Field Trip

I have started a short course at my old uni (Universidad Javeriana), an introductory workshop to exhibition design, production and set up for museums, galleries and art institutions with teacher Ana Maria Ayala. So far very interesting and helpful (and it made me realize I could have studied something a little bit more applicable to the real world like, museology). Our first field trip was a very short visit to a very small museum in Bogota, Museo del Traje Regional (Regional Costumes Museum or something like that...) where we're going to develop mock up proposals of renewal or redesign that could improve the look of the museum. This would be shown by the end of the course as our personal projects so I'll be posting my work when is finished.

After that visit on Saturday, I finally went to see the current temporary exhibitions at Casa de la Moneda and Museo de Arte del Banco de la República check http://www.banrepcultural.org/museos-y-colecciones
I should say I really enjoyed them and felt very pleased with the high quality of the curatorial proposal of the three exhibitions I saw, and the very professional approach to the production and set up of them. Here some pics from it.

RE-CAMARAS

Nelson Vergara.Paisaje

Fernando Arias. Seropositivo Sketch

Oscar Muñoz. Simulacros


Victor Robledo. Alberca

Gloria Posada. Mapa

Liliana Angulo. Un negro es un negro

Angélica Teuta. Un gesto es un gesto

Angélica Teuta. Desdoblamiento

SENSACIONAL DE DISEÑO MEXICANO
Collective. Carlos Mena, Deborah Holtz, Oscar Reyes

Happy 2 months in Bogotá

A view from my studio, where I spend most of my time

I went to a talk with Ignasi Bianch, illustrator and Antonio Ventura editor from El Jinete Azul.

Things to sum up about yesterday's talk:
1. I hate speaking in public though I need to push myself to do it.
2. Am I in a constant identity crisis that affects my own work? Why some locals tend to look outside for influences when there's so much visual richness in our own surroundings? How to go back to the roots without being false? How to mix the nostalgia from the place that you want be but you can't and the place that you have to be but you don't want?
3. A little sum up of what they said:
- Personal satisfaction
- Being honest with my own work
- Strong sense of self and personal goals
- Have fun
- Be careful with what the final purpose is
4. Between the pursuit of surpassing mediocrity and achieving perfection the only thing I really care about is producing. Never keep things inside, try to put things out there. That for me, is already an achievement.

A few things I've been reflecting on (no illustration accompanying)

1. Since I'm back in Bogotá I haven't spoke as much English as I would like to, therefore I think my speaking and writing abilities have got worse. That's one of the reasons why this blog is written in english (also because I love the language)
2. Why I'm I doing this blog? Well apart for the simple fact of just for fun, it has become sort of my reflective journal on my creative practice, with hints of a personal diary. No harm in that.
3. So I have also thought about some work I've made in the last month and most of it its about memory, nostalgia and loss. Pretty depressing I know, but it happens to be my source of material to produce work that is related to my own reality, therefore its more honest and I feel more comfortable moving within that space.
4. But talking with my friend Sarah about a book she's been reading, she told me how someone was trying to find ways to overcome nostalgia and loss with a positive approach through a work of art (do not confuse with self-help exercises) so I wondered if it comes a time when you have to move on and let your art work as a therapy that helps go forward from not only your recurrent creative subjects but your own problems? Is it time to use memory as a mechanism to produce work that reflects and evolves on itself so as to become less repetitive, more educational and meaningful? How can I make that possible?

But I have been told...

He thinks he's a bastard

I'm not myself