I want to share with you the process of an artistic collaboration in which I participate together with the plastic artist Rubén Lozano, a great friend and a great artist too.
As we know, when all this covid 19 began, many museums around the world made various calls to keep the flame of art burning. This type of initiative was joined not only by museums, but also by stand-up shows, online classes, plays, meetings, classes and even concerts. The truth is that this situation that we have all had to take on, has opened our minds to understand that there are different ways to continue expressing ourselves and giving feedback between content and art creators.
Nomadic art of Panama is -and I quote-
"A space to share modes of expression and thought through art".
Those in charge of running this page were carrying out challenges with different premises for the "tele-collaboration" of artists, starting from words that were the starting point to start a collaborative project, each artist developing their vision of this same word. I had the opportunity to participate in the challenge of the last week and and and and our premise was physical distance.
I will write below the words they used each week:
- Week 1 :. Compulsion.
- Week 2: .. Scan.
- Week 3 :. Wishes.
- Week 4 :. Altars.
- Week 5 :. Revling (Linguistic Revolution).
- Week 6 :. Ritual.
- week 7 :. Alters.
- Week 8 :. Food.
- Week 9 :. TeleColab.
In this last week we participated. The challenge was that between two creators (they did not have to be visual artists) they represented in some way "physical distance". So at this point, I would like to develop a bit how I arrived at the idea of the video that I will put next.
I am going to develop in parts how I get here and I think it is necessary to tell the story a bit.
I have known Rubén for about 11 years, we met in Caracas and strangely, in that process we realized that we are from the same city of origin (Maracay) which is another city that is not the capital of Venezuela. We both study fine arts and we have fed each other our entire career. A few years ago, he moved to Panama City and we have kept in touch every day of our lives by WhatsApp and other social networks.
So, under this condition, I began to think about how I could represent what it meant for me not to have him near, not in the same country, or in the same city. Then I thought:
The perception of my distance with him (as indicated by the challenge) is merely physical, since contact has never been lost, and I was imagining the physical distance from which points it can be perceived, and I wrote some words.
- Touch -Hugs, interaction, heat.
- View -Encounters, communication lines of transit.
- Visit significant places in our lives.
In my case, that I still live in the city where we both made life, it is inevitable for me to remember it every time I pass through Plaza Altamira (which is the place where we always, always, always meet). Just as it is inevitable for me to remember it when I go to our city of origin ...
So at this point I already had several elements that I didn't know how to put together. The idea was still very ethereal, I had to think in what way I could visually represent these words and that they concretely communicate the physical emptiness that his leaving the country left me.
I thought.
I had two key elements. The role played by the school (which was the moment when our physical friendship was more solid) and the video (which represents the point that unites us now).
Once having the theme, the concepts that unite my experience with the premise of collaboration, the visual resource, it was only necessary to record it. We both did a text curation to express our idea:
Both artists develop the need to capture each one from their niche, two pieces with the premise -the distance- where they explore multimedia tools to be able to specify the experience of each one around the distance that exists between them. Memory is explored as a practice tool, and its purpose is to specify two individual pieces which converge on the way in which a friendship relationship of a decade has been affected, due to the geographical distance in conjunction with the current situation of social distancing in the face of the Covid19 pandemic.
Photography is used as an element that makes a significant allusion in the construction of memory; how this has been affected due to distancing and how it affects each author differently.
The elements used by both are: line, memory, experience, photograph and space.
My explanatory text was this:
Union-Distance.
Both artists were born in Maracay, Aragua state, Venezuela, in parallel but very distant points, however it is not until many years later that they converge in Caracas, the capital. This piece is made with the intention of representing the symbolism from where the author perceives the distance that exists between the two friends, reflected in a time line and geographic space. The line is nothing more than a thread that links one point to another, one friend to another; the tour draws meeting places, habitats and iconic sites that are not erased from memory. The millimeter support refers to the school, to the youth of both artists, this is a significant element for both and serves as a map that supports the lines and ties that are woven over time.
It was a very cool experience because the truth is that the quarantine brought us down a bit, however it is good that these initiatives that although on the surface they seem simple, are capable of mobilizing the minds of a lot of people.
I will attach the Nomads page in case you want to see the other proposals that they have there.
https://www.artenomadapty.com/
On this page are the folders of the different artists who participated in week 9 as well. Each folder has the job description and visual proposal.
https://www.artenomadapty.com/colaborativo