Matiz~Nuance MultiArts Movement

Friday, December 10th - Salvagers - Matiz~Nuance Conversatorio

2010-12-04T15:16:00.000-08:00

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* Photo from printmaking of Liliana Rodriguez.

Presents:

Salvagers

Curated by Sandra León.

With Works by Liliana Rodríguez, Álvaro Girón, Rubén Esguerra, Diego Marulanda and Alejandro Campos.

December 10 th.

7 P.M

Wychwood Theatre/Artscape Wychwood Barns

601 Christie Street

Toronto, ON, M6G 4C7

Memory is the common place where the body delves to find those images that evoke the transitory nature of identity. Constantly going back and forth, individuals move across time and space to reconstruct and resignify their territory, their roots and their present and past experiences. Similarly, for the Guambianos, indigenous people of Colombia, the concept of the spiral is linked to the territory and represents a continuous swing that never ends. Past, present and future constitute an inseparable unit at the center of their memory.

In Salvagers, five immigrant artists from Latin America travel through the spiral of memories, salvaging past experiences to revisit, reinvent them and harmonize them with the experiences of the present. Their works merge past and present time, synthesizing permanence and movement, while their identity is recreated as a site of constant transformation, nurtured by the many possibilities that time offers in different moments and places.

In the work of visual artist Liliana Rodriguez, the movement and the repetition of forms, as meditations on her individual cosmological realities, propose aesthetics where past and present converge. Documentary artist Alvaro Girón presents an audiovisual collage that elicits the tensions of being part of different cultures in a simultaneous process of acquiring and forgetting elements of identity. Ethnomusicologist Rubén Esguerra researches his cultural roots to connect with his current identity, which he attempts to define through self-knowledge. Singer and songwriter Diego Marulanda reinvents memory in a lyrical fabric that evolves musically, without losing sight of the trail of his ancestors. Finally, researcher and sociologist Alejandro Campos, in his work about a group of Cuban artists who strive to recover their cultural roots, reflects on the concept of identity and its consequences for subject formation and the narrative of diaspora.

The artists will present their work in the first half of the program and will engage in dialog in the second half.

Salvagers is part of a series of presentations and round table discussions organized by Matiz-Nuance MultiArts Movement. This series, which addresses the political and the psychological through Latin American artists in Toronto, will integrate different artistic and academic perspectives to generate discussions and dialogue between the public and participating artists.

This series is carried out thanks to the the support of the Ontario Arts Council, AluCine Toronto Latin Media Arts Festival, Francisco Garzón and the knowledge and collaboration of e-fagia organization, Gloria Trujillo, Arlan Londoño, Claudio Saldivia and Camilo Zabala.

Special acknowledgment for the immense encouragement

of Juan Felipe Ocampo.

Contact Info:
Matiz~Nuance MultiArts Movement Team
647-309-0419

416-571-0231
matiz.nuance@gmail.com

Sandra Leon
Anthropologist and Curator
416-551-1982
matiz.nuance@gmail.com

Francisco Garzon | Real Estate Broker | FG Team Leader

Business 905 275 9400 | Mobile 647 999 9724 | Fax 905 275 1481

francisco@fgteam.ca | www.franciscogarzon.com

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* Foto sobre el grabado original de Liliana Rodríguez.

Presents:

Salvagers

Curaduria por Sandra León.

Con trabajos de Liliana Rodríguez, Álvaro Girón, Rubén Esguerra, Diego Marulanda y Alejandro Campos.

Viernes, 10 de Diciembre 2010

7 P.M
Wychwood Theatre/Artscape Wychwood Barns

601 Christie Street

Toronto, ON, M6G 4C7

La memoria es el lugar común donde el cuerpo se adentra para encontrar esas imágenes que evocan la naturaleza transitoria de la identidad. Constantemente yendo hacia atrás y hacia adelante, los individuos se mueven a través del tiempo y le espacio para reconstruir y resignificar su territorio, sus raíces y las experiencias del pasado y del presente. Similarmente para los indígenas Guambianos de Colombia, el concepto de la espiral está conectado con el territorio y representa un continuo vaivén que nunca termina. Pasado, presente y futuro constituyen una unidad inseparable en el centro de su memoria.

En Salvagers, cinco artistas inmigrantes Latino Americanos viajan a través de la espiral de sus recuerdos, rescatando experiencias pasadas para traerlas de vuelta, reinventarlas y harmonizarlas con las experiencias del presente. Sus trabajos combinan el tiempo pasado y presente sintetizando la permanencia y el movimiento, mientras que su identidad es recreada como un sitio de constante transformación, nutrido por las múltiples posibilidades que el tiempo ofrece en diferentes momentos y lugares.

En el trabajo de la artista visual Liliana Rodríguez, el movimiento y la repetición de formas, como meditaciones de sus realidades comológicas personales en las que propone estéticas donde el pasado y el presente convergen. El artista documental Alvaro Girón presenta un collage audiovisual que provoca las tensiones de ser parte culturas diferentes en un proceso simultáneo de adquirir y olvidar elementos de identidad. El etnomusicólogo Ruben Esgerra investiga sus raíces culturales para conectarse con su identidad actual, lo que el intenta definir a través del conocimiento de sí mismo. El compositor y cantante Diego Marulanda reinventa la memoria en una fabrica lírica que evoluciona musicalmente, sin perder de vista el rastro de sus ancestros. Finalmente, el investigador y sociológo Alejandro Campos, con su trabajo acerca de un grupo de artistas cubanos que se esfuerzan por recuperar sus raices culturales, refleja el concepto de identidad y sus consecuencias culturales en la formacion del sujeto y la narración de la diáspora contemporánea.

Los artistas presentaran sus trabajos en la primera mitad del programa y en la segunda mitad engancharan un dialogo, conversatorio con el publico.

Salvagers es parte de una serie de Conversatorios = presentaciones y mesa redonda (Laboratorio de conversación) organizadas por Movimiento Multiartistico Matiz-Nuance

Esta serie, aborda lo político, el cuerpo, la memoria y la identidad a través de artistas lationamericanos en Toronto, integra diferentes perspectivas artísticas y académicas para generar discusiones y dialogos entre el publico y los artistas participantes

Agradecemos al apoyo del Consejo de las Artes de Ontario, AluCine Festival Latinoamericano de Artes Visuales de Toronto, Francico Garzon y al conocimiento y la colaboracion de la organización e-fagia, Gloria Trujillo, Arlan Londoño, Claudio Saldivia y Camilo Zabala.

Agradecimiento especial por el inmenso e incondicional apoyo y fe de Juan Felipe Ocampo.

Contact Info:
Matiz~Nuance MultiArts Movement Team
647-309-0419

416-571-0231
matiz.nuance@gmail.com

Sandra Leon
Anthropologist and Curator
416-551-1982
matiz.nuance@gmail.com

Francisco Garzon | Real Estate Broker | FG Team Leader

Business 905 275 9400 | Mobile 647 999 9724 | Fax 905 275 1481

francisco@fgteam.ca | www.franciscogarzon.com

October 22th, "Fort-Da" Matiz~Nuance's Presentations & Round Table Discussions

2010-10-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

Presents:

Fort-Da
Curated by Carmen Ocampo

With works by Gullermina Buzio, Juana Awad,
Laura Barron, Julieta Maria & Jorge Arcila

October 22, 8PM

CineCycle
129 Spadina Avenue(Laneway)
Toronto, ON, M5V 3A8

Identity is located in the images that constitute and unify the body. These images come from memories and reflections of others that the body makes its own. But the movement of unification of the body is threatened with disintegration in the questions and contradictions that these images contain. The Freudian notion of the Fort-Da (German for gone-there), represents the basic dynamics of presence and absence that occurs in identification and self-recognition processes, articulating memory, body and identity.

In this presentation / round table discussion, five creators revisit and question their own memories, evoking their images of presences and absences. Appealing to identity movements in the subject and facing the anguish caused by the risk of disintegration, these artists scrutinize themselves and use their own bodies to create experiences and reflections, embodying the pleasure and pain of being in order to be.

Media artist Guillermina Buzio uses her body to explore issues of identity and the concept of ‘borderlands’ through performing everyday actions in abstract situations. Media artist and performer Juana Awad delves into the relationship between the body-live, the body-object and the absent body, to ultimately reflect upon the concept of "being". Visual artist Laura Barron explores the long process of adaptation to new cultures as a focal point in her art. Visual artist Julieta Maria, using video-recorded, personal performances, explores the movements of affect and the transgressing forces that puncture all human subjects. Ph.D. and psychologist Jorge Arcila revisits his memories in order to establish new relationships with the past and to link historical memory and collective remembrance to his current reality and identity.

The artists will present their work in the first half of the program and will engage in dialog in the second half.

Fort - Da is part of a series of presentations and round table discussions organized by Matiz-Nuance MultiArts Movement. This series, which addresses the political and the psychological through Latin American artists in Toronto, will integrate different artistic and academic perspectives to generate discussions and dialogue between the public and participating artists.

This series is carried out in collaboration with e-fagia organization. Thanks to the support of the Ontario Arts Council, aluCine Toronto Latin Media Arts Festival, Francisco Garzón and Gloria Trujillo.

Contact Info:
Matiz~Nuance MultiArts Movement Team
416-571-0231
416-551-1982
matiz.nuance@gmail.com

Carmen Ocampo
Psychologist and Curator
647-309-0419
matiz.nuance@gmail.com

Francisco Garzon | Real Estate Broker | FG Team Leader

Business 905 275 9400 | Mobile 647 999 9724 | Fax 905 275 1481

francisco@fgteam.ca | www.franciscogarzon.com

*Photo By Juana Awad, Desing by Carmen Ocampo.

