KUBAPARIS ATELIER Enes GĂŒĂ§
Guilherme Figueiredo
Virtual Parasite: Songs of Escape
Project Info
- đ ARBAG, Lisbon, Portugal
- đ€ Guilherme Figueiredo
- đ Henrique Palmeirim
- đ Samuel Duarte
Share on
Transcription of the video essay by Henrique Palmeirim for Virtual Parasite: Songs of Escape, Guilherme Figueiredoâs
first solo exhibition.
As soon as the streamer goes for a break and leaves the room, we gain access to the
video game characterâs thoughts and inner dialogues referencing the relationship with its
surroundings and its own body:
-Just missing⊠purpose.
-What am i doing this for?
-HMMI
-I mean, Iâm constantly working and working and have barely time to just⊠uh-exist -hmm- Itâs just
like Iâm -uh-
(I really need a wee)
-Just like Iâm in constant autopilot. Every time I come back to myself and realize the life that Iâm
missing â it just doesnât last long. I-I end up getting back to the same patterns and behaviours.
Itâs as if I-I was a-a shell, possessed by a short sighted -like- dopamine hit. Like Iâm the host to a
parasite, that is my role, destined to indefinitely forget about my choices and needs.
-I donât even feel like myself.
-I see my body, but itâs just a nimble representation of what I am or⊠want to become.
-A simple representation.
-Like the ones in a simulation or a game. Simple, digestible, easy to control.
-An escape to a world isolated from a difficult reality.
-Thatâs what I am. I am li-like an image of myself.
-I imagine that in these moments of alienation, Iâm just being controlled by someone else. It could
be through -like- psychic magic powers or⊠a maggot lodged in my skull eating away at my
brain.
-heh
-Nah, nah, no, no -HH- no, no!
-A chip in my brain and theyâd move me like those remote control cars. heheh
-HMM- that would be somethinâ
-Or it could be a piece of writing and Iâm being read by a stranger or-or, just a thought in their
mind.
-Um- in any case, would they understand what theyâd be doing? As in, theyâd be controlling my
every move. And I do need to have a choice. But given choice, would I be able to find purpose
without them? Also, would they exist while they were not existing through me? I mean, may-maybe
for them to live this life, it would have to be through me. Without me, this life wouldnât be
this one. I guess. PFFT
-Ugh. Tsk
-I dunno, on the one hand, I could try to release myself from the control of this parasite.
Streamer - Youâve been here the whole time?
-On the other, I couldnât try to exist with it. Like a symbiosis or something like that-oh-oh-oh I know!
I-I could just-
Streamer - Thatâs crazyâŠ
Henrique Palmeirim