Pueblo Santo is finalist at MAIX 2022

The objective of this initiative is to support and empower independent Latin American creators located in Latin American countries. We recognize Latin America as a multiplicity of nationalities, native peoples, indigenous peoples, gender expressions, and other ethnic groups and identities where we are all included.

Pueblo Santo: A Cumbia Trip @ DOK Exchange XR DOKLeipzig

So happy to share that our VR musical project Pueblo Santo: A Cumbia Trip, has been selected for the DOK Exchange XR program at DOKLeipzig 2022 .

A great occasion to get insights from immersive narratives experts (as my friend and colleague Ágnes-Karolina Bakk), and strengthen our project.

Thank you Marlon Peroza, and Laura Casadiego for making this possible, for dreaming and dancing together.

While we work on awakening Pueblo Santo, we will keep you posted!

Following Nijolė

Today we close the solo exhibition of Nijolė at the city gallery of Fellbach, with the presence of Elke aus dem Moore, Antanas Perez Mockus, family and friends. I made a presentation called “Following Nijole” in which i tell the story of meeting Nijolė and creating this effort of bringing her back to an exhibition space at the Fellbach Triennale and in her solo exhibition.

Same Different in Greece, Denmark, Argentina and Brasil!

Our poetry shortfilm "Same Different” keeps travelling around the world. In the next months, the work will be screened at:

• 10th International Video Poetry Festival in Athens - 30th of September to the 1st of October 2022.

• 4th Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes Corporalidad Expandida in Buenos Aires - 13th to 17th of October.

• 15th Zózimo Bulbul Black Film Festival: Brazil, Africa, Caribbean and other diasporas - 18th to 24th of October in Brazil.

• Nature & Culture - Poetry Film Festival - 21st and 28th of November in Copenhague.
  

Poetry, Performance and Bow: Ques (Nesindano Namises) @xamques

Film: Maria Cecilia Reyes @xehreyes

Poster art by: Vitjitua Ndjiharine @vitjiart

Nijolė has not died

I am happy and honored to share with you the results of the hard work of months together with the curators of the Triennale and the Mockus Sivickas family:

Nijolė's work will be showcased at the small-scale sculpture Triennale of Fellbach (Germany), from June 4th to October 3rd 2022.

In parallel, the city gallery of Fellbach has dedicated a Solo Exhibition of Nijole's graphic work. Some of these artworks portray pieces of her life in Stuttgart and Fellbach, after WW2 when she was a student of the Fine Arts Academy of Stuttgart.

People visiting the city of Fellbach this summer will be able to get closer to Nijolė's sculpture and graphic work and watch the documentary.

This is Nijolė's first posthumous exhibition. The sculptures were her last curatorial selection.

Sivickas, Nijole

Nijolė Šivickas (Lithuania, 1925–Colombia, 2018) never died; she vibrates with her work as a single being. If you get close enough, you can see her hands shaping each one of her creations, and you can hear her sculptures reciting poems that come from the bowels of the earth, mixtures of blood and bones, of pain and hope. Her beings expand in time and space, welcoming with a warm hug to whoever visits. They defy the laws of physics via impossible shapes and volumes, and her characters shake the foundations of society with fierce humility. Šivickas’ work mixes ceramics, metals, wood and oxide, exposing her bond with the natural quality of her materials.

This selection displays different stages of her oeuvre, from figurative to abstract and installation. Beings that talk about the human condition: Señora (Lady) is a confident mature woman. Idiota (Idiot) is each one of us, clueless but calm before the mystery of existence. In Escena de Cinco (Scene of five), Šivickas becomes a film director assembling a mise-en-scène of five beings expressing their individuality within the collectivity. Pesadilla (Nightmare) enters a dark and dense dream with begging hands, dead feet, and eyes that scrutinize. Colgado (Hanged) stages a tragic death within the immensity of the unknown. From this void, we are born again with Semilla (Seed): a sacred egg that is being delicately cut by an invisible hand. And with a playful smile on her face, Šivickas makes us feel the pain of the burning iron on our skin, branding us like cows with the label: MUJER (WOMAN).

