Narratives
“We make myths and these myths make us and our world: our limits, our capacities, our longings, and our sense of self. We tell ourselves who we are."
– Arturo Escobar, Michal Osterweil, Kristi Sharma
Relationality. An emergent politics of life beyond the human
Restorying the Living
Culture shapes the world and narratives can change the belief systems that define culture. Restorying the living begins by recovering our capacity to narrate - that is, to create the reality in which we live.
We seek to create new stories, to remember old stories, and to design ways of telling them, as a speculative fabulation that helps us re-imagine and re-create a world in which human identity is re-framed in communion with the rest of nature.
In the midst of an epidemic of noise and voracious competition for attention, we are committed to slow media, and to open new ways of listening that call upon our senses and possibilities of perception to restore our capacity for awe. We believe in stories as meeting places for thought. We work with artists, storytellers, filmmakers and other agents of the creative community, igniting their power to create symbolic meaning.
We know that other myths are possible, different from the catastrophic story that erases the future from an anthropocentric present of domination and extraction. We want to thread and expand the new-ancient story of humanity, of who we are and how we inhabit the Earth - a species capable of and responsable for caring for and regenerating the living planet we share with an infinite multitude of other beings, whose intelligence inspire us and unleashes new ways of creating.
From experimental co-laboratory prototypes, radio pieces, talks, conferences, workshops, and graphic and audiovisual material, we explore different media and formats as inspirational narrative triggers for collective action.
Sonidos Terrestres
Sonidos Terrestres is our editorial platform. It compiles publications from our mundo común team in diverse media, as well as mundo común's own publications.
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Re-thinking climate change
Conference during the Immersion in Colombia Program hosted by La Silla Vacia, in August 2025.
Sometimes climate change seems like “just” a mechanical problem: an issue that requires reorganizing the economy in order to be solved. In this lecture, we revisit the classic conception of climate change in order to turn it around and understand its deeper causes and ontological implications.
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The landscape is a reflection of the psyche
Conference at the 6th World Forum organized by Low Cabon City in Medellín, in October 2024
The Earth's climate is a reflection of the inner climate of the human psyche. If we can pay attention to the river of consciousness and the way we understand and use energy, we will be addressing the climate crisis from the deepest place—upstream—which will allow us to transform it.
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Facing a climate crisis, (re)storying a common world
Book chapter written by Isabel Cavelier Adarve as part of the volume “Women facing climate change: a future with hope,” edited by Elsa Matilde Escobar.
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The text invites us to take perspective on the axes of time, consciousness, and energy as an essential part of addressing the climate crisis.
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Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection
Podcast miniseries produced in collaboration with 'Outrage & Optimism' on the relationship of the human with the rest of nature, through three key moments: past (history of the separation between the human and the rest of the living world), present (materialization of a world created on the basis of separation) and future (restorying the human world in harmony with the rest of the living world).
Past. Living from Nature – Episodie 1
Exploramos la historia de la ficción de separación entre lo humano y el resto del mundo natural en conversación con Janine Benyus, Lyla June Johnston, Arturo Escobar, y Augusto Zampini, entre otros.
Present. Living with Nature – Episode 2
We spoke with Kate Raworth, Gunhild Stordalen, Kingsmill Bond, and Janine Benyus about how the basic systems on which human civilization is founded, and which are the result of a univocal notion of power, are beginning to change: the economy, the agri-food system, energy, and design are recognizing the need to move to a regenerative model.
Future. Living as Nature – Episode 3
We venture to glimpse sparkles of a future in which human identity is re-defined in complete communion with the rest of nature, in dialogue with Sister True Dedication, Bayo Akomolafe, Lyla June Johnston, Krista Tippett, and Xiye Bastida, among other contemporary wise thinkers.
Our Story of Nature: Over to you! - Episode on questions and answers
Together with the Outrage & Optimism host team, we discuss listener questions about the miniseries.
Krista Tippett: Her Story of Nature
Entrevista completa con Krista Tippett, periodista, escritora y anfitriona del podcast 'On Being'podcast, sharing her personal reflections and experiences about her relationship with the rest of the living world.
Xiye Bastida: Her Story of Nature
Entrevista completa con Xiye Bastida, escritora y activista climática de la comunidad otomí-tolteca del centro de México, quien comparte la sabiduría indígena sobre este momento de transición planetaria.
Listen to the full interviews with the mini-series guests
- Arturo Escobar
- Bayo Akomolafe
- Father Augusto
- Gunhild Stordalen
- Janine Benyus
- Kingsmill Bond
- Lyla June Johnston
- Peter Frankopan
- Sister True Dedication
- Wolf Martínez
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Restorying the Living,
Restoring the Human
Keynote speech opening the exhibition 'La Buena Vida' ('The Good Life') at the Medellín Modern Art Museum. (Starting minute 20:45).
We are in a present of polycrisis, but above that we are facing a crisis of the present: all possibility of an open future has collapsed. Gathering concepts from Tim Morton, Donna Haraway, Pablo Servigne, Bruno Latour and Arturo Escobar, Isabel Cavelier invites us to situate the planetary crisis in the nested presents of geological time, and to restore our agency as narrators of our own story, as creators of worlds that world worlds.
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Climate Change and the de-stabilization of the Earth Systems
Keynote lecture in the course "Immersion in Colombia for those who build a country" organized by La Silla Vacía.(Start of the lecture: min. 0:23:07. End of the lecture: min. 1:32:40)
Starting with a scientific outlook at the unprecedented stress humanity has placed on the systems that sustain the Earth, going all the way to the root causes of the climate crisis, Isabel Cavelier invites us to collectively reimagine our human identity to navigate the present times.
Lecture Climate Change and the de-stabilization of the Earth Systems