ABOUT THE PROJECT: Series of 'Conversatorios'

2010-09-17T22:33:00.000-07:00

Body of Knowledge, together with Fort-Da and Salvage, constitute a
series of events in which we present different artists that appeal to
the body and to memory to reflect on issues of identity. By looking
at social oppressions and acknowledging the role of the other in the
construction of their own social and cultural body; by questioning
their limits, the absences and presences in their personal story; or
by salvaging the past and forging new encounters in a movement of
becoming where new opportunities of being may arise, these artists
use their body as an instrument: the body is the site of the passage
of time, the means to understand the experiences of others, and
the site where a creative movement is generated that looks for its
roots while engaging in new experiences.

September 14th, Matiz~Nuance Exhibition & Roundtable: "BODY OF KNOWLEDGE"

2010-08-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Tuesday September 14th
Time: 7-9PM
Wychwood Theatre/Artscape Wychwood Barns
601 Christie Street
Toronto, ON, M6G 4C7

“Body of knowledge” is part of a series of Exhibitions and round-table discussions organized by Matiz-Nuance MultiArts Movement. This series, which addresses the political through Latin American artists in Toronto, will integrate different artistic and academic perspectives to generate discussions and dialog between the public and the participating artists. “Body of Knowledge” will feature five artists who will present their work in the first half and will engage in dialog in the second half.

Curators:
Julieta Maria

Artists:
Olga Barrios, dancer.
Claudia Bernal, Interdisciplinary artist.
Pierre-Yves Serinet, Director of Magic Blancket Productions.
Jorge Lozano, film and video artist.
Rodrigo Hernandez, visual artist.

This series is carried out in collaboration with e-fagia organization and is co-presented by aluCine Festival and Allende Arts Festival. Thanks to the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

Contact Info:
Carmen Ocampo
Matiz~Nuance Executive Director
647-7285-280
movimientomatiz@gmail.com

Julieta Maria
Matiz~Nuance Curator
416-5710-231
julieta.spirits@gmail.com

Projects Info:

1. Dance - Behind Windows by Olga barrios Choreographer and Dancer.

Behind windows is a piece that depicts aspects of dehumanization of violence through acts of war. 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.

2. Performance - The tree of oblivion by Claudia Bernal and Pierre-Yves Serinet.

The Tree of Oblivion is a piece in which the movements and actions are inspired by texts by Victor Jara and Pablo Neruda, two important figures of Latin American resistance. It is a mix of music, theatre and performance. Claudia and Pierre are brought to Toronto thanks to the support of AluCine Toronto Latin Media Arts Festival.

3. Video The New(be)comers Adult Knowledge by Rodrigo Hernandez.

“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. The New(be)comers employs 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.

4. Video Moving Still- Still Life by Jorge Lozano.

Moving Still – Still Life is an experimental documentary in seven screens that reflects on youth and gang culture in a marginalized neighbourhood in Cali, Colombia. The split screens investigate how the environment affects the emotions and behavior of individuals, and also offers simultaneous views that frame the testimonies offered to the camera.

*Photo by Emma Walker, Designer by Arlan Londoño, Dancer: Olga Barrios

The First YouTube Interactive VIDEO PARTY!!!!

2010-08-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

Por favor ayudanos a difundir ampliamente entre tus contactos. Gracias!!

Matiz~Nuance MultiArts Movement and e-Fagia Visual and Media Arts Organization invite you to:

The First Interactive VIDEO PARTY!!

With DJ Noloves.

Friday August 20^th, 9 PM

@ NACO’s Gallery Cafe (1665 Dundas St. West) between Lansdowne & Dufferin.

Here is how to participate:

1. Submit a link to your favorite MUSIC videos on YouTube, Vimeo or any internet site (vintage, funny, nostalgic, you choose) to contact@e-fagia.org.

2. Show up at NACO’s and sing and dance to the screening! People will be encouraged to comment on their selections.

DJ NOLOVES will spark the party after the screening with an eclectic mixture of dancing music.

Deadline for the submission of videos: August 18^th.

Donation at the door, which will include a ticket to participate in mystery raffle.

movimientomatiz.blogspot.com
www.e-fagia.org

"Isn't Art an Activity that Gives Things a Face?" Levinas on the Power of Art

2010-07-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

Author: Benda Hofmeyr
Published: September 2007

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/index.htm

Abstract (E): French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's thinking on art goes to the very heart of the debate concerning the possibility of "thinking (or expressing/expressive) pictures". Knowing whether or not art can give things a face would enable us to ascertain whether images are capable of exceeding themselves - of "articulating" a text, "uttering" a speech, or even "thinking" a thought. In this essay, I attempt to answer this question by way of a critical analysis of two of Levinas's pivotal essays on art: (1) "Reality and its Shadows" (1948); and (2) "The Transcendence of Words" (1949).

Abstract (F): La pensée esthétique du philosophe français Emmanuel Levinas va jusqu'au coeur des débats sur la possibilité de penser (ou d'exprimer) l'image. L'interrogation sur la possibilité de l'art de donner un " visage" aux choses, est une façon d'explorer davantage la question de savoir si les choses sont capables d'aller au-delà de leurs propres limites - et partant d'articuler un texte, d'énoncer un acte de langage, voire de penser. Dans cet article, j'essaie de trouver une réponse à ces questions en faisant une lecture critique de deux essais clé de Levinas sur l'art: La réalité et son ombre (1948) et La transcendance des mots. A propos des "Biffures" de Michel Leiris (1949).

keywords: Radical passivity, the Other, detachment, image, statue

To cite this article:

Hofmeyr, B. "Isn't Art an Activity that Gives Things a Face?" Levinas on the Power of Art. Image [&] Narrative [e-journal], 18 (2007).
Available: http://www.imageandnarrative.be/thinking_pictures/hofmeyr.htm

"Can things take on a face? Isn't art an activity that gives things a face? Isn't the façade of a house a house that is looking at us?" (IOF, 10).

These questions propounded by French philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas go to the very heart of the debate concerning the possibility of "thinking (or expressing/expressive) pictures". In other words, knowing whether or not art can give things a face - in the Levinasian sense of the word - would enable us to ascertain whether or not images, beyond merely showing something, are somehow capable of exceeding themselves, of "articulating" a text, "uttering" a speech, or even "thinking" a thought. My attempt to answer this question will consist in a critical analysis of two of Levinas's essays on art: (1) "Reality and its Shadows" (1948); and (2) "The Transcendence of Words" (1949). I shall start with a brief recapitulation of Levinas's notion of the face of the other. The face confronts us with an arresting paralysis, what Levinas refers to as "radical passivity". It is a paradoxical notion that is suggestive of an immobilizing encounter that facilitates authentic action. In this essay I shall attempt to ascertain to what extent art is invested with such power of simultaneous paralysis and empowerment.

What's in a Face?

Let us start by assessing what exactly Levinas means by the face. Set within the context of his ethical metaphysics, Levinas maintains that the face of the other person addresses me and imposes the responsibility I bear towards others. This encounter stops me in my selfish tracks, as it were, and makes me aware of my inherent responsibility towards others in need. How does the face of another succeed in affecting me in this way? According to Levinas, the encounter with the other person coincides with the "epiphany of the face", i.e. the face consists in a manifestation of God. In order to "embody" an expression of this nature and magnitude, the face clearly cannot be reduced to a person's facial expression. Instead, the face is "invisible" - irreducible to a person's appearance or representation (TI, 194/168). Precisely because the other defies all fixating representations it can show itself - "express" itself beyond what is seen or understood. This expression is a confrontation because it interrupts our reductive perception and representation of the other (cf. CPP. 20-21).

Herewith Levinas is countering a common misconception - our tendency to associate "face" with physical countenance i.e. literally a person's face, physiognomy or facial expression and by extension, character, social status, situatedness or context through which a person becomes visible and describable to us. In seeing the face, we assess and inadvertently reduce the other to fit into our own conceptual framework. Levinas's use of the face precisely defies this kind of reductive characterization or representation. It testifies to the fact that the other person never coincides with his/her appearance, representation, image or evocation. The face is that which in the countenance of the other escapes our gaze - that which is irreducible to his/her appearing. To be sure, the other is indeed visible but not reducible to what we see of him/her - more than the sum total of his/her parts, in other words (also see E & I, 89-90/85-86 and AE, 87-91/109-115).

As mentioned above, this negative description of the face also has a positive significance. The other can "show" itself precisely because s/he defies all fixating forms and images. It is an expression that is not dependent upon what is visible or comprehensible. The face expresses itself through the gaze and word of the other. Through the gaze of the eye and the sound of the word, the other breaks through his/her plastic form and presents his/her arresting alterity. It is arresting therein that it interrupts our egocentric and other-reductive nature (cf. CPP, 19). The face, therefore, does not only look at me; it is a face-to-face confrontation. It is face by virtue of the fact that it speaks to me, which could be made manifest in factual speaking or otherwise (there are also other forms of speaking as is apparent in Levinas's insistence upon the expressive glance). When the other speaks I am "obliged" to listen. Levinas characterizes the expression of the face in and through the word as "teaching" - not in the form of (Socratic) pedagogics, which makes manifest what one is already latently aware of. The other's word teaches because it introduces something radically new (also see TI, 51/22; 219/194; 69/41; 99/73).

