Garbí is a project that originates in family mythologies, especially in the superstitions and stories that were told by the women from my house. I come from La Safor, a touristic coastal region located in Levante, Spain, where the wind blows during most part of the year. One of these winds is the Garbí, that comes from the North of Africa and brings sandstorms, dust, and heat to the city when it passes through.
I remember when I was young, that my aunt and my grandmother told the story of how the wind affected the people from town, changing their behavior momentarily and inducing them into a fleeting insanity. This story obsessed me so much, that it transformed into a reality that fascinated me, but at the same time frightened me. Thus, when somebody from my surroundings or I had bad days, was angry, mad or had crazy moments, I used to blame the wind for that.
After several years living abroad, I returned to my city in 2020 due to the pandemic. Here, I started to feel alienation and a sense of being trapped, that is what typically happens to someone who returns home after many years of living somewhere else. In this transitory moment, I started remembering all the stories and myths that the women from my family told, especially the obsession with the winds of insanity.
Garbí arises from the need of keeping these family stories, of giving them an intimate sense. In this project, I used the Garbí wind as a force that pierces the bodies of the women in my family and induces them to a fleeting and strident madness. But beyond the women’s bodies, this force also pierces the homes and places where they live, they seem to be under their influence too. When Garbí comes, it induces women to what is sordid, shameless, and what is meant to be silenced. Insanity transforms into a cathartic element that is needed to get free from the burden of having been born a woman, and at the same time, tell an individual and collective truth.
More than answers, the object of this work is to generate questions regarding the cultural dramatization of gender and its effects, the limits between reality and fantasy. I would love if Garbí could be read as a sinister and ironic story about a wind that generates a fleeting craziness and is able to disclose the real appearance of things.
Amanda Cots, 2022.