Velhice e velhices

This article is the result of a master’s thesis that sought to rethink old age and aging outside the framework of normalization established by studies and discourses based on the active aging model. The study aimed to chart a line of life between science, philosophy, and art in the invention of a way of being that constructs its own path. It began by questioning the current treatment of old age and aging, which we consider to be separated from the understanding of care for life. Priority is given to the idea of care as a health protocol under dual management: on the one hand, this is carried out by professionals whose technical training emphasizes disciplines, specializations, and technology; on the other hand, subjects—in their capacity as patients—are required to comply with prescriptions, take responsibility, and manage themselves. We understand “care of the self” as existing outside the framework of management and self-control of the body, which is governed by the perspective of the risk of falling ill and dying. The research grew out of time spent with the Teia de Aranha group, made up of women embroiderers of different ages, and sought to show that their non-conformity with the reality imposed upon them opens a path to the production of the real, to an encounter with the unpredictable, and to the potentials of life. Through our time with these embroiderers, we demonstrate the practice of what we seek to establish: the production of a form of care that is exercised in the simplest and most essential aspects of daily life and that can decarcerate and empower life. Literature, poetry, and embroidery constituted places of care embedded in a time-space filled with intensities. We show that the “maker-body” of these embroiderers, who are aging among friends, is open to contagion and transformation, and that their commitment to exchange and to the forces of action and thought will entail “care of the self.”