Radical Passivity: the Impact of the Face

The face has direct bearing on Levinas's notion of radical passivity. It is well known that the moral of Levinas's philosophy is the necessity to take responsibility for the other person. Levinas claims that taking care of others in need is not a free, rational decision but a fundamental responsibility that is inherently part of being human. When we encounter an orphan begging on the street our responsibility to help him/her is not a question of rational deliberation but an unavoidable duty that is pre-consciously felt. We are passively obligated before we can actively choose to help. Contrary to what one might think radical passivity is therefore not at odds with helping others (with altruistic action) but the necessary condition for ethical action. Levinas believes that we can only act once we have become re-sensitized - awakened through a kind of paralytic shock - paralysed into action, as it were. This paralytic shock is produced when the face of the other person turns to me and addresses me. Levinas argues that the needy other [the orphan, the widow, the stranger] incapacitates our normal selfish ways and this "radical passivity" enables us to recognize our inherent responsibility towards others in need.

Passivity in the radical sense is therefore a paradoxical notion: it precedes the passivity-activity opposition and functions as necessary condition for activity or agency. It is passive with regard to itself, and thus submits to itself as though it were an exterior power. Hence, radical passivity harbours within itself a potentia - a power or enabling force. In this sense, passivity evokes passion - not knowledge, not the rational realization of responsibility but (pre-conscious) passion - what Levinas (CPP, 62-63, footnote 4) refers to as "the primordial feeling" (cf. Hofmeyr 2007).

What happens in radical passivity might be best explained in terms of George Bataille's fascination with the photograph of the torture of a Chinese man. The image depicts a man being dismembered and disembowelled while being kept conscious with opium. This is betrayed by the expression on the sufferer's face - at once ecstatic and intolerable. What is important in this context is not the violence of the image but Bataille's reaction to it, i.e. its impact - something which I cannot explain by using one of Levinas's examples such as the destitute orphan. Over-exposure to street beggars has long since desensitized us. Bataille became obsessed with this image in which ecstasy and immortal pain collide. The excruciating suffering undergone by the vulnerable other caused him to become extremely upset. It distressed him so much that he became delirious, distressed to the point of immobilization (Bataille 1986: 244). This obsession is the "substance" of Levinas's ethics: involuntary fascination, arresting paralysis that overcomes conscious thought. "One does not merely observe a scene here. For, when the other person is drained of all substance, when his reality is his erosion. then the borders between stage and audience are suspended and we are 'involved', 'elected', 'singularized'. The paralysis of the subject is an uncontrollable rapport with the other person that absolves all proper difference between Same and Other. It is an intimacy more profound than sympathy or empathy" (Wall 1999: 54).

Now, it is my contention that art has the power to effect such radical passivity, a contention echoed by Levinas's tentative but provocative proposal that art might be an activity that endows things with a face (IOF, 10). Like the face, I believe that art has the power to address us in a way that stops our indifference and inertia and enables us to act effectively. Moreover, it is the ethico-political responsibility of artistic and cultural producers to come up with strategies to engender others with such em-powering paralysis - a passivity that provokes a "pre-conscious awareness" of the power we have to act in a time in which Western civilization's indifference towards the needs of others is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon. In what follows I shall attempt to buttress this contention by way a critical analysis of Levinas's own testing of his hesitant hypothesis embodied in his essays, "Reality and its Shadow" (1948) and "The Transcendence of Words" (1949).

Putting my Freedom into Action: the Impact of Art?

Levinas begins his essay "Reality and its Shadow" by expounding upon the customary noble role ascribed to art. The function of art is expression and artistic expression rests on cognition. Artists, whether painters or musicians tell - they tell of the ineffable, i.e. they express what is too great or extreme to be described in words. "What common perception trivializes and misses, an artwork apprehends in its irreducible essence". Where common language falls short or gives up, a poem or painting speaks. Thus, writes Levinas, "an artwork is more real than reality and attests to the dignity of the artistic imagination, which sets itself up as knowledge of the absolute " (my emphasis). Levinas then goes on to say that "[c]riticism too professes this dogma. It enters into the artist's game with all the seriousness of science". According to him, criticism either seems to lead a parasitic existence by preying on difficult art or it substitutes itself for art: "[i]s not to interpret Mallarmé to betray him? Is not to interpret his work faithfully to suppress it? To say clearly what he says obscurely is to reveal the vanity of his obscure speech" (R&S, 130).

Criticism can indeed seem suspect and pointless. But, writes Levinas, it has its source in the mind of the spectator, listener or reader and is justified by virtue of the fact that it exists as a public's mode of comportment: "[n]ot content with being absorbed in aesthetic enjoyment, the public feels an irresistible need to speak. The fact that there might be something for the public to say, when the artist refuses to say about artwork anything in addition to the work itself, the fact that one cannot contemplate in silence, justifies the critic. He can be defined as the one that still has something to say when everything has been said, that can say about the work something else than that work" ( ibid.). Levinas proposes - and here he presents as conditional statement the argument that he would ultimately defend - that criticism would be justified or rehabilitated "[i]f art originally were neither language nor knowledge, if it were therefore situated outside of 'being in the world'". Criticism would then "represent the intervention of the understanding necessary for integrating the inhumanity and inversion of art into human life and into the mind" (R&S, 131, my emphasis). Here we catch a first glimpse of what could be conceived as quite a derogatory conception of art - a conception of art that would run counter to any possibility of art aspiring to "face-like" expression.

According to Levinas, the artwork remains essentially disengaged from the world. It remains disengaged because of its completion: "[t]he completion, the indelible seal of artistic production by which the artwork remains essentially disengaged, is underestimated - that supreme moment when the last brush stroke is done, when there is not another word to add to or to strike from the text, by virtue of which every artwork is classical. Such completion is different from the simple interruption which limits language and the works of nature and industry". The artist stops because s/he has to; the work appears to be saturated and refuses to accept anything more. It is "completed" in the sense that it is closed off: "it does not give itself out as the beginning of a dialogue" ( ibid. ).

This completion and resultant seclusion from the world do not necessarily justify conceiving of art as art simply for art's sake, however. We have to come to understand the value of this disengagement. What would be the significance of disengaging oneself from the world? Does it imply going beyond the here and now down-below and to ascend to some higher plane of meaning such as the Platonic realm of Ideas? To go beyond would then entail communicating with ideas, i.e. understanding. Does not the function of art precisely lie in not understanding, in remaining obscure, asks Levinas. For him, the event in art has to do with its "commerce with the obscure, as a totally independent ontological event" - independent of understanding and cognition. Art "is the very event of obscuring, a descent of the night, an invasion of shadow" (R&S, 132). Contrary to the classical conception of art, then, Levinas conceives of art as belonging to the order of concealment rather than that of revelation.

The most elementary procedure of art, according to Levinas, consists in substituting an image of the object for the object itself. This image does not suppose a conceptual relationship of understanding to the object, which would make the latter intelligible. Instead the image neutralizes this living conceptual relationship in which the object is grasped (intellectually). The well-known disinterestedness of artistic vision, explains Levinas, signifies above all a blindness to concepts.

Upon closer investigation, artistic vision might not be all that disinterested at all. Disinterest suggests the absence of inducement, personal involvement or inclination. It therefore implies freedom - something which an image does away with. An image does not engender an intellectual insight, nor does it entail Heidegger's "letting be" [ Sein-lassen ]. On the contrary, an " image marks a hold over us rather than our initiative, a fundamental passivity " (R&S, 132, my emphasis). Face-to-face with a work of art we are therefore not free but immobilized - held fast by something addressing us. It is not about comprehending what is revealed but about being captivated by that which is precisely incomprehensible. Here Levinas seems to confirm in no uncertain terms our suspicion that an image might be invested with the power to induce radical passivity - the very impact of the face.

When it comes to images, then, it would be more appropriate to speak of interest than disinterestedness. "An image is interesting, without the slightest sense of utility, interesting in the sense of involving, in the etymological sense [inter-esse = between-be(ings)] - to be among things which should have had only the status of objects" (R&S, 133). The subject is among things as a thing, as part of the spectacle - as in a dream.

Levinas conceives of this power possessed by images to "involve" or effect a "hold over us" in terms of musicality. Rhythm, according to him, does not so much designate an inner law of the poetic order as the way the poetic order affects us. Poetry's effect upon us can be described as an imposition upon us without that imposition being assumed - a passive being affected or a participation. "where we cannot speak of consent, assumption, initiative or freedom, because the subject is caught up and carried away. a sort of passage from oneself to anonymity" ( ibid., pp. 132-133). One is caught between consciousness and unconsciousness: stripped of one's power and prerogative to assume and yet present and aware: "a waking dream". This, Levinas maintains, is the captivation or incantation of poetry and music. For him, also images are musical therein that it possesses the same power: " they impose themselves on us without our assuming them". In this context then, rhythm and music(al) represent the reversal of power into participation.

For Levinas sound is the quality most detached from an object. In listening we do not call to mind or apprehend a "something" but are without concepts or associations. Images are musical in this sense, i.e. in the sense that they can effect a detachment from an object. Images are capable of invoking sensation free from all conception. Sensation is the hold that an image has over us. This is why both classical art - i.e. realist and representative art and therefore attached to objects - and modern works, which claim to be pure music, pure painting or pure poetry because they drive objects out of the world of sounds, colours and words, convey the true essence of art because they both break up representation. A represented object, according to Levinas, by the simple fact of becoming an image, is converted into a non-object. An image therefore brings about a dis-incarnation of reality (R&S, 134).

