When seals swim in the ocean, they swim in all directions. Their spine, contrary to our rectilinear perception of time, can move in all dimensions of the oceanic XYZ. Forward, backwards, to the side and around, to elegantly return back to wherever they were. If we could convince a seal to kindly hold a paintbrush with their mouth and paint while swimming, we would find ourselves observing a three-dimensional doodle of games, interactions and bonds. Maybe our perception of the world can be inspired by this unlimited movement, maybe affection is the ungraspable and unmeasurable tool that allows us to reach an oceanic perception of the “whole”. So what is “affectionate contemplation”? Well, let’s see, it certainly requires to dissolve in what is contemplated, in order to lose the sense of hierarchy and separation that exists between the roles of the contemplator and what is contemplated while instantly accessing a deeper perception. For example, when we smell a rose, the rose smells itself through us, ultimately, the cosmos smells its own creation. Affectionate contemplation is the communion of roles that dissolve all individual limitations in an understanding that we are all linked together. Affectionate contemplation has the ability to move in all directions of space-time, opening us to an elastic contemplation of our eternal nature. It’s a limitless State of mind and imagination, an oceanic perception of consciousness.

Can an oceanic perception of the world become a foundation? Yes. F.O.C.A is a poetic & artistic tool, a medium foundation of transpersonal contemplation and communion with the sea and its tides, stories, storms, its serenity, beings, interactions and the endless ways the ocean walks the world to silently return back to its own source. The river returns to the sea to dissolve in the complexity of its eternal cycles. Just as the seal goes out of the ocean to sunbathe and pose photogenically on a stone and then to once again dive into the darkness of mystery, F.O.C.A is a foundation that dives in the knowledge of the depths of the ocean and emerges to walk the world and return back to its source again and again. The following photo is the founding stone of F.O.C.A.

The photo below this text is a visual manifesto, free from the ties of language, loaded with emotion and dedication. Giving a bottle to an orphaned baby seal while acting metabolically as a maternal-father, is the closest thing to transforming into the sea, it is fulfilling an absent role, it is holistically serving a greater cause. This maternal encounter is a poem in time, free to move in all directions, enter all eyes, transcend all languages, all cultures and untie energy knots in an instant. This foundational photo is a loving spine that swims free among the dance matters of the world.

In its beginning F.O.C.A. will act as an oceanic archive commissioning texts and works of art linked to affective contemplation used as a tool of dissolution in the salt of the ocean. In the same way that divers use a neoprene suit and air tanks to explore the depth of the ocean,  F.O.C.A.  provides a suit for the ocean to exist in the world. F.O.C.A will open its physical space for residencies and activities in spring 2025. Located in Punta Colorada Uruguay.

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If you want to support F.O.C.A and transmute into any of these supporters categories : Little Mermaid, Dolphin, Crab, Mussel, Plankton, please contact us at the following email: foca@foca.art