Matiz~Nuance' s Artist Statement

Artist Statement

This proposal is born out of the situation of conflict that is inflicting our world, and the polarizing attitudes that promote the absence of dialog between people. We also come from the Colombian context and the difficult situation of poverty and exclusion that many Latin American peoples are undergoing, and are echoed in the life of people of Colombian and Latin American background who live in Toronto.

Matiz nuance movement is founded on the construction of symbolization processes that allow for the development of critical thought, the recognition of differences and the de-polarization of Latin American culture. We rely on the transformative power of art and artists as a dynamic element of social change. This change is enacted through the relationship of the spectator and the work of art, where the viewer, as an active subject engages in processes of transformation. We value this engagement as integral to the artistic expression, and that is why we go beyond the plain artistic show to generate spaces of expression and conversation (talking circles), reflection and mutual growing.

Through the conceptualization of the arts that we outlined above, we strive to provide nuances, to mix and to integrate, as strategies for the construction of community and to provide alternatives to rethink the political, social and axiological realms. Therefore, in our Matiz-Nuance MultiArts Project, our work group is composed of people from the arts, anthropology and psychology. Based fundamentally in the discourses of the Other in relation to subjectivity and culture, we can reflect on both the change of values and processes of inclusion. We also work with multiplicity of arts like dance, video art and music, which can generate exchanges amongst them to explore new significances.

Finally, the art presentations, as part of our relational emphasis, will integrate conversations expressing the diversity of ethics, aesthetics and human dimensions, as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space." (Nicolas Bourriaud)

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Project Description

Project Description

Title: Matiz-Nuance Multiarts Project
Places: CineCycle and Artscape Wychwood Barns
Date: Septiembre 21 to 29 of 2010

Artist Participants:
Ruben Esguerra and Diego Marulanda [Music], Julieta Maria, Rodrigo Hernandez, [Visual arts], Guillermina Buzio and Juana Awad, (Performance), Olga Barrios [Dancer and choreographer], Pilar Gonzales [Teather], Jorge Lozano and Alvaro Giron (Film), and Diana Rodriguez Quevedo [Literature]

Curators:
Carmen Ocampo, Sandra Leon and Arlan Londono

Coordination:
Music, Diego Marulanda, Visual Arts, Julieta Maria

This is a tentative programming for the event, which might still be subject to change. We are still working on organizing a couple of additional sessions.

A- Music

Música de Gaita in Bogotá, Colombia: integration and cultural exchange by Ruben Esguerra,
This work is a study of música de gaita and its manifestations in Bogotá, Colombia. Música de gaita has roots in former maroon comunities of the Atlantic coast of Colombia and the ensemble consists of vocals, percussion and two wind instruments called gaitas (List 1983). This work also contributes to the notion that traditional music possesses unifying elements, which serve to mediate social integration (Merriam 2001) as well as social participation (Nettl 1985). The study adds to an explanation of: (i) why Bogotá is witnessing an increase of the daily practices of musics of the Atlantic-coast region of the country and; (ii) how música de gaita has brought together young musicians from different music scenes, creating a new form of cultural exchange.

Nuestra Gente / Our People, Diego Marulanda
The musical language has been and continues to be a great alternative and gives a new meaning of expression to the reality of displaced communities, particularly in the young. I am very excited and most interested in examining, analyzing, exploring and interpreting in greater detail through "Art Matiz" the encounter of tradition and technology as manifested through musical expressions in Colombia and the diaspora.

Visual Arts

Ill-formed by Julieta Maria
Video, 2010
The installation is comprised of three video projections, in which I reflect on human vulnerability and the representation of violence. I am interested in the transgressing forces that puncture us, and the violence that we are capable of exerting on others; in the faith and skepticism that guides our relationship with the world and with the other.

The New(be)comers Adult Knowledge by Rodrigo Hernandez
Video, 2010.
“The New(be)comers” is an artistic research project. The aims of the research is to investigate and reflect on the knowledge that newcomer adults bring with them when they arrive to Toronto, specifically the kind of knowledge which in light of their situation may become devalued. We employ artistic means to reconsider and document this knowledge and to disseminate this knowledge in the form of artworks, via their public presentation and circulation in cultural institutions, educational settings and publications: thus reaffirming its importance and generating interest on newcomers knowledge.

Performance

Fuga, By Juana Awad,
Performance and Sound installation, 2009
Fuga explores cruelty through the manipulation of cries. We constructed fuga strictly following the compositional rules of the baroque fugue, a type of contrapuntal technique of composition for a fixed number voices. The first step was to analyze a baby cry musically and score it. This was taken as the subject of the fugue and was then digitally sliced and altered to create second and third voices. These voices were combined digitally, to build a piece that is formally rigorous, so much so, that it becomes purely formal. Slicing a cry that is emitted spontaneously brings into the piece more meanings than the imitation of a cry. It is exactly the surgical act, the one that speaks so directly about our ability to disregard the person to achieve an aim

Intersections (work in progress) by Guillermina Buzio
Performance and video 2010
“Intersections” is an immersive multidisciplinary installation, which will include video, sound, and performance. I have become interested in using my body to explore issues of my identity as both an Argentinean and Canadian immigrant. This project is built around discourses on feminism, the female body, identity, 6. Project Description

and the notion of borderlands. Through this framework I will investigate the relationship of the body and cuts of meat while recognizing the economic, cultural and political borders that define us as being inside, outside, or in between.