"I’m not in front of the material. The material is next to me. I look at it and it watches me. And so the dialogue begins: I am raising an object from you and you are forcing me to hold you in my hands while you also try to raise. Are we fighting? you ask. We are two beings, you are already an object, and I am within you. Look, you hurt my hand and leg. But you were carving me with a knife." And so the dialogue never ends ...

Text: Maria Cecilia Reyes. Deutsche Übersetzung: Johanna Schindler

Same Different @ International Poetry Film Festival of Thuringia

We are very happy to announce that our poetry shortfilm “Same Different” has been selected for the Special Program World Mirror of Poetry of the International Poetry Film Festival of Thuringia (Germany). The shortfilm will be available online during the days of the festival from May 20th to 31st.

““In our program „World mirror of poetry“ we are travelling around the globe in leaps and contradictions to capture a glimpse of the state of the world and its poetry.””

— Poetry Film Festival of Thuringia

Same Different at 10th International Video Poetry Festival

Same Different a poetry shortfilm produced by Nesindano Namises and me during our time at Akademie Schloss Solitude, was selected at the 10th International Video Poetry Festival.

The shortfilm features Nesindano “Ques” Namises, Namibian poet and performer, performing her poem “Same Different” in english and Khoekhoegowab.

My role was just to stand behind the camera and see Nesindano in her all-encompasing power reciting her poem in the forest while the movement of the sun thorugh the trees was changing her siluete. I cannot express with words how lucky I was to be there.

The International Video Poetry Festival in Athens attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry. The IVPF has been around since 2012. It is one of the largest international platform for video poetry. Every year, it offers poets, film directors, video artists and festival makers from all over the world a platform for creative exchange, brainstorming and meeting with a broad audience. With poetry readings, live performances, concerts, retrospectives, exhibitions, performances, workshops and lectures present in various sections the diversity of the genre of video poetry and spoken word music.

Pueblo Santo selected at New LATAM Voices

Pueblo Santo, a Cumbia Trip was one of the 10 LATAM projects we have selected to join the « New LATAM Voices » program, organized as part of the international panorama on Latin American creation of the 5th NewImages Festival, in partnership with Garage Stories.

This program aims to bring together Latam emerging talent with creators from all over the world to tell their stories and move their projects forward.

During the 4 weeks of the incubator our project grew thanks to the talent and energy of the team members brought by the New Latam Voices call.

We worked on the pitch, the visual storytelling and a 3D mockup of Pueblo Santo’s main square.

Synopsis — Immerse into the mythical village of the Colombian Caribbean coast where Cumbia was born. In Pueblo Santo, the indigenous Amacumbié cosmogony intertwines with a depiction of Colombia’s history of colonialism and violence, challenging the interactor to understand this past, overcome evil and restore the balance by playing and dancing Cumbia’s original melody. Pueblo Santo is a VR musical trip that takes the interactor to a mythological town on the Colombian Caribbean coast. The experience is based on the story of Pueblo Santo, a typical Colombian Caribbean town that suffered a massacre.

Looking Far - a poetical conversation

RITUAL OF SACRED REST

[20:21, 11/11/2021] Xeh:
Let’s stop and disconnect from the slaughterhouse,
let’s climb the mountain and look at the universe,
let’s do our ritual to video-call our ancestors,
and let’s record it [with the omniscient eye]
so in -a not-too-distant- future,
we will tele-rest in the virtual cavern,
and we will watch from the dark
the technological essence of our days.
We will create a ritual for the sacred rest,
for the renewal of the spirit,
and put it on VR,
as an archaeological piece of our times.
[20:21, 11/11/2021] Roxy:
I propose you, dear travel companion,
that we make an offering.
Dressed as the human-bat,
with his immense headdress that reaches the sky,
we will return to our mother-earth a part of us that dies month by month,
nails, hair, skin, blood ...
… And so,
before dying forever in this body,
we die and be reborn together with her,
with her permission and her gifts.
[20:22, 11/11/2021] Xeh:
Aligned with the star map,
we will fly to the infra and the supra world
to be able to see...
What illuminates the light of our devices?
How will we look far ... beyond our screens?
How will we rest in the midst of artificial energy to revive vital energy?

