aid for what I mean by atmosphere. Constellations of tension, bubbles that burst with an excess of lines, water, vegetation, animality, humanity, and air space are defined by the ethereal claustrophobia of openness, trammeled by lines on which the funambulists of the world circulate. How to get away from the lines, if not on other lines? And then, small deaths along the way: like the realization that the line is one, and however far you walk, you cannot escape it.