Eduardo Navarro

F.O.C.A is an artistic foundation open to exploring unpredictable and emotional ways of contemplative transformation through affection. It’s a medium to explore the unknown from within the unknown and an invitation to transcend language in order to communicate with a non-human universe, indivisible and self-regulated.

In 2023, Eduardo Navarro approached the organisation SOS Rescate Fauna Marina in Uruguay, offering to feed orphaned baby seals. They took him up on the offer, allowing him to take care of the seals up close. For him, it was an opportunity for an “affectionate contemplation”, which requires one to dissolve oneself in what is being contemplated, emphasising the indivisibility of everything – no hierarchies, no roles, no separation. The ocean became an example of such unity, an environment where everything is always in contact.

He transformed into a seal, filling a gap for the orphaned seals, becoming a maternal father when giving them the bottle, assuming the role of a caregiver while also attempting to transcend the separation between the species. If nothing else, he hopes, his action will help the seals get back into the sea and have a story to tell other sea creatures someday.

In its mission of bringing the oceanic perspective of the world to the surface and offering it as a possible foundation for future coexistence, F.O.C.A turns our attention to the knowledge at the bottom of the sea, calls for emotional empathy and shows how to achieve it through affectionate contemplation – becoming one with the object of contemplation, becoming the world itself.

The project is supported by the James Howell Foundation and Colección Oxenford.