Sitting in a Hiace
2018
Sentada Numa Hiace narrates a commute from Santo Amaro to downtown Sao Tome on public transportation. The viewer is invited to an inner journey where daily life sounds, scenes and routines are juxtaposed with the universe’s movement and the laws of motion physics.
Translation
Sitting on a 15 seat Hiace with 18 other people, as the sound of an unknown alarm goes off every 15 minutes, I can't help but think that in this moment I am both at rest and in movement.
As I commute, the planet spins at 1600 km/h, as the sun awaits 225 million years to reach the other side of the galaxy.
But I just want to get downtown.
And it makes me sleepy... immensity has always made me sleepy.
I think about it as I watch a baby breast-feed with his eyes wide open, while the alarm from the phone whose owner I don't know insists on marking the tempo.
If there was no love, this is all there would be... time - space - speed - time...
The sun may travel very fast but it cannot love.
I could cherish it but it wouldn't feel me.
I could care for it but it wouldn’t understand me.
It's sad to be light and arrive everywhere so fast.
Perhaps Love is just an Earthly thing.
I look out the window and exchange a glance with a woman who removes her clothes from a line as it starts to rain. I know she's able to feel love, but the rain wouldn’t understand it.