curatorial reflection

Curatorial reflection:

The progress of the work borderlines was developed through the collaboration between the artist’s participants. The curatorial process was produced using the concept of the ‘artist mediator (curator)’, which was suggested in the project proposal in the beginning of the course.
With the initial objective of represent and work within illegal immigrants in the city of London the work was first suggested in a political and subversive perspective. I tried to infiltrate and work within this ‘fragile’ group but at the same time I realized that: ‘if I want to be part of the work I had to be one of the characters in the process’
I decided to start the production by myself to understand my roll before work within the social group that I would collaborate.
During the first months my art investigation was to ‘looking for the non-spaces’, and what I mean for a ‘non-space’ is the idea of ‘borderlines’ where I was investigating this immigrant aspect.
I created this ‘non-space’ and allowed myself the time to explore and familiarize to this environment before work with other people.
This first impression was very important for the development of the work because was necessary to understanding my artistic roll in using the human being as the resource and the material.
By the end of this project these aspects was clarified when my roll changed from the artist who was trying to find his ‘own non-space’ to a curator who actually was working in mediating and organizing people personal ideas, fears, relations, etc.
In the work this is very clear because the pieces produced are all related to the human being and how this person deal with their own personal questions.
The collaboration started with advertisements published in online magazines in September 2007, with the intent to select the artists. After the artist’s selection the production of the works were created using the individuality from each participant, considering their art background, life style and applying digital technology to represent their own ‘borderlines’ in the artworks.
After this guideline was generated ‘keywords’ to support the collaboration production and also the curatorial statement. The concepts of ‘identity’, ‘language’, ‘environment’ and ‘belonging’ were used in each collaboration as an input for the work investigation, guiding the process to the context of immigration in the city of London.
This specific moment of the process was represented by the video installation: ‘from the series: keywords’ exhibited at the show ‘TEXT&IMAGE’ at the Wilson Rd gallery, in London, February 2008.
The collaborations was being created in a natural way, connecting the art production to a day-by-day life, using the partner’ techniques into a digital technology environment; giving to them the free opportunity to come with ideas or goals to be achieved in the project.
The documents were constantly part of different art shows, also supporting the concept of ‘social sculpture’, from the German artists Joseph Beuys, very important in this project.
‘Borderlines’ exhibitions list:
2007 “Living Room: Quarto Vivo” - Emma Thomas Gallery– São Paulo- Brazil
2007 “Catálogo Parallel Exhibition” - 2ptos Pernambuco– Pernambuco – Brazil
2008 ‘Polaroides Invisiveis’ – Sesc gallery – Curitiba – Brazil
2008 “Altered landscapes” – Newspace Center of Photography – Portland- USA.
2008 “Text & Image” - Wilson Rd gallery – London – UK
2008 “Muestra Monográfica de Media Arte” - Festival de La Imagem– Manzinales – Colombia
2008 “Fluid Identity”-Summer Show Camberwell College of Arts University of Arts London-UK
With the conceptual references and also with the project more clear in my mind I learned that my roll was in constant flux, working not just as an artist but mainly as a curator and a manager of the project, getting in the contact with galleries and cultural spaces do provide the work documentations for exhibitions.
This project also allowed me to act professionally in different art fields, improving my capacity as an art director researching and arranging events to present and to let out the process to different audience just possible with the intensive academic research.
Within the work productions for the borderlines and also for other personal projects I learned that my professional expertise in this market is to be a curator, to mediate artwork with the audience and to understand how the market works and how this type of art production is incorporate to the contemporary art market.
With this I was able to apply into the final show a curatorial statement, creating contexts and organizing professionally the exhibitions. Applying the idea of ‘networks in collaborative productions’ the work is present as an exhibition displaying a selection of documents from the project process.
The show ‘borderlines’ is part of the exhibition ‘Fluid Identity’, with 27 artists from the MA Digital Arts, which is part of the ‘Summer Show’, with artists from all the MA courses.
The goal here is to communicate the idea of 3 shows in 1: an exhibition inside another exhibition inside another exhibition.
For the ‘Summer Show’ a catalogue, with 300 copies, were produced to reinforce the idea of ‘an art exhibition’ of the work borderlines.
It is important to reaffirm here that what we see at the Summer Show is just a selection of the project process, a digital representation about the life of 4 immigrants.
The actual artwork is immaterial, situated in the ‘spaces’ between the networks produced in the collaboration and in the every-day-life from each participant.
Now, the next level from this artist statement is to keep developing a curatorial process. I am interested to explore the overlapping of digital artwork and collaborative production.
Using a different medium, working specifically in web-based works, I intend to experiment new platforms to connect the contemporary art to a greater audience.