Self-exploited and dazzled by excess
of productivity,
of money,
of followers,
of objects,
no hope of retiring at 40,
or buying a house in the country side.
We satisfy ourselves with the infinite scroll,
and the empaths of Tik-Tok.
Breaks are questions without answers,
they’re “active-breaks”,
to then return to the hustle,
without regrets.
1 recess equals 1 guilt,
1 nap equals 5.
Digital nomadism,
telecommuting,
stunts to separate work from pleasure,
nothing is pleasure,
because everything is work.
Boss just texted,
It’s 9PM... on a thursday.
Work on the screen,
Rest on the screen,
Family on the screen,
Masturbate on the screen,
Spend money on the screen
Order lunch on the screen,
Find love on the screen.
I will make the market hate me:
I will close all my social networks,
I will not produce content,
I will not apply for that job,
I’ll run barefoot in the middle of the forest
towards the forbidden valley,
the one where 4G does not reach.
We live tired,
and the only antidote to tiredness
is rest.

When I was a child,
if I would complain of boredom,
my mother and grandmother would tell me:
“Look far”,
sit on the rocking chair,
watch people go by in the afternoon,
look without looking,
meditate.
On field trips,
exploring the sandy towns of the Caribbean,
you can see the people sitting in the patios,
or in the parks,
lying in a hammock,
“looking far”.

Time? What is the time?
6 in the afternoon, the time of the mosquito.
Those from the mountains,
where the progress of this nation is,
they accuse us, the ones of our region,
of being lazy,
can you imagine - the audacity!?!

They don’t understand that our philosophy
of cogerla suave (taking it soft),
it is our resistance to exploitation,
to a capital-centric vision of existence,
to grow old without having enjoyed life.
“Wooork, woooork, woooork”
with a very long ooo,
those are the famous words of the unnameable,
hey “cachaco” (mountains guy)
...
...
...
cógela suave!

WHAT ACTION OF LOVE AND JUSTICE CAN BE HIGHER THAN TO ENJOY OURSELVES IN THE REST, TO ALLOW US TO ENJOY THE RESULTS OF A COMMITTED AND ARDUOUS WORK?

The Human-Bat Cycle

It is the ruling planet of Taurus and Libra,
sensual signs that aim for love and justice.
In one of its deepest qualities,
Taurus understands that the contemplation and enjoyment of the simple, valuable and profound,
is the fruit of patience and commitment.

How did I forget to tell you my dear Xeh,
about the incredible and swampy, complementary opposite of Taurus,
in this transformation of the next eclipses?
The dark, demonic and angelic sign of Scorpio.
The Scorpio-Taurus axis represents Dark and Light,
Taurus is pleasure, Scorpio is pain and death.
In this cycle, beliefs will die.
The darkness together with an offering, are requisites for rebirth.

The human-bat,
example of death and introspection from the dark,
gaze in the cave to see the shadows.
As the allegory of the cave tells us,
we integrate the shadow that will allow us to change the skin,
to take the next step…
to renew our ways of resting,
to mutate,
to transform,
and evolve.

We are going through the deepest and most critical moment of transformation of humanity as we have known it for 2021 years.
The stars tell us that we are closing a stage identified as the age of Pisces. In this era, humans have experienced the world from a mental, emotional, spiritual and economic structure that responds to lack, fear and the need for acceptance.
From astro numerology, evolutionary astrology and humanistic astrology, it is predicted that in 2022 a cycle of creating new scales of values will begin, based on the eclipses of the Taurus-Scorpio nodal axes.

