The Laughter of Stones

Eduardo Abaroa, written in 2004

1) Minerals possess all the organs and all the faculties necessary for the conservation of their own being, that is, for their nutrition.

2) They lack the faculty of locomotion, as do plants and some animals with shells like oysters and barnacles.The reason is that they do not have the necessity of moving to get their food, which comes to them by itself.

3) This faculty, far from being essential to animality, is a means to sustain their conservation for the animals who possess it...

4) In this way, the animals who lack it can be considered privileged, for with less resources they accomplish the same function.

5)¿Am I not correct to consider minerals as privileged in this respect, for they can find food within the reach of their lips without changing their location?

6) The woman remained on the floor almost without breathing.

7) She could not move her head, but the eyes were open. She did not see much.¿Who has not been with their eyes open and at the same time in obscurity of what they perceive?

8) It happened to me once that, while driving, I arrived to a place without being aware of it.

7) It was not a known place or any other I would have intended to go. When I arrived there, a void remained in my consciousness... very similar to the one I have now. This happened many years ago...

8) I remember that I arrived without being aware...but I don´t remember where I arrived.

9) ¿How could I manage to get there without breaking the transit rules? Or maybe I did break them and a policeman asked "¿May I have your license and registration, please?"

10) You are required to get a license so that they can know if you are capable of driving or not.

11) That is the official reason.

12) The wisdom of the stones

13) The scheme of composition

14) The carving and decoration of the stone

15) The arrangement of the different elements of a sculpture

16) The representation of the humor and character of a piece

15) The final integration of all its components

16) The ideal maker of images experiments the liberty of consciousness confirming that he is truly the silent witness of all this activity.

17) In reality, he does not act or cause any action.

18)The raped woman rises. She stares at her lacerations and attempts a first step. She walks.

19) The whole body feels like the floor under her feet.

20) The idea is not new: in spite of being elaborated with different degrees of craftsmanship when it comes to the details, i.e. the clothes and shoes, or maybe the edges of fingernails, the group seems to have been frozen.

21) Among them there is a perfect harmony. Such is the effect of this group of statues that those who have seen it report first of all the feeling of confusion or embarrassment. After that, they experience a strong urge to laugh.

22) It is not that the representation itself is funny, we do not find grotesque or comic exaggerations. There are no traces of the cause of such mirth.

23) They are simply ten or twelve stone sculptures that seem to be laughing so hard and so contagiously that some have doubted they were carved by human hands.