From a feeling of being uprooted, I recorded a series of images that gave rise to the project presented here. “Exile” is a work that is still in process and is evolving along with my experiences as an exile, where everything happens from a new point of view because it is in a country where the language, customs, culture, food and everyday life is different. The feeling of letting go of your roots brings up many other issues that I tried to bring to the project. One of the reasons the images are composed of several layers is to convey the feeling of instability that the experience itself carries and also the questions that recur to me here, such as “will my roots ever be as firm as they once were?” or “what or how long does it take to feel an organic part of something?”. The images also represent the freedom that this uprooting brings with it. The feeling of belonging to a place, but not exactly, is also liberating and positive. The fact of not being “stuck” in a familiar and therefore comfortable place means that all the noises and details that go unnoticed in our routines are absorbed in a completely different way because we are alert, making the experience of exile very enriching. 

Creation, performance and image editing: Daiane Rafaela 

Images: Daiane Rafaela and Guilherme Belotti