Taurus: resources, vulnerability, security.
What are our essential foundations of life?
How do we enjoy life? How do we live a dignified and pleasant life?
Taurus and Scorpio are the signs of life and death,
of sensoriality and manipulation, of courage and power.

What is the relationship with our body? Have we disconnected from it?
Can contemplation be the new/old way of returning to the present, to the body?

Taurus not only rests to regain strength and continue working,
but it enjoys that moment,
The great verb of its ruler Venus is: enjoy!
Venus, planet of love and expression,
represents our personal values and what we passionately love.

TELE-REST

Let’s stop time,
let’s read the stars,
let’s do a new ritual to promise ourselves
do not mistreat the eyes.
And one day,
when the time of breaks and rituals
will have completely disappeared,
we will put on the mask of virtual reality,
to convince ourselves for a second
that place still exists...
that we can still “look far”.

The presence of rest,
the telepresence of rest,
the presence of tele-rest,
the telepresence of tele-rest.
Rest on Tele-vision,
do the ritual on Tele-vision,
be on Tele-vision,
Will we tele-be?
I believe my dear Roxy,
that the famous metaverse will never be enough,
we haven’t even glimpsed the multiverse yet,
which is still one,
the multiverse in which we all are...
... working in break time.

We rest on the screen
moving the fingers up and down,
viewing the content in small dimensions,
also when we throw ourselves in the hammock.

[11:11, 11/11/2021] Roxy:
Silicon is a metalloid chemical element,
atomic number 14. It is located in group 14 of the periodic table of elements.
Symbol = SI.
It is the second most abundant element in the earth’s crust after oxygen.

[11:11, 11/11/2021] Roxy:
Silicon is the # 1 element of smartphones.
Resting,
with my eyes glued to the smartphone,
I will try to go back to nature with my mind,
while the mental autopilot discovers new memes.
Will it be possible to tele-immerse ourselves in a resting moment-space?
… To climb the holy mountain
… To look at the sky,
… To do our rituals?
Let’s go to the sacred territory together,
let’s sit on the stones,
let’s remember what it was like to not carry a device,
and let’s have an experience...
… a real one.

Nijole en DOCS Barcelona

Sinopsis de Nijole en DOCS Barcelona 2019

“Arte y política, Lituania y América Latina, madre irreverente e hijo activista. La inimitable trayectoria de Antanas Mockus, ex-candidato a la presidencia de Colombia, habría sido imposible sin los consejos visionarios de su madre, la artista nonagenaria Nijole Sivicka. Juntos se embarcan en un viaje íntimo de descubrimiento mutuo y nos dan una lección vital llena de coraje y vulnerabilidad.

Dicen que las mejores ideas salen de mezclas insólitas, a veces desconcertantes. La creatividad también podría ser una cuestión de transmisión familiar. El director italiano Sandro Bozzolo construye un cóctel inclasificable e inspirador que nos adentra hacia un viaje íntimo a las profundidades de sus vidas. Del presente marcado por la fragilidad de sus cuerpos, a las raíces lituanas que Nijole tuvo que dejar atrás, descubrimos dos historias vitales extraordinarias.”

Sección Oficial - Panorama

Sección competitiva que agrupa una selección de los mejores documentales del panorama internacional más reciente. Las películas de esta sección compiten por el Premio DocsBarcelona TV3 al Mejor Documental y el Premio Nuevo Talento a la mejor película de los directores debutantes.

What Would An Artist Do? Arts & Politics Transmedia Exhibition

Una panoramica sulla vita, le opere e l’impegno politico e umano di due singolari artisti lituano - colombiani: Nijolė Šivickas e il figlio Antanas Mockus, il sindaco che con l’arte e la pedagogia ha trasformato Bogotà.

