Atlantic

G.V.The ocean is more mythological than the sea. When I think of the ocean → I think of the Atlantic. For me, the Atlantic is very clearly defined: it begins on the coast of France + ends at the coast of the US.

G.V.In the Atlantic Ocean there is a rifting zone. It is related to many surreal creatures. There is a friction in the tectonic plates that the water is soothing. On land, such a zone is an open lava wound. Nothing is able to live there. But in the sea, it’s where life originated.

The ocean has enormous power as an entity which has agency, that decides. The word ocean is male in Portuguese. The Atlantic is never something that is a given, that can be taken for granted. Being in relation to it is always a fight. It performs its agency quite loudly. It is not a background. It is quite a force. You don’t fuck with it, you have to check it first, you cannot just go in. Boys would do it. They would play with it and its aggressiveness. They would go in and be smashed by the waves.

Pacific verses Indian verses Atlantic

I used to spend vacation time in Martinique. I prefer the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. Nowadays, I can play with my son + my dog in the sea → they can both swim better than me. I feel joy when I encounter the ocean now, because I experience it through my son’s eyes. The experience of weightlessness and buoyancy is what fascinates me the most.

Everyone from France going to the West Indies was telling me that the sea is beautiful. But I was looking at the Atlantic + not at the Caribbean (where you can see your feet in the water) → The sea is different and it felt like we were not talking about same thing. Also, because people talking to me about their vacations in the Caribbean where actually there for leisure. While I was seeing people working from dawn to dusk. We not only didn’t look at the same sea but also not at the same lives.

On an intellectual level, I would say the most important element is traveling:
the forced traveling of African populations , but also things circulating across the Atlantic ocean.

Imagine that you are standing on the ocean shore listening to the huge waves breaking in front of you. Looking out on the horizon, imagine that you can almost feel the shore at the other end of the Atlantic and the immensity of the body of water in between.