Don’t say anything

Something about a gorilla’s gaze fascinates us; we can’t avoid its power of attraction. What does this gaze spark in us? Perhaps it allows us to get back something of the animal that lives inside us and gets us in touch with the infinite flow of life. But perhaps we also project a nostalgia and secret yearning in that gaze: that mountain of muscle, that hotchpotch of primitive instincts, that face which looks so human always seems to be about to start speaking…

So what is being, or becoming, human? Winning? Losing? The gaze of that simian—that being that has yet to become human—inevitably brings us to this question, which at times seems unbearably pressing.

Jorge Camón Pascual

Director’s statement

‘Don’t say anything’ was my first video piece. It was shown for the first time along with the series of photographs called ‘What I can’t talk about’. It is currently part of the collection of the Es Baluard Contemporary Art Museum of Palma.

Most of the time we communicate instinctively using means other than the spoken word, including looks, facial expressions and gestures. Language is often superfluous.

I began to go to the zoo every day at the same time, wearing the same clothing. I would sit there in front of the gorillas with the fantasy that they would recognise me and I would somehow be able to communicate with them. I aimed to have an experience similar to those of the primatologists Goodall, Fossey and Galdikas when they were doing their fieldwork.