Infinite Body / Finite Space

A look at the body in the vastness of space.

Ida María Obediente, Contributing Photographer

May 4, 2020

Collaborators: Maclean Frey / María Fernanda Achurra

The series “Infinite Body / Finite Space” invokes the illusion of tangible space and body movement, the power of creating infinite space within one’s body through dance in a constrained physical environment. The world’s current situation may make one question the relativity of finite space. Dancers have the ability to create space, but what does “space” even entail? Space is often linked with an utopian idea of freedom. Humans have a tendency to quantify their freedom and power by the amount of physical space they believe belongs to them.

Truthfully, no physical space is ours to own, but our own bodies. The human body carves and creates space through dynamic motion and gestures, to the point space and body become one. The union, space and body, is individual to each being.

Where there is vastness in the space we inhabit, there exists a sense of freedom of the self. Yet having already been in quarantine for 21 days back in my home country, Panama, I wonder about the connotation of a physical finite space. I turn inwards into my body, a tangible entity. Nonetheless, I find that my body is infinite, that finite space does not limit its organic process. My body remains keen to find neverending patterns, forgetting the limitations of my apartment’s walls. Freedom is within the mind. No one can truly take away my freedom if my mind and soul are undisturbed. Space might seem limited, but there is infinite freedom in limitations. Limitations ignite creativity, and therefore, freedom of thought — at least the perception of it. We do not question freedom unless we are bound to limitations. Let us bloom from these limitations currently imposed upon us.