Film

Salvaged by Alvaro Giron
Video, 2010
Salvaged is a collage audiovisual piece that elicits the tensions of being part of different cultures and societies in a simultaneous process of acquiring and forgetting elements of identity. The experience of human migration told as reflections on moving surfaces of memory and loss, disarray and longing.

Eye Functions by Jorge Lozano
video, 2009
Using found footage, Eye Functions touches on how the electronic visualization of silence in war and death has a double reading, a mirror reflecting multiple fields of interpretation, creating variations of perspective, inviting the viewer to participate in the creation of a meaning different from the one embedded in the initial conception. The title Eye Functions is taken from Paul Virilio’s writing on War and Cinema. The relationship between blinding and seeing has been the motivating force behind the development of war and film technologies, technologies that are complementary and have nurtured each other from its beginnings. Eye Functions is a phenomenological investigation on how violence is perceived and how digital technology is used to show it and to hide it. The use of dual screening will create a sense of “standing streaming”, a continuous flow of images in a continuous transformation adding to the discourse on art, technology and social concerns.

Dance

Behind Windows by Olga Barrios
2009
Behind windows is a piece that depicts aspects of kidnapping. In this work I recount stories of women and men from Colombia, my country of origin. Though these are not events from my own personal history, I feel they are part of my story: there is a fear in the atmosphere of a silent war.

Literature

Hibridity in La casa grande: a rhizomatic approach by Diana Rodriguez Quevedo, 2008
In the novel La casa grande by Álvaro Cepeda Samudio, hybridity occupies various planes that can be characterized through the use and variability of time, space, and voices offering multiple perspectives that rise from rhizomatic features as they are expounded by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in the introduction of their book A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. In both the interior plane of the big house as in the exterior planes of the village of Ciénaga, where the novel takes place, two elements stand out: the paradigm of systematic, patriarchal, and rigid order, which can be associated with the figure of the fixed root represented in the paternal character, the military authorities, and the spaces they occupy in contrast with the other characters and spaces that are reflected in the concept of rhizome, without beginning or end, nor point of convergence or precise junction.

Theater

Teach2 to Learn by Pilar González
2010
Teach2Learn is a pedagogic project conceived to strengthen the youth educational skills, to improve their performances at school and lower the high percentage of dropouts within the Latin American Youth in Toronto.

For Matiz~Nuance, Multi-arts Project, one of the most important concepts is Civic (public) Participation, because people not only benefit from our programs, but they are at the core of our success. In order to guarantee excellent community participation for this project, we plan to engage people by using a wide range of activities from actual delivery of services to dissemination of information. These are:

Outreach: Usage of flyers, brochures, handouts and face to face communication to inform the people who is interacting with the target population (Artists)

Publicity: Website, newsletter
Marketing: Fundraising event.
Where: Latin American and Canadian Arts organizations, Universities, Colleges, Community Centres, Local newspapers.

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Organization history:

Mandate:

Matiz~Nuance Multi-arts mandate is to work with a diversity of contemporary arts with an emphasis on art practices, including music, theater, technology, creative writing, filmmaking and visual arts. We want to generate spaces to enhance the artistic cultural participation, expression, and exchange between Latin American and Canadian contemporary artists to promote socio-cultural integration. We want to work with professionals within a broad range of innovative artistic practices.

Objectives:

- To take a leadership role in the integration between artists and community by providing a forum for artists at all levels of development, so that they can exchange information and ideas on issues related to contemporary art and professional practice.

- To provide a space for the promotion, production, and presentation of contemporary arts in all media, celebrating new and innovative artistic and curatorial practices.

- To foster dialogue between contemporary artists from diverse cultural and political perspectives and communities without prejudice towards media or content.

Organization’s brief history:

We are a multidisciplinary group of artists and cultural workers that have been working in Toronto since 2008. We are promoting the convergence and communication between artists and their social milieu.

The main events we have organized in the past include:

I. First Forum on Art and Conflict

It took place on Monday, September 8, 2008 at OISE. The first forum of Artists and Conflict was a participatory active space to reflect, talk and raise awareness about the potential of the arts in the Colombian cultural development and conflict reality’s transformation. The strategies included planning initiatives of expression, recreating memory, denouncing and documenting the painful situation of Colombia. Because silence is the biggest strategy of repression, we continue looking at creation for the expression of all peoples.

