Conspiratio is an early Christian practice of breathing into each others’ mouths, a mouth-to-mouth kiss through which each one contributes of his own spirit to create a spiritual community. Illich saw conspiratio as a basic "somatic interchange" that creates "a unity which is manifest in the world but never belongs to it, a unity always out of the reach of merely instrumental human purposes." Conspiratio amplifies the metaphysical quality of our bodiliness, that "something in our bodily encounter, which is outside of this world in which we now are."
We can do conspiratio theory and practice together, after we figure out what they could be nowadays. Unless there is a strong desire for the old ritual, we will look for contemporary conspiratio – for somatic ways of deviating from our realities in order to meet, despite the extraordinary current disembodiment. And we can reflect together on anything conspiratio related, from the current extreme replacement of our embodied experience by spectacle, to "conspiracy theories" in the sense of Miller's definition: "something that if true, you couldn't handle it", and other theories that can deeply challenge our reality formation.
Not long ago art that recycles non-controversial certitudes, or transmits the ‘correct’ messages about how we should think, or fits too well on the market, in governmental funding schemes, institutional requirements or art trends, was called "safe". "Safe" was equivalent to conformist, mediocre art. In a society in which "safety first" is the imposed ideology, Conspiratio says "safety third", and we can look together for the other two more important things.
Saturday 15h30 at Artworlds space Bucharest.
Feel free to do Conspiratio in your community too.