La presenta, per la prima volta in Italia, la mostra “What would an artist do?” che sarà inaugurata alle 18,30 di venerdì 23 novembre al Museo della Ceramica di Mondovì (piazza Maggiore 1) e rimarrà aperta sino al 3 febbraio 2019.

Grazie a materiali multimediali e a un'installazione in Realtà Virtuale, nello spazio di un’ora sarà possibile conoscere il potenziale espressivo, la forza creativa e i meccanismi di partecipazione attiva alla vita cittadina proposti dai due protagonisti.

Emigrata dalla Lituania in Colombia nel 1950, Nijolė Šivickas - spiegano i curatori della mostra, Christiana Fissore e Sandro Bozzolo – partendo dall’arte ceramica ha trasmesso al figlio strumenti inconsueti e estremamente innovativi nell’arte contemporanea e performativa che Antanas Mockus ha messo in pratica coinvolgendo otto milioni di cittadini.

Grazie alla sua gestione anticonvenzionale il numero degli omicidi è sceso del 50%, 66.000 famiglie hanno volontariamente scelto di pagare più tasse e la problematica Bogotá è diventata una capitale moderna ed efficiente.

A partire dai materiali raccolti per la realizzazione del film, di cui il Museo della Ceramica di Mondovì è partner di produzione, è stata concepita una mostra sorprendente nei contenuti, che ripropone, ampliata e riveduta, una riflessione di Antanas Mockus: "quando in politica non paiono esserci soluzioni possibili, è utile chiedersi: “cosa farebbe un artista?”.

Nijole's World Premier at DOK Leipzig

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Antanas Mockus and I working on Nijole’s presentation “Works and Reflexions” at the Contemporary Art Center of Vilnius.

I am one of the 4 components of a trip to Lithuania in 2016: Nijole, Antanas, Sandro (the director), and me. Of the 4, today we are 3. We wanted to make a biographical film and we ended up making a film about the relationship between art and love, about freedom. This film, called Nijole, will become Cinema (with a capital C) in a few days: the world premiere will be at the 61st edition of the Leipzig Festival, the European documentary's temple; just a day after Herzog, in person, released his latest documentary; in the competition that highlights the next masters of the documentary. But this is nothing: the film will see the light in the country where Nijole was trained as an artist, and from which the conditions that later led her to Colombia arose. The film will be screened for the first time, only one month after his death. Those who will see this film, will see it, in its essence, next to the essence of his son Antanas (his work). Nijole yearned to make art without an object. This movie is that, it's herself, made light.

DOK Leipzig - Nijole

“Antanas Mockus was Mayor of Bogotá, several times Colombian presidential candidate, and voted into the senate in 2018. But this film is not about the politician, but about his 88-year-old mother, the idiosyncratic artist Nijolė Šivickas. She has consistently protected her private life from the public eye, agreeing only reluctantly to media interviews. Even her son knew almost nothing about her Lithuanian childhood. In her artistic practice, but also emotionally, she had turned her back on her homeland.

Now Nijolė has been invited to give a workshop on the occasion of a great retrospective in Vilnius. The film follows her and Antanas on this journey. It’s basically a son’s look at a mother whose independence and critical social spirit were his constant inspiration. Sandro Bozzolo and his team approach their protagonists with restraint, adapt the montage to their rhythm and focus on the rooms of their creative work, on Nijolė’s meetings with Antanas and their journey home together, which moves both deeply. The son takes his mother by the hand, as does this story of an outer and inner journey with the audience. Which events continue to shape one’s life and which had better be forgotten?”

— Annina Wettstein

Le Marittime Irraggiungibili su Contemporaneamente

Ho avuto l'occasione di condividere l'esperienza de Le Marittime Irraggiungibili: Scenari Alpini a 360° al convegno Contemporaneamente 2016. Organizzato dal Piccolo Opificio Sociologico all’Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Ecco qui l'abstract book con i progetti che hanno partecipato a questi giorni pieni di input.