Thinking Care Beyond the Visible
12-14 June 2026 in Athens, Greece.
EIGHT, Critical Laboratory for Art & Politics
By the Probonas, a river in a northern neighborhood of Athens, Greece.
Historically, ritual has provided ways to mark time, hold transitions and sustain relational worlds, negotiating and bridging borders within realms that modernity often presents as distinct: self and others, internal and external, human and more-than-human, life and death.
Wishing to research, reclaim and reimagine ritual as a practice that restores and deepens
embodied, situated and relational ways of living, we seek forms that can be collectively
created and infused with meaning and purpose.
A ritual to connect with our bodies and Athens. To listen with intention to each other and Podoniftis river’s voices. We will follow the stories of the city, moving attentively through moments of transition and care, relating to and extending our bond with the human and non-human inhabitants through history, ritual and sharing.
The Stone and Water ritual can have any form and be held by any body of water that has meaning for you. It can be transformed to fit the moment you are in, you are invited to make it your own. The details about the history, myths, or geography of the area can be adapted to your location. You can change the content of the whispering: it could be a care, a story, a wish, a sound, a healing, a wisdom… anything you would like flowing through the world. The stone could also be interchanged with another more suitable or available object: a blade of grass, some dirt, a flower, a piece of paper… whatever makes sense in your context.
It is very powerful to speak your care out loud, to share with others who can support and embody your care. The human and more than human world will listen to your words and accompany them as they flow through our ecosystem of bodies.
If you do something inspired by this ritual, I would super love it if you sent me a message: photos or video. Thank you.
Let us take a deep breath
Look down around your feet
There you will find a stone that is meant for you.
A stone that calls to you.
Pick it up.
Join in our close circle together with this stone.
Hold your stone in silence.
Smile to your stone.
Silently ask the stone to be your friend.
I invite you to close your eyes.
Hold the stone.
Reflect upon a care you have for this world.
Something that you care deeply about.
Something urgent, or overlooked perhaps.
Something small or something enormous.
A care you want to bring into this world.
Infuse this care into the stone that you hold.
We will all now together breathe deeply three times
And on a third exhalation — whisper your care to this stone, with clarity and sincerity
Inhale………….……………. exhale
Inhale ………………………..exhale
InhalE…......…..whisper your care
PAUSE
The prehistoric ocean that birthed the Mediterranean is the Tethys Ocean.
Dating back over 200 million years, this massive body of water separated the ancient supercontinents.
As tectonic plates shifted, the Tethys began closing
leaving behind the remnants that became the Mediterranean.
In Greek mythology, Tethys is the goddess of fresh water and of nursing mothers.
She birthed 3,000 river gods and 3,000 ocean nymphs.
She is the goddess of all fresh water systems, of every watershed on earth.
This water is ancient. This water is powerful. This water is everywhere.
The water is our guide and our teacher.
The water is in us.
The water is us.
The river is our companion.
This water carries within it the full cycle of life
Flowing from river to sea,
rising up into the clouds,
arriving as rain on your roof,
dripping off the leaves of trees.
Nourishing the vegetables and fruits
All those little droplets,
seeking and flowing,
down,
down,
down,
always finding more water,
always searching to be with other droplets,
joining into the whole.
Thinking. Feeling. Caring.
Water is everywhere.
And it will always find the place that has its shape,
it’s comfortable fit.
It is perfect.
Perfectly joining with all the droplets
running and jumping,
turning and moving,
diving and bubbling,
swirling and swooping,
falling and splashing,
floating and drifting,
seeping and trickling,
twinkling and swaying
under and between the surfaces,
into the streams, into the rivers, into the seas.
The water cares for us.
The water takes care of us.
We can take care of this water.
Breathe deeply. Whisper your care to this stone, with clarity and sincerity.
PAUSE
When you offer this stone into this river, small microscopic particles of your care will be carried with the water as it flows.
Your care will reach the ocean.
Your care will be in the snow on the mountains,
in the hail,
in the floods,
in the deep water table resting, fresh and silent, beneath the surface of the earth.
Your care will be in the water of a watermelon.
In the veins of a leaf.
In your veins.
Through this water your care will be in the tears of a mother.
In the sweat of our ancestors.
In the air that we breathe.
In the pipes that run beneath the city.
In the water in your toilet that carries your shit.
In the piss of a dog in the park.
In the saliva that is spit into your eye.
In the blood on the streets.
In your anger
In your persistence.
Through this water your care will be in the air that we breathe.
In your tea.
In your ice cream.
In your wine,
In your dreams
Your care will be in all of this water, this flow.
In our bodies.
In our shared intertwined ecosystems
overlapping, mingling, merging all bodies.
Once again, breathe deeply. Whisper your care to this stone, with clarity and sincerity.
PAUSE
I invite you now, one by one
speak aloud or whisper softly in just a few words, the essence of your care,
then gently offer your stone into the river.
PAUSE
Each stone has now entered the water,
your care will be carried along as it flows
over the city and the fields,
through the forests and the oceans,
Through our bodies, all bodies
finding itself, within itself
always moving toward the whole.
