Emplacement, Myth, and the Performing Body

The emergence of Trans Ecologies as a scholarly field prompts an exploration into the intersection of gendered embodiments and ecology (Seymour, 2020). Such a development aligns with Keegan’s (2020) notion that a trans practice may foreground the materiality of trans embodiment to generate new theories and meanings. Concurrently, the feminist concept of ‘situated knowledges’ (Haraway, 1988) has long been embraced by trans scholars such as Wölfle Hazard (2022) who emphasizes the significance of ecological studies being firmly rooted to the land. This paper responds to these calls by investigating how a ‘situated’ live art practice, grounded in embodiment and emplacement, can enrich the emergent field of trans ecology. Following the auto-ethnography methodologies of trans studies scholars (Stone, 1991; Stryker, 1994), I argue that an auto-ethnographical live art practice directly responds to place and location, engaging both bodies and land as performing agents. Through a case study set in the densely storied ecology of the North-East Peloponnese, I demonstrate the potential of emplacement, wherein the performing body constitutes a vital component within an evolving ecology of interconnected entities and their historicities (Pink, 2011). In positioning my video performance ‘Ekdysis’ in dialogue with works by artists Cassils and Petra Kuppers, my study engages with Tiresias – an archetypal mythological character who underwent a gender-transformative experience on Mount Kyllini. Through an autoethnographic approach, I emplace the performing body within the landscapes of this region, imagining the Tiresian myth as a transecological retelling that foregrounds the marginalised human and nonhuman life. In conclusion, I demonstrate how the emplacement of the performing body, attuned to the complexity of location, can generate intersectional knowledge that is contextually responsive to diverse ecologies and geo-political regions.