This detachment that the image effects from reality or the object, which Levinas insists upon, does not however mean that he somehow disavows the obvious resemblance with the represented object. An image differs from a symbol, a sign, or a word precisely by the very way it refers to its object: resemblance. A sign is "pure transparency" because it opens our eyes to what is signified, whereas the image is opaque. Resemblance supposes that thought stops on the image itself, which consequently supposes a certain opacity of the image. Levinas insists that resemblance is not to be understood as the result of a comparison between an image and the original, "but as the very movement that engenders the image" (R&S,135). That would make reality not only what it is, but also its double, its shadow, its image. Being (what is) is not only itself, it is also the surplus that escapes itself. There is always a "more", a remainder that cannot entirely be absorbed or enclosed by what one is. "which escape from under the identity of his substance, which like a torn sack is unable to contain them. Thus a person bears on his face, alongside of its being with which he coincides, its own caricature, its picturesqueness" ( ibid.). According to Levinas, then, the face is equivalent to that remainder that shadows one's being; the face thus fulfils the same function as the image - as reality's shadow. There is thus a duality in a person, in his/her being. "It is what it is and it is a stranger to itself, and there is a relationship between these two movements". The person is both him/herself and his/her image (face). An image, then, can be understood an allegory of being in the sense that it reveals or captures the hidden meaning, the remainder that evades the concrete features.

It is at this juncture that we start detecting a different, more disparaging tone in Levinas's conceptualization of art. When it comes to art, he explains, our consciousness of the representation lies in knowing that the object is not there. The image of an object (in a painting, e.g.) does not serve as a symbol and in the absence of the object does not force its presence, but by its presence insists on the object's absence. The image fully occupies the object's place to mark its removal, "as though the represented object died, were degraded, were disincarnated in its own reflection" (R&S, 136, my emphasis).

Every image, according to Levinas is in the end a statue - a stoppage of time, or a delay behind itself. A statue realizes the paradox of an instant that endures without a future. Within the life, or rather death of a statue, an instant endures infinitely. "the Mona Lisa will smile eternally. Eternally the smile of the Mona Lisa about to broaden will not broaden. An eternally suspended future floats around the congealed position of a statue like a future forever to come. The imminence of the future lasts before an instant stripped of the essential characteristic of the present, its evanescence. It will never have completed its task as a present, as though reality withdrew from its own reality and left it powerless" (R&S, 138). In this situation the present can take on nothing; as such it is an impersonal and anonymous instant.

It is not that the artist failed to give the statue life. The life of an artwork quite simply does not go beyond the limit of an instant. The artwork would be flawed or unsuccessful if it did not contain that aspiration for life - but it is only an aspiration. "The artist has given the statue a lifeless life, a derisory life which is not master of itself, a caricature of life.. [It] does not hold in its own hands the strings of the puppet it is" (R&S, 138). A statue is tragic because it embodies its eternally suspended future - the power of freedom congeals into impotence. a nightmare!

When it comes to the non-plastic arts such as music, literature, theatre and cinema, the same rule applies: the time apparently introduced into the images that appear in these non-plastic arts do not alter their predetermined fate. The characters in a book are committed or is it condemned to the infinite repetition of the same acts. They can be narrated because their being resembles itself, doubles itself and immobilizes. Concepts, on the other hand, cannot be contained within such a fixity. They initiate life, offer reality to our powers, invite a dialectic. The characters in a book, however, are shut up, captives forever. Their history is never finished; it continues without advancing. They are condemned to act out their fate despite their freedom (R&S, 139).

According to Levinas, the fact that humanity has provided itself with art reveals in time the uncertainty of time's continuation and something like a death doubling the impulse of life. The artist's world's great obsession - captured in the petrification of the instant in the heart of duration - is the insecurity of a being which has a presentiment of fate (R&S, 140). For Levinas, the eternally frozen instant accomplished in art is "the meanwhile", never finished, still enduring - something inhuman and monstrous.

Criticism: Art's Salvation?

Art, according to Levinas's conceptualization, is therefore essentially disengaged. As such it constitutes in a world of initiative and responsibility, a dimension of evasion or escapism. Levinas is herewith aligning himself with the most general and commonplace experience of aesthetic enjoyment. He explains that this commonplace experience precisely underlines the value of art: "[a]rt brings into the world the obscurity of fate, but it especially brings the irresponsibility that charms as a lightness and grace. It frees" (R&S, 141). It frees us from the effort required by science, philosophy and action.

Apart from a value, Levinas also associates this disengaged and escapist nature of art with irresponsibility. From this point of view, the value of the beautiful becomes relative. "There is something wicked and egoist and cowardly in artistic enjoyment. There are times when one can be ashamed of it, as of feasting during a plague " (R&S, 142, my emphasis). For Levinas, then, art is not committed by virtue of being art. Precisely for this reason it cannot ever constitute the supreme value of civilization.

There is one way to rectify this, according to Levinas. What he calls "philosophical criticism" is capable of integrating the inhuman work of the artist into the human world. Criticism already detaches it from its irresponsibility by envisaging its technique. It treats the artist as a person at work. By tracing his/her influences, criticism links the disengaged artist to real history. It goes deeper than that, however. Criticism also addresses the artistic event as such i.e. the obscuring of being in images, that stopping of being in the meanwhile. The artist moves in the world of shadows, as though he lacks the force to arouse realities. The immobile statue has to be mobilized and made to speak. The task and value of criticism is to link the fixed world of art to the intelligible world - to reintroduce life and time into art.

For Levinas, that which introduces true time and significance is the relation with the other person - a relation which is no longer limited to artistic or aesthetic categories but that constitutes ethics (R&S, 143). In short, criticism has the power to re-engage art because it signifies a primordial relation with the other person.

***

While in "Reality and its Shadow", the image immobilizes its object - eternally stultifying it in the meanwhile - another essay of Levinas's entitled, "The Transcendence of Words" written one year later, qualifies the particular effect of art in terms of silence: "[b]y creating beauty out of nature, art calms and quietens it. All the arts, even those based on sound, create silence" (ToW, 147). This silence is not neutral and harmless, however. It "might be the result of a bad conscious, or it may weigh heavy, or cause dread". It is therefore accompanied by the need to enter into a relation with someone - what Levinas calls "the necessity of critique".

Levinas cites the example of the stranded Robinson Crusoe, who finds himself "in a magnificent tropical landscape, where he has continued to maintain civilization through his tools and his morality and his calendar." Despite all of this "he still finds in his encounter with Man Friday the greatest event of his insular life. It is the moment when finally a man who speaks replaces the inexpressible sadness of echoes" (p. 148). To really hear a sound, we need to hear a word. Pure sound, for Levinas, is therefore, the word (ToW, 148).

Levinas qualifies the relation with someone as "critique" because the other does not confirm my world but interrupts it. Levinas explains that sound and "the consciousness termed hearing" break with the self-complete world of vision and art. Because of its disruptive force, Levinas conceives of sound as "a ringing, clanging scandal". In vision form is wedded to content in such a way as to appease it, but in sound the perceptible quality overflows so that form can no longer contain its content.

The presence of the other person (the Other/ Autre ), Levinas explains, is a presence that teaches us something; this is why the word, as a form of education, amounts to more than the experience of reality - it adds something that was not there before, that cannot be deduced as if an inherent part of reality. The use of the word wrenches experience out of its aesthetic self-sufficiency. Criticism as the word of a living being speaking to another living being brings the image in which art revels back to the fully real being. The language of criticism takes us out of our dreams (ToW, 148).

"The act of expression", according to Levinas, "makes it impossible to remain within oneself ( en soi) or keep one's thought for oneself ( pour soi ) and so reveals the inadequacy of the subject's position in which the ego has a given world at its disposal. To speak is to interrupt my existence as a subject and a master". The subject who speaks does not situate the world in relation to himself, nor situate herself at the heart of her own spectacle like the artist. Instead s/he is situated in relation to the Other ( Autre). "This privilege of the other person ceases to be incomprehensible once we admit that the first fact of existence is neither being in-itself ( en soi ) nor being for-itself ( pour soi ) but being for the other (pour l'autre)" (ToW, 149). Put differently, the spoken word directed towards the other person produces transcendence by shattering his/her world of self-sufficiency dominated by egocentric pursuits. For Levinas, the artist - situating herself at the heart of her own spectacle - is firmly entrenched in this egoist and therefore inadequate existence. This is what makes critique essential.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to return to the link I have tried to establish at the beginning of this essay between "thinking (or expressing/expressive) pictures" and the Levinasian conception of the face.

As we have seen, Levinas does indeed suggest that art can take on a face as is evident in the quotation cited on the first page: "[c]an things take on a face? Isn't art an activity that gives things a face? Isn't the facade of a house a house that is looking at us?" Having posed what could easily be considered as rhetorical questions, Levinas immediately sows a seed of doubt, by backtracking on his own intuition without giving much by way of explanation: "[t]he analysis conducted thus far is not enough to give the answer. Yet, we wonder whether rhythm's personal gait - fascinating, magic - is not art's substitute for sociality, the face, and speech" (IOF, 10).

Taking on a face effectively implies the ethical address - the way of speaking that is a teaching, an interruption of the self-enclosed world of the addressee. That is the way in which criticism supplements art - drawing it out of its self-enclosed world of escapist beauty into the real world of engagement. At first, Levinas seems to confirm my own hypothesis that art is potentially more than just that, that it can - by itself - bring about a radical passivity: "[a]n image marks a hold over us rather than our initiative, a fundamental passivity" (R&S,132). It became clear, however, that aesthetics or art as such in Levinas is inferior to ethics. In fact, for Levinas everything is subordinate to ethics; ethics is first philosophy. The face in Levinas belongs to the realm of ethics. Art, on the other hand, is something horrible, "something inhuman and monstrous [ quelque chose d'inhumain et de monstrueux ]" ( ibid., p. 141) because it is powerless, because it cannot go beyond, because it cannot end. Art is disengaged, self-enclosed and therefore irresponsible. For Levinas, criticism is art's only possible source of rectification. This might be a productive course to investigate if we separate it from the ethical significance it has for him and take it in a strictly ontological sense. In this regard, Boris Grois (2007: 77) argues that artworks lack vitality, energy and health: "[t]hey are genuinely sick and helpless - in the museum a spectator has to be led to the artwork, as hospital workers might take a visitor to see a bedridden patient. It is no coincidence that the word 'curator' is etymologically related to 'cure'. Curating is curing. The process of curating cures the image's powerlessness, its incapacity to present itself. The artwork needs external help; it needs an exhibition and a curator to become visible". In an analogous fashion, it could therefore be argued that criticism in Levinas fulfils the same function as curating in Groys. Left to its own devices, therefore, art will not fulfil its inherent potential of engaging with the world, perhaps even changing it.