Artists Participants:

From Toronto: Ruben Esguerra [Musician], Arlan Londono [Visual arts], Alejandro Roncerias [Dancer and coreographer]. From Colombia: Patricia Ariza [Theater], and Hollman Morris [Jornalist Media]

II. Minga’s* Solidarity Arts Celebration

It took place on Saturday, November 8^th, 2008 at the Native Canadian Centre,
16 Spadina Ave. It was a multi-arts solidarity event with the Minga carried out by Colombian’s indigenous people who were on the road marching and protesting against the Colombian government and its military impositions. This was an extraordinary contemporary art collaboration between Latin American, Canadian and Colombian artists. The project inlucluded music, poetry, video art, performances and a roundtable discussion that featured a series of video presentations and live video connections between Ecuador, Japan, Colombia and Canada.

Latin Canadian artists participation

Poets: Cecilia Pavia (Peruvian Indigenous); Nana Esperanza, Violeta Vigolla (Guatemalan Indigenous). Theater: Pilar Gonzalez (Colombia). Musicians: Diego Marulanda, Juana Awad, Ruben Esguerra, (Colombia); Luís Orbegozo, (Peru), Marcelo Puente (Chile), Ted Sankey (Quebec). Video Artists: Julieta María and Oscar Ordoñez (Colombia). Dance: Azteca dance group (Multicultural). Indigenous People: Mohawk Community.

*The word Minga describes an ancestral practice by Indigenous peoples in the Andean region. It refers to a collective effort called upon to carry out a common objective and it takes priority over other activities. Neither the Minga, nor its outcome has "owners". It's an expression of the maturity, discipline, community-based capacity and humility of the peoples. In the Minga, the common objective overrides individual needs; however, each individual effort is viewed as important.

III “Having Art for Dinner”

“Having Art for Dinner” is a series of dinner reunions presenting relational arts by artists from Latin America. It is “a laboratory through conversation” that promotes the exchange of perspectives about artistic processes in the context of broader socio-political issues and critical thought. This series provide an intimate setting to create a spirit of collaboration and strengthening the bonds amongst the community.

In these dinners the members of Matiz-Nuance are always present: Carmen Ocampo, Sandra Leon, Arlan Londono, Diego Marulanda and Julieta Maria

1. Conversations I Friday, at Arlan Londoño’s House, October 18, 2009 with Colombian curator Ana Maria Lozano, Artist participations: Julieta Maria Colombian Video artist Jorge Lozano Colombian Filmmaker.

2. Conversations II at Carmen Ocampo’s House, November 10, 2009

Artist participations: Diego Marulanda Colombian Musician, Alejandro Roncerias Colombian Dancer and Choreographer Juan Carlos Marquez Colombian Photographer and Biologist, Arlan Londono Colombian Visual Artist Julieta Maria Colombian Visual Artist

3. Conversations III at Arlan Londono’s House, February 19, 2009

Artist participations: Eugenio Salas Mexican Visual Artist, Jorge Lozano Colombian Visual Artist Rodrigo Hernandez Mexican Visual Artist

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Pan-Americas: Master of Visual Studies – Curatorial Studies.

The Art Department of the University of Toronto is pleased to announce the exhibition openings of the first Graduates of the newly established Master of Visual Studies – Curatorial Studies.


Pan-Americas
Curated by Arlan Londoño
With works by Pablo Helguera, Eugenio Salas, and Beehive Collective

University of Toronto Art Centre
April 1 – April 17, 2010
Opening: April 1, 6 to 9 pm
Artists Talk: Thursday April 8th, 6:30 to 8 pm



Image Credit: Beehive Collective, Plan Colombia, 2002.
Courtesy the Artists.


Pan-Americas examines the political, economic, colonialist, and post-colonial ideas that underlie the dream of integration and communication as proposed by the Panamerican Highway between Alaska, in North America, to the bottom of South America, through three activist, contemporary art projects. The School of Panamerican Unrest by Pablo Helguera is the result of a road trip taken along the Panamerican highway to gather information on connection and interaction from the people he encountered. Toronto-based artist Eugenio Salas’s architectural intervention titled Tunnel, suggests the use of coyote tactics of human smugglers to create encounters with cultural communities or socio-cultural subjects. He presents the tunnel, the smuggler’s work environment, as a metaphor. Ultimately, Tunnel confronts audiences with themselves and with the space, prompting improvisation and random encounters. The work of the Beehive is a collection of images and stories gathered on their journeys between North and South Americas. Started as a critical approach to the way globalized corporations establish themselves within Latin American countries, the artists invited people to describe their problems and share their stories that are then incorporated into the artists’ evolving drawings and image collages. Functioning as an archive, the project makes the idea of Panamericanism real.

University of Toronto Art Centre
15 King's College Circle
University College
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H7
Tel: 416-978-1838
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Friday 12 to 5 pm; Saturday 12 to 4 pm

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