CHAPTER 1: MILK, BLOOD, TEARS AS OFFERINGS: THE MANIPULATION OF FEMININE BODY FLUIDS AS A SUPPORT FOR AN ETHICAL ELABORATION FOR THE BIOSPHERE

Abstract

The ever-growing ecological imprint of human activities has lead numerous and diverse actors to develop new environmental ethical approaches, both based on experimentation and theoretical elaboration. These approaches hold multiple philo-sophical roots and practical consequences: some insist on the life and value of each being, ecosystems or evolutional processes, other insist on the instrumental value of nature. As for us, we have chosen to bring together experimentation and theorization, in order to lead a hybrid exploration between contemporary art and anthropology. Since 2015, we have conducted a series of performances, stemming from our own body fluids, considered as feminine (breastmilk, menstrual blood, tears of grief), and used as offerings for different living environments (« milieux de vie »). These gestures, conceived as rituals, led to debate with different publics about the relation between human existence and biogeochimical cycles. This reflection is grounded in the analogies between terrestrial and female fertility, but it goes one step further. We propose that a new pathway could be opened, based on a renewal of physiological concepts in relation with the development of an ethical position for the protection of the biosphere. It is rooted in the intimacy of each of us, and the material and symbolic continuities between human existence and the rest of the living word.