Bibliographical References

Bataille, G. (1986). De tranen van eros. Nijmegen: SUN.

Groys, B. (2007). "The Politics of Equal of Aesthetic Rights", in Bavo (Ed.)(2007). The Art of Over-Identification. Rotterdam: Episode Publishers.

Hofmeyr, A. B. (2007). "Radical Passivity. Ethical Problem or Solution? A Preliminary Study", in The South African Journal of Philosophy, 26(2).

Levinas, E. (1948). "Reality and its Shadow", n Hand, S. (Ed.)(1989). The Levinas Reader. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 129-143 [cited as R&S]

Levinas, E. (1949). "The Transcendence of Words", in In Hand, S. (Ed.)(1989). The Levinas Reader. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 144-149 [cited as ToW].

Levinas, E. (1951). "Is Ontology Fundamental?", in Levinas, E. (1998). Entres Nous. On Thinking-of-the-Other. London: The Athlone Press, pp. 1-11 [cited as IOF].

Levinas, E. (1961). Totalité et infini: essai sur l'extériorité The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff / Totality and Infinity, trans. Alphonso Lingis. 1979. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff [cited as TI].

Levinas, E. (1974). Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff / Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, trans. Alphonso Lingis. 1991. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers [cited as AE].

Levinas, E. (1982). Éthique et infini. Dialogues avec Philippe Nemo. Librairie Arthème Fayard et Radio-France, L'espace intérieur 26 / Ethics and Infinity. Conversations with Philippe Nemo, trans. Richard A. Cohen. 1985. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press [cited as E&I].

Levinas, E. (1987). Collected Philosophical Papers, trans. Alphonso Lingis. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers [cited as CPP ].

Wall, T. C. (1999). Radical Passivity. Levinas, Blanchot, and Agamben. New York: State University of New York Press.

After having completed her PhD on the work of French philosophers Michel Foucault and Emmanuel Levinas at the Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), Benda Hofmeyr conducted research at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL) on the political dimension of art and cultural production. Her current post doctoral research at the University of Pretoria (ZA) is focussed on the conditions of possibility of ethical agency in Levinas and Kant. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious scholarships and awards (the most recent of which is a Veni-grant) and has published in a variety of fields including contemporary Continental philosophy, political and moral philosophy, art and cultural production.

Nicholas Bourriaud - Video por e-fagia.org

2010-07-14T00:00:00.001-07:00

Nicholas Bourriaud

- Lecture during the forum at 10th Havana Biennial, 2009. La Habana, Cuba

- Haga click en el nombre

Artista polaco revive masacre de judíos con un incendio

2010-07-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

Un artista polaco, Rafal Betlejewski, incendió una granja en medio de una pradera la noche del domingo en el centro de su país, para conmemorar los 69 años de la masacre de judíos de Jedwabne (noreste).

Más de mil personas, fuerzas de la policía y dos unidades de bomberos acudieron a un campo cercano a Zawada (centro) a presenciar la conflagración, según reportaron los medios locales.

La obra de Betlejewski consistía en pedir a los polacos que enviaran a su sitio web www.tesknie.com "todos los malos pensamientos que hubieran tenido sobre los judíos y que les pesaran", para que fueran quemados de forma definitiva.

El artista leyó los nombres de quienes le enviaron sus pensamientos y puso los papeles en pequeña la granja, que luego roció con gasolina. Betlejewski se encerró y salió por una puerta trasera cuando el lugar ya estaba en llamas.

El título de la obra es "The barn burning project" y la granja fue construida desde el pasado 6 de julio con la ayuda de varias personas de la localidad.

La muerte masiva ocurrió en Polonia, cuando fueron quemadas vivas alrededor de 350 personas en una granja, según varios historiadores, aunque unos dicen que fueron 1.500. Después de 30 años, las investigaciones confirmaron que los asesinos fueron los propios vecinos en un hecho de antisemitismo.

El 10 de julio de 2001, el presidente polaco Aleksander Kwansiewski pidió perdón públicamente a las víctimas y sus familiares en nombre del pueblo polaco.

Este hecho provocó traumas entre la población y, por esto, la iniciativa del artista.

Según el gran rabino de Polonia, Michael Schudrich, Betlejewski es "muy sincero" y "milita por romper los estereotipos y el odio. Quiere provocar a la gente para que enfrenten hechos y realidades desagradables", declaró. "Sus intenciones son puras, incluso si sus métodos no son aceptados por todo el mundo", agregó.

CON INFORMACIÓN DE AGENCIAS

http://www.cambio.com.co//culturacambio/866/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_CAMBIO-7801890.html

La verdadera ilustración

2010-06-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

Santiago Rocha, Simón Wilches y Santiago Rivas, creadores de ‘El pequeño tirano’. Su fina sátira política llega a DVD después de alcanzar el éxito en la red.

ANIMACIÓNCon humor y un lenguaje que sabe llegarle al público joven, la animación se está convirtiendo en una nueva sucursal de la plaza pública. ¿Cuál es su secreto?

Durante mucho tiempo los dibujos animados fueron vistos en Colombia como un formato de entretenimiento dirigido sobre todo a los niños. Eran las caricaturas de los periódicos las encargadas de decir con trazos y humor esas verdades tan dolorosas como necesarias que no encontraban espacio en las páginas editoriales. Hoy, a los caricaturistas de los medios impresos, vigentes todavía, se están sumando nuevos dibujantes que están cumpliendo esa misma tarea, pero recurriendo a la pantalla en lugar del papel.

De esa nueva generación se destacan tres proyectos que les han apostado a los dibujos animados como lenguaje para sentar una posición crítica. Dos de ellos se apoyan además en el humor y son obra de jóvenes realizadores: El pequeño tirano y La isla presidencial. El tercero le apostó al cine: el largometraje Pequeñas voces, del director colombiano Jairo Carrillo. Los tres están hechos con las uñas y no tienen problema en poner el dedo en la llaga que sea necesario.

La lista la encabeza El pequeño tirano, dibujo animado que surgió en Internet hace dos años luego de las marchas del 4 de febrero y del 16 de marzo de 2008, como reacción a la polarización que estas generaron. Sus protagonistas son dos pequeños herma-nos gemelos: uno de ultra derecha, el Tirano Diestro, y otro de extrema izquierda, el Tirano Zurdo. En historias que no superan los tres minutos, ambos infantes indagan por los detalles de episodios como el escándalo del Agro Ingreso Seguro, las 'chuzadas' o las diferencias con Venezuela.

Sus creadores son Santiago Rocha, Simón Wilches y Santiago Rivas. Para Wilches, la animación tiene varias ventajas frente a otros géneros. Una de ellas es que permite librarse de los prejuicios que cargan encima los actores de carne y hueso. "Con las personas se corre el riesgo de que el mensaje se diluya en las personalidades de los actores. La gente se queda en los prejuicios que le genera la persona y no le para bolas al mensaje". También menciona el ingrediente de la ficción, factor que juega a favor del producto. "Más allá de lo que diga, el espectador construye un vínculo especial con el protagonista, pues así sea, como en nuestro caso, un bicho cabezón y gris, es ficticio y solo por eso es adorable".

Hacen énfasis en que la animación permite moldear la personalidad del protagonista. En El pequeño tirano son dos niños que, como todos, siempre dicen la verdad. Como dice Rocha, "es más fácil que cosas tan crudas las diga un niño. Para un adulto, un niño tiene permiso de decir cualquier bestialidad y además se la celebran". El tener a dos menores como protagonistas conlleva además una segunda intención. "Es una forma de decir que aquí la política está en pañales. Estamos en la infancia como ciudadanos. Tenemos mucho que aprender".

Junto a la política, el otro ingrediente en la propuesta de los tiranos es el humor, negro e inteligente. Ellos lo asumen como el catalizador de los mensajes que quieren transmitir. "Es una herramienta para mandar mensajes; produce endorfinas que hacen que uno vea todo con mejor cara", asegura Santiago Rivas, para quien el humor juega un papel central en la política: "En Inglaterra no pasa nada porque los humoristas están ahí, todo el tiempo vigilando, sirven como un filtro entre la gente y los políticos".

Para poder ser un filtro efectivo, quieren que la gente se relacione con los personajes. Sobre todo quieren que el producto salga de la pantalla y esté en la calle, al alcance de la gente, porque parte de su propuesta es, con humor y dibujos, hacer que quienes lo vean aprendan a no tragar entero. "Queremos llegarles a quienes no tienen acceso a la red, a quienes no conocen sus derechos y por eso no son críticos". Tienen claro que no tomar partido, no ponerse ninguna camiseta, es uno de los secretos de su acogida: "Hemos defendido conceptos más que personas. Eso nos ha dado una aceptación mayor".

