Oratorio for a Constitution of the Earth

Abstract

Oratorio para una Constitución de la Tierra premiered at the 16th Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador), curated by Ferran Barenblit and inaugurated in December 2023. It is a work of experimental legislative writing, conceived as a recompositional writing project built from citations of preexisting texts. The title can be read as a global constitutional charter that transcends the borders of nation-states, while also posing the challenge of how to conceptualize a new kind of non-androcentric rights—ones that encompass other nonhuman forms of life as well as those elements of our ecosystems that have traditionally been regarded as inanimate. The final form of this Constitution is that of an oratorio, meant to be performed live by four diverse female voices.