Insisting on Existing is an experimental installation developed within the context of Insisting on Existing: Protocols of a Public Studio. The work brings together a modular cement column, a punching bag placed on the floor, a suspended tatami mat, and boxing gloves fitted into small cement objects.

The installation reverses the conventional organisation of a space of combat. The cement column assumes the position of the structure against which the confrontation is directed; the punching bag, removed from suspension, remains on the floor as the structure’s shadow; and the tatami mat, which would normally provide a base and cushion the fall, is raised and transformed into a covering. The objects that should receive the blow or protect the body cease to fulfil their original functions.

The smaller objects repeat the material of the column at a different scale. When fitted into the boxing gloves, they shift the cement from the condition of structure to that of vestige. They are not fragments literally produced by an impact, but constructed elements representing what remains of the struggle against the structure. The structure continues to stand, while its material reappears attached to the gloves, marking the instrument of confrontation.

The body is absent, but is implied by the displaced objects and by the traces attributed to the struggle. The installation does not represent combat as it occurs; it spatially organises what might remain afterwards: the structure, its shadow, protection rendered inaccessible, and the gloves carrying material residues of the confrontation.

The work’s experimental character is inseparable from Protocols of a Public Studio, an exhibition conceived as a space for presentation, process, and experimentation. In her wall text, Kamilla Nunes situates Insisting on Existing within the idea of “continuing after the fall”. The work presents neither the destruction of the structure nor a heroic victory over it. To insist is to remain in confrontation with what resists, recognising that the struggle may not bring the structure down, but can nevertheless leave marks and traces.