También como reacción a un episodio memorable, en este caso el "por qué no te callas" del Rey de España a Hugo Chávez, surgió La isla presidencial, una serie animada en la que los presidentes iberoamericanos deben convivir en una isla desierta después del naufragio de un crucero fletado por Lula da Silva. Su éxito se mide en las más de tres millones de reproducciones que registran en YouTube los tres capítulos que hasta ahora se han producido. "Cuando vimos al Rey callando a Chávez vino el clic. Ahí nos dimos cuenta de que sería muy divertido ver a todos esos personajes desamparados sobreviviendo como en la serie 'Lost'", explica Juan Andrés Ravell, uno de sus creadores.

Detrás de La isla está Ravell junto a Oswaldo Graziani y Elio Casale, venezolanos los tres. Ellos son responsables de los guiones, mientras que en Argentina un equipo de animadores se encarga de la realización. Ravell cree que el éxito de La isla se debe a tres factores. Primero, a que "los Presidentes que tenemos ahora son pintorescos y caricaturescos". Segundo, a que gracias a Internet ahora es más fácil estar al tanto de lo que ocurre en los países vecinos. Y tercero, a las facilidades que brinda la red para difundir un producto como este. "Me encanta Internet porque hay una relación directa con la audiencia; es el medio natural para este tipo de contenidos".

Cierra la lista Pequeñas voces, largometraje animado en el que el humor y la ficción le ceden el espacio al drama real de cuatro niños víctimas del conflicto que quisieron narrar y dibujar su historia de vida. En la película, los relatos, en la voz de sus protagonistas, son recreados en una animación basada también en los dibujos de los menores. Su director es Jairo Carrillo, quien luego de trabajar varios años junto a Harold Trompetero se le midió a este proyecto que consiguió el apoyo del Fondo de Desarrollo Cinematográfico y de otras entidades y festivales del exterior, entre ellos el del Tribeca Film Festival, de Robert De Niro.

Para la realización de este proyecto fue necesario entrevistar antes a 120 niños con historias de vida ligadas al conflicto y que han sufrido el desplazamiento forzado. De ahí salieron las cuatro que se presentan en la película. Estas van desde el niño reclutado por un grupo irregular hasta el que fue víctima de la explosión de un artefacto, pasando por una historia cuyo protagonista es reclutado a la fuerza y siente profunda tristeza al despedirse de sus mascotas. "Queremos mostrar cómo ven los niños el conflicto, utilizando sus dibujos y sus experiencias. Que quede claro que ellos no escogen ni su suerte ni el bando en que les toca militar", afirma Carrillo, que ahora está en el plan de enviar la película a festivales europeos. Luego vendrá el estreno en Colombia a comienzos de 2011, posiblemente en 3D, lo que la convertiría en la primera película colombiana que se estrena en ese formato.

Historias reales pero en empaque animado, y en algunos casos con el ingrediente del humor, hacen parte de esta propuesta que se está abriendo camino sobre todo entre el público joven. Su secreto radica en poner en evidencia situaciones complejas y personajes que 'dan papaya', en un lenguaje al alcance de todos, el de 'los dibujitos'.

http://www.semana.com/noticias-cultura/verdadera-ilustracion/140839.aspx

EL CUERPO EN DULCE COMPAÑÍA Y EL DESBARRANCADERO -revistacronopio.com

2010-05-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

Literatura

-revistacronopio.com

Por Luis Alfonso Castellanos Ramírez*

La representación del cuerpo en el arte occidental ha vivido desde la segunda mitad del siglo XX una radical transformación. Reflexiones filosóficas, holocaustos, la intervención de nuevas tecnologías, la manipulación de nuevos materiales, nuevas relaciones sociales y la emancipación de grupos minoritarios cambian continuamente los conceptos de cuerpo belleza y unidad. Este quehacer abre un horizonte amplio en literatura sobre lo que tiene valor estético y la reinvención de las fronteras haciendo del cuerpo un texto alterado y abierto a nuevas posibilidades.

En estos últimos años al revisar algunas novelas latinoamericanas y colombianas, dos categorías me han ayudado a ubicar mis reflexiones sobre el problema del cuerpo como unidad semiótica y fundamental del relato: el número áureo y la abyección.

El número áureo fue formalmente definido por los antiguos egipcios y griegos. Este concepto permite incluir la racionalidad en el equilibrio de esculturas y construcciones (recordemos el Partenón o el Discóbolo de Mirón).

En los últimos años ha sido releído por Lecorbusier en sus estudios sobre el Moduleur (la correspondencia y proporcionalidad ergonómica de los espacios arquitectónicos). Este «número» responde a una sensibilidad y racionalidad que incluso los pitagóricos expresaban como constante: el número φ equivale a 1,61803.

Esta proporción áurea —como también se le ha llamado— se devela igualmente en nuestras culturas colombianas precolombinas como lo evidenció el trabajo de Martín Cañis en sus estudios sobre el número áureo en las culturas del oro. Incluso, podría decir que cualquier cultura al elaborar espacios, formas y representaciones plásticas para contener, proteger, figurar o prolongar el cuerpo humano remite a unas formas, que, en psicología, encuentran cierta correspondencia con lo que Françoise Dolto llamó la imagen inconsciente del cuerpo.

Me pregunto si no existiría de manera parecida en literatura una estructura base, socialmente aceptada e implícitamente asumida, en cualquier imagen de cuerpo. ¿Se puede pensar un «algo» que estaría incluso de manera no figurativa y serviría de presupuesto para contradecir, modificar, degradar, sublimar o negar una materialidad y una experiencia somática en cualquier personaje?

Parte de mi reflexión intuye este presupuesto que estaría incluso en las descripciones físicas más parcas de personajes. En El Beso de la Mujer Araña de Manuel Puig, la ausencia de descripciones no equivale a la ausencia de cuerpo. Incluso, en otras novelas, la independencia de un fluir de conciencia no elimina la corporalidad de los protagonistas.

He querido sondear la literatura más reciente, la cual debería superar lo que Eduardo Jaramillo llamó la retórica del decoro y que remitía a la carne de los personajes desde un sistema metafórico a la naturaleza, los sobreentendidos, los eufemismos, los puntos suspensivos, los cambios abruptos de focalización y las noticias mitológicas. Un tipo de escritura sancionada por la institucionalidad confesional y recelosa de toda sensibilidad que se ufanaba de mencionar sin decir que le tenía miedo al cuerpo erótico.

Retórica del decoro insostenible e insuficiente sobre todo a partir de los Años de la Violencia en la cual ingresa en el panorama de las letras colombianas —1954 cuando aparece viento Seco— «una realidad aterradora e incomunicable» tal como lo explicó Jaramillo. El decoro deseante que analiza Jaramillo tan finamente en tres de nuestras novelas: Babel, De sobremesa y Cuatro años abordo de mí mismo, remite a unas prácticas, formas y temas que no se han extinguido porque la sociedad ha cambiado o porque el cuerpo se ha empezado a decir, a explorar y a fragmentar.

Mucho de «eso» que se calla, que aparece figurado o velado, sigue generando creación en nuestros escritores contemporáneos. Su presencia puede detectarse incluso en las dos líneas que he querido denominar como «sublimación» o «desfiguración».

Por otro lado, la abyección, tal y como la explora Julia Kristeva en Poderes de la perversión, nos permite mesurar nuestro grito de victoria contra la represión del pasado y los poderes tutelares. Tengamos presente que al hablar de sublimar y de desfigurar se requiere un «algo» que es glorificado o deformado y en concreto ese algo del cual toma especial atención: en este caso, el cuerpo. Y para entender el cuerpo en su fundante significación nada mejor que la abyección donde lo somático se hace central.

Abyecto es quien no puede configurarse como sujeto ni alcanza a delimitar objetos de deseo. Es el estado de quien no ha sido capaz de vivir, lo que llama Kristeva la represión primaria, de quien permanece atado a ese estadio arcaico en que madre e hijo son una díada inseparable. Estadio que remite a la existencia común de una sola piel y a la indiferencia del deseo. Porque lo abyecto es aquello que se ubica del otro lado de la ley, del juego simbólico, del «superyó», aquello que no integra lo cultural y que siempre enfatiza lo «natural» de lo cual el cuerpo es su dato más inmediato. Lo abyecto hace referencia estructural a nuestras reacciones del sistema nervioso primario, a las reacciones instintivas por las cuales la carne recupera su preeminencia: «la nata de la leche atragantada en el paladar», una babosa sobre la mano o la cercanía de un cadáver insepulto.

Lo abyecto podemos verlo igualmente como el sustrato «0» de la cultura y la manifestación de una simbólica imposible. Aquello que amenaza la civilización y la significación; es el estadio anterior a cualquier palabra. Se ubica por lo tanto, en los límites mismos de lo extraordinario, como lo afirma Kristeva: Lo sublime tampoco tiene objeto. El objeto «sublime» se disuelve en los transportes de una memoria sin fondo, que es la que, de estado en estado, de recuero en recuerdo, de amor en amor, transfiere este objeto al punto luminoso del resplandor donde me pierdo para ser. No bien lo percibo, lo nombro, lo sublime desencadena —desde siempre ha desencadenado— una cascada de percepciones y de palabras que ensanchan la memoria hasta el infinito.

Nuestra literatura contemporánea asume abiertamente estos umbrales, y el escritor fascinado por lo abyecto «se imagina su lógica se proyecta en ella, la introyecta y por ende pervierte la lengua —el estilo y el contenido—», en palabras de Kristeva. Porque hablando de desfiguración y sublimación la abyección está allí, manifiesta y dinámica configurando lenguajes. Ella es una palabra espejante en lo «extraordinario» que nos infla y nos excede arrojándonos de cualquier situación inicial, un desvío y un atajo. La sutileza o la pesantez por la cual cualquier final es imposible y que nos mantiene en la continua e inquietante expectativa.

