SOUTHernate vs. NORTHernate
|
|
In the Southern
Hemisphere one cannot see the Polar Star.
To ORIENTate during the day is to take the eastern
direction of the rising Sun. At night, depending
on the hemisphere where we are, we refer to
the Polar Star or the Southern Cross to take
the directions of the southern or the northern
cardinal points. In Portuguese language and
for those who live in the Northern Hemisphere,
there is a verb for the action of taking the
northern direction: NORTEar [NORTH
+ verb termination]. As strange as it may be,
those who live in the Southern Hemisphere and
also speak Portuguese, do not have an appropriate
verb to take the direction of the south or to
orient by the Southern Cross. For this reason
we felt compelled to coin the Portuguese term
SULear [SOUTH + verb termination] for
local purposes.
|
|
Following these
considerations it is worth noting that in English
language we can count only on the verb TO ORIENTATE
or to take approximately the direction of the
rising Sun that is the ORIENT.
To stress on our considerations
in this page and in some of the discussions
that follows and also to be coherent with the
translation of our ideas into English, we must
coin two other verbs similarly to the coined
Portuguese words NORTEar and SULear. The will
be to NORTHernate and to SOUTHernate.
The relations Society/Nature and North/South
as well as the hegemony of the Northern Hemisphere
integrate some of the discussions in the site.
|
|
Such concerns about the reference to
the Southern Hemisphere caused several manifestations,
among which is the constructivism of the Uruguayan
artist Joaquin Torres Garcia (1874-1949) that appears
in the following excerpt.
The
School of the South
Joaquin Torres Garcia
(1935)
"A Great school of art ought to arise here in
our country. I say it without hesitation: here in
our country. And I have my reasons for affirming this.
I have said School
of the South; because in reality, our North is the
South. There should be no North for us, except in
opposition to our South.
That is why we now turn the map upside down, and
now we know what our true position is, and it is not
the way the rest of the world would like to have it.
From now on the elongated tip of South America will
point insistently at the South, our North. Our compass
as well; it will incline irremediably and forever
toward the South, toward our pole. When ships sail
from here travelling north they will be travelling
down, not up as before. Because the now the North
is below. And as we face our South, the East is to
the left.
This is a necessary rectification; so that now we
know where we are." (...)
* Ramírez, M. C. (1992). El Taller Torres-García
: the School of the South and its legacy. Austin,
Published for the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery
College of Fine Arts the University of Texas at Austin
by the University of Texas Press. p.53