Por los textos

Centraré mi atención en dos personajes, los interlocutores centrales de los narradores de quienes su cuerpo es parte de la resolución de la historia. El cuerpo extraordinario de «ángel» que seduce a la narradora de Dulce Compañía de Laura Restrepo o el cuerpo enfermo de Darío que retiene la atención de Fernando en El Desbarrancadero de Fernando Vallejo. Estos cuerpos se ubican centralmente en el universo novelístico a partir de algunas estrategias y temáticas de las cuales abordaremos las más importantes.

La madre

La madre del narrador aparece en El Desbarrancadero como «la loca» (se le menciona así setenta y nueve veces) y otros términos afines: «la mandona», «la paridora», «la vieja hijueputa», «la furia», etc. Ella será el impedimento afectivo y ontológico para que los otros seres de casa, diferentes a ella y su mundo, alcancen la felicidad.

En Dulce Compañía se elabora un perfil completamente diferente; Ara, la madre de Orlando y del Ángel posee un perfil matriarcal y afectuoso. En este texto la maternidad inaugura en los «hijos» como en la madre, una nueva identidad que corporalmente se sostiene: en la relación de filiación. La focalización de la madre se invierte en los dos relatos.

En la novela de Vallejo es el hijo quien juzga, confronta y se salva de la madre; en Dulce Compañía es la madre quien sustenta al hijo. La narradora, Ara, Orlando y el Ángel se engendran mutuamente en estas relaciones de sangre. El contacto epidérmico y de la palabra marcan estas relaciones. Una maternidad que en el caso del Ángel depende del cuerpo textual constituido por los cincuenta y tres cuadernos escritos por Ara.

En los dos casos se exhibe la virtud de la primogenitura, nada más pleno que los óvulos frescos y el primer embarazo: Fernando es el hijo mayor, el lúcido, que contrasta de manera especial con el hermano menor a quien denomina «el gran güevón», «el Cristo Loco», «el semiengendro», quien nació «en mala edad, a destiempo, cuando ya los óvulos, los genes, estaban dañados por las mutaciones». En Dulce Compañía Orlando es el segundo hijo de Ara, quien no goza del misterio de la concepción ni participa de la plenitud del primer embarazo.

Solo los cuerpos primerizos gozan de la plenitud de la maternidad. Una concepción social muy marcada en nuestro medio.

La madre confronta al personaje: el Ángel necesita de las palabras y del cuidado de Ara y de la narradora–madre para mitificarse, de la misma manera que Darío necesita de «La Loca» y sus diatribas para consumirse. Una confrontación que rehace desde distintos puntos esta represión primaria ya enunciada, esta ruptura edípica desarrollada conflictivamente en ambos casos.

El lenguaje

El Desbarrancadero como ningún otro de los libros de Vallejo pone la palabra en los límites de la enunciación; el escritor vívidamente agita ese río del lenguaje desde la agresión al discurso institucional y el cuerpo de la madre. Su irreverencia descoloca a cualquier lector al romper el tramo edípico de la lengua impidiendo todo proceso de domesticación. Él extraña las relaciones de afecto y de subordinación, rompe el cuerpo de la madre en su autoridad y en su fundamental necesariedad como la lengua que lo vehicula. Los lamentos e imprecaciones de Vallejo hacen del lenguaje, y por supuesto de la lectura de la novela, un fluir que orada la nominación como lo nominado. El escritor como «profeta» pervierte el lenguaje y los límites: «Todo se tiene que morir. Y este idioma también. ¡O qué! ¿Se cree eterna esta lengua pendeja? Lengua necia de un pueblo cerril de curas y tinterillos, aquí consigno tu muerte próxima. Requiescat in pace Hispanica lengua».

Una lengua agónica, utilizada por el único escritor muerto que tiene Colombia; una lengua que asume el discurso autodestructor que lo engendra: «su lengua soez que hijueputiaba a marido, hijos, vecinos, policías, curas, lo que se le atravesara». Una lengua informe, anidada en la institucionalidad de la familia, el estado, la religión; en las múltiples mentiras creídas o las múltiples ficciones dulcemente conservadas. Vallejo se sale del uso del lenguaje buscando aquello innominable que hay debajo, desfigurando los cuerpos y la lengua en su universo de lamentos.

En Dulce Compañía los cuadernos escritos por Ara brindan la palabra y personifican a este mudo y temperamental Ángel; la lectura de algunos fragmentos hechos por la narradora y las palabras de la madre nos acercan a su palabra y su intimidad: «las palabras que mi hijo no decía por su propia boca, las revelaba a través de mi mano. El ángel de mis escritos era él».

Este ángel no habla y cuando vocifera lo hace en lenguas extranjeras, clásicas o ignoradas. Es el ser afásico que habla por sus miradas y por su cuerpo rechazando el lenguaje. Escuchemos a la autor en una hermosa línea que aparece en el libro en cuestión: «No insistas en saber cómo me llamo. Tal vez no tengo nombre, y si lo tengo es múltiple, y mutante. Mi nombre, mis nombres: huidizos, equívocos, cargado de resonancias. No hay en tu mundo oídos que perciban su frecuencia, ni tímpanos que no revienten con su eco. No quieras hablarme tus palabras son ruido».

En Dulce Compañía conocemos el nombre del ángel al final, por los chismes de las «Muñis». El había sido bautizado por su abuelo como Manuel. Un dato que en la última página de la novela humaniza ese cuerpo deseado del ángel perdido pero que en la misma página se prolonga en el cuerpo angelizado de Damaris la hija de la narradora. Ella posee la mirada enigmática de su padre Manuel: «Una sola cosa, que me desvela y me hace pensar: esa clarividencia abismal de sus ojos oscuros, que todo lo comprenden sin necesidad de palabras, y que, sin embargo, a veces uno creyera que miran pero no ven».

La clausura

En ambas novelas las grandes ciudades de Bogotá y de Medellín, se condensan en los espacios locales de barrio: Galilea en el caso del texto de Restrepo y Laureles en la obra de Vallejo. Perfiles urbanos que se despliegan en otros espacios menores y más importantes: la gruta y la casa en Dulce Compañía y la casa y el patio en El Desbarrancadero.

Más específicamente dos espacios cerrados verifican lo fundamental del cuerpo: la gruta y el patio. Dos cronotopos, en los términos bajtinianos que incrustan el cuerpo radical y significativamente en el relato. Estos dos «lugares» abrigan y permiten el cuerpo desde profundas dimensiones uterinas, telúricas y míticas. Un topos que reduce, comprime, condensa y plenifica el espacio en un tiempo original haciéndose el ecosistema propicio para que el cuerpo aparezca con toda su fuerza (esplendor o ruina).

El patio es en El Desbarrancadero es el remanso idílico de una infancia gozosa, de un pasado perdido; el retazo de vida y el espacio original que se resiste a la urbe de concreto: «vi por primera vez desde arriba el jardincito de mi casa: un cuadradito verde, vivo, vivo, al que llegaban los pájaros. Uno de los últimos que quedaban en ese barrio de Laureles». Ese centro del cosmos, protegido y cerrado, único y vital sustentará en los últimos días el cuerpo agónico. «—¡Darío, niño, pero si estás en la tienda del cheik!». «Pero volvamos al jardín, a los felices días en que la sulfaguanidina funcionaba y cuando yo no podía ni siquiera concebir que Darío se pudiera morir».

De la misma manera en Dulce Compañía la gruta aparece como el encierro cualificado para conservar y garantizar un encuentro válido con el ángel. Allí le verá en todo su esplendor y belleza la narradora la primera vez: «en medio de la gruta oscura nosotros nos borrábamos, invisibles, manchas negras contra fondo negro, mientras él ardía a fuego lento, resplandeciendo en una luz incandescente que parecía brotarle de la piel». «Allí se unirán sexualmente» escribe la autora en páginas posteriores. Este mismo lugar protegerá al Ángel en la toma militar del sector y será el punto de partida de sus andanzas finales.

Y para ratificar la primacía de la clausura como el lugar propicio de la creación y de la identidad, tenemos que anotar que en Dulce Compañía la valoración del Ángel como un epiléptico autista se da en la habitación de un asilo de enfermas mentales: «Ahora lo tenía a él ante mis ojos, tendido en una cama en la cual no cabía, más ausente que nunca, envuelto en una nube de lejanía. Le habían puesto un camisón blanco con un número escrito con marcador, y parecía que ahora sí, sin remedio, el alma le hubiera abandonado el cuerpo».

Qué más clausura que un asilo mental, donde el encierro absoluto del hombre es un hecho. Irracionalmente es alejado del intercambio con sus semejantes cuando su peligrosidad reduce el mundo a casi nada y el sujeto queda reducido solamente a su cuerpo. La ausencia de todo, el lugar perfecto para una nueva vida es un frenocomio y lo atestigua la propia narradora al visitar el manicomio de la Picota: «Estaba parada a las puertas del último sótano de la existencia, donde al ser humano se lo reduce a inmundicia, y me abandonaban las fuerzas […] —Una fábrica de ángeles…».

Enfermedad

De las cuatro operaciones que pasiva o activamente constituyen la corporalidad en literatura: el devenir, el sexo, el sacrificio y la enfermedad, esta última es la privilegiada para generar los protocolos que se evidencian en las dos novelas: los cuerpos de Darío y el Ángel. La enfermedad sella la identidad de sus protagonistas. El primero porque el sida lo tiene a las puertas de la muerte y su agonía se establece como la posibilidad de la palabra en el narrador: «sólo la alegría de verme, que le brillaba en los ojos, le daba vida a su cara: el resto era un pellejo arrugado sobre los huesos y manchado por el sarcoma».

El narrador de El Desbarrancadero emplea múltiples estrategias para frenar la enfermedad de su hermano: cuidados en la comida, ingerir sulfaguanidina, las fumadas de marihuana o sus continuas fugas al pasado edénico de una Antioquia perdida. Pero ninguna de estas lograr vencer la muerte. Muerte que es la condición del hombre, el estado de su existencia; porque la enfermedad no corresponde más que a la presencia terca y fiel de la muerte contra la cual se enfrenta el narrador: «La Muerte, extinguidora de odios y de amores, un año antes de venir por Darío vino por papi, y en un mes se lo llevó. Un mes anduvo rondándolo con su cauda gallinácea, su cortejo de curas, de médicos y zopilotes que yo le ahuyentaba».

En Dulce Compañía la belleza del Ángel, su inmarcesible silencio y sus gestos proféticos por un concepto médico se convierten en un problema de autismo y de epilepsia. El sería solamente un enfermo manipulado por la superstición religiosa. Todo el capítulo 6º y parte del 7º giran entorno al diagnóstico, terapia y verificación de la historia personal del Ángel. Una vez más los procesos científicos y racionales con su potestad de modernidad se enfrentan contra los fenómenos paranormales míticamente comprendidos.

La enfermedad como el cuadro razonable de este muchacho, se apoya igualmente en un cuerpo herido que porta las cicatrices de sus múltiples agresiones y que en el momento del relato le hace un convaleciente más: «Una a una fui descubriendo sus cicatrices. En el muslo, un surco largo y oscura como una cordillera; una línea quebrada que dividía en dos la ceja derecha; otra transversal en el abdomen a la altura del apéndice; un pequeño mapa en relieve sobre el pecho; una estrella irregular en la mandíbula; en el antebrazo, la roseta inconfundible de una vacuna de viruela; en el tobillo un rasguño reciente, que aún no perdía la costra. Eran señales que delataban el paso del ángel por el dolor de esta tierra».

Para finalizar volvamos a los esquemas performativos de nuestra mirada que se subliman o degradan y que exhiben las portadas de las dos novelas. En el caso de Dulce compañía la pintura El Rapto de Psyque del pintor prerrafaelista William Bouguerau retocada por Victor Robledo, retoma una vez más los motivos míticos y clásicos de occidente. Una pintura en la cual las proporciones del renacimiento y la apuesta a un equilibrio de las formas son su rasgo fundamental. Una apuesta a lo sutil y sempiterno que percibimos en la escritura de Laura Restrepo al describir el cuerpo de su ángel: «El ala de cuervo de su pelo recio; los ojos soñadores del color de la viscosidad del petróleo; el aleteo melancólico de las pestañas negras; la nariz recta, los labios llenos y femeninos de los que manaban, como si fueren humo, las sílabas extrañas de su mantra hipnótico; su cuerpo sobredimensionado de David de Miguel Ángel, esculpido en mármol oscuro y plácidamente abandonado a la potente columna de luz, que lo conectaba al espacio sideral».

En el caso de Vallejo, la forma remite a una citación pseudobiográfica. La portada es una foto de Darío y Fernando, de la cual el narrador nos ha hablado: «Queda una foto de él conmigo, de niños, que mi tío Argemiro tomó. Él de bucles rubios y con un abrigo; yo de pelo lacio caído sobre la frente y con una camisa a rayas, abrazándolo». Una implicación anecdótica al relato que nos pone en una instancia de verificación y de imputación de veracidad. Un punto de referencia que se hace insuperable en la caída incontrolable de su sociedad y del cuerpo enfermo de Darío. Aquel cuerpo anómalo en una sociedad igualmente decadente que se niega mirarse y contemplarse: «De hecho ya está cayendo, y desde hace mucho, pero el problema es que no acaba de caer. Somos un moribundo terco que insiste en no morirse».

Efectivamente Laura Restrepo destaca de manera especial una «forma áurea» que busca perpetuarse y expandirse; su relato se mantiene por el deambular entre un cuerpo humano, demasiado humano, y un ángel fugitivo. De manera similar una «experiencia de abyección» desea destacarse en el relato de Vallejo. Su relato se mantiene por el deambular entre un cuerpo enfermo y agónico y el recuerdo edénico del mismo.
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* Luis Alfonso Castellanos es teólogo y filosofo de la Universidad Javeriana. Magíster en Literatura de la misma universidad. Doctor en Historia y Semiología del Texto y de la Imagen de la Université de Paris VII.

Matiz~Nuance' s Artist Statement

2010-04-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

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)

Project Description

2010-04-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Organization history:

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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

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

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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

El psicoanálisis y la creación artística

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La sigla AIAP [i] remite a una posible interacción entre Arte y Psicoanálisis.

Es evidente que las marcas significantes de una época determinan su producción. Los historiadores se sirven del descubrimiento de objetos del pasado para dar cuenta de cómo vivía y pensaba la comunidad que los produjo. Al mismo tiempo cada conjunto humano le dio a esos objetos formas diferentes dejando una marca, una impronta que definió su modo de ser.

Estas particularidades no pueden obedecer a un instinto ya que éste se define por la reiteración de conductas determinada por la especie. Por el contrario, en la repetición del acto creador aparece lo novedoso que viene a señalar la diferencia con otra cultura o con la generación anterior. Entiendo que es en este punto que es posible establecer una intersección entre arte y psicoanálisis.

Esto nos lleva en primer término a la relación entre creación y significante. La creación es hacer surgir algo de la nada y en esto el psicoanálisis se dirige hacia la invención de un significante nuevo.[1]

El acto creativo surge al hacer algo con lo que ya está ahí dado. Al establecer una nueva combinatoria significante aparece un producto nuevo. Se trata, entonces, de contornear esa nada para que surja el objeto alejado de la necesidad de su uso. ¿Para qué construir un cántaro si es posible beber el agua del río?

La pregunta acerca de la fuerza que impulsa al hombre a crear, inventar o producir objetos no se reduce, entonces, a la noción de instinto. El psicoanálisis nos brinda el concepto de pulsión acuñado por Freud como Trieb para diferenciarlo del instinto animal.

Una condición de la creación artística es, entonces, lo novedoso. Una producción “en serie” de objetos iguales no da cuenta del acto creador el cual supone el encuentro con algo que no estaba dado de antemano.

Esto es lo que acontece al final de un análisis. No se trata de cambio de conducta sino de la invención de un significante nuevo, uno que no estaba en la serie de las significaciones.

El producto de la operación analítica es el analista mismo, es decir un sujeto cuyo saber hacer le permite arreglárselas con la pulsión. El producto del artista es su obra misma. Tanto la creación artística como el psicoanálisis apuntan a un saber hacer con la “nada”, trabajarla a fin de extraer una satisfacción que haga la vida más soportable.

Es una forma de entender porqué el discurso del psicoanálisis y el arte compartieron el mismo destino: ser de alguna manera revulsivos.

El interés del psicoanálisis por el arte aparece desde el comienzo en Freud. Hay ejemplos de sobra para quien desee hallarlos pero bástenos uno para ilustrarlo: el magistral ensayo acerca de un recuerdo infantil de Leonardo da Vinci. Freud, por otra parte, encontraba en el arte la forma princeps de sublimación de la pulsión.

Lacan al anudar pulsión con deriva nos ofrece otra perspectiva. Indica que como la pulsión se satisface en su recorrido mismo la finalidad del psicoanálisis no es llevar al sujeto a la obtención de un producto “socialmente aceptado”. El “savoir faire”[2] obtenido al término de una cura es del orden del saber hacer con el goce, con la pulsión de muerte. Y no es necesario el acto de la creación artística para ello.

La confusión acerca de creatividad y neurosis llevó a muchos artistas de nuestro medio a estar en contra del psicoanálisis.

Se partía del supuesto de que el artista creaba con la angustia que le proporcionaba su neurosis. Curado de esta última perdía su capacidad creativa.

Por el contrario Freud afirmaba que un análisis ayudaba a un artista a superar sus represiones liberando así libido capaz de ser puesta al servicio de la creación.

Es posible aún escuchar estos prejuicios en el discurso corriente.

Si un acto se reconoce como tal por las consecuencias no es posible anticipar la creación de un objeto artístico así como no es posible prever a donde conducirá un análisis. Sólo con posterioridad se podrá evaluar el recorrido y otros juzgarán si, en ambos casos, el producto obtenido está a la altura de lo esperado.

Es por eso que el artista no puede explicar su creación y aún cuando lo intente, como Dalí[3], siempre hay algo que escapa a su decir, un resto innombrable que opera como causa.

Lic. Mirta Vazquez de Teitelbaum

Malabia 2478. 3° 29. 4833-6309 4822-5117

Miembro de la APBA (Asociación de Psicólogos de Buenos Aires)

Miembro de la Escuela de la Orientación Lacaniana (EOL)

[1] Miller, Jacques Alain. “Hacia un significante nuevo”

[2] Saber hacer en francés. Entre nosotros toma la acepción de hacer las cosas bien, con un estilo particular, con encanto.

[3] Ian Gibson. La vida desaforada de Salvador Dalí. Editorial Anagrama. Barcelona. 1998

[i] Asociación de interacción Arte - Psicoanálisis

Artistas de la Asociación interacción Arte Psicoanalisis.

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Cabe al artista una misión grandiosa y profunda: contribuir, desde una mirada penetrante y descubridora, a nuestro conocimiento del mundo. Esos objetos (el cuadro, la escultura) que nos miran, hurgan en nuestra sensibilidad y enriquecen nuestra experiencia visual.
(Enrique Pereira de Lucena)

Una de las obras:
María Isabel Hooft

Más te escribo, más te olvido... Técnica mixta: 0,80 x 1 - 2003

El patas - Diego Marulanda [Video]

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