LABORATORY: Artists' Union Salon Vol.1: On the Socio-cultural Role of the Artistic Work, with Fiorella Faillace and Laura Arboleda

Artists' Union Salon Vol.1: On the Socio-cultural Role of the Artistic Work

past

Online

2023—II

10/17/2023 — 10/31/2023

This space for collective learning and making seeks to problematize the challenges faced by artistic work in Latin America. This will be done through the lens of artistic practices that use humor, poetics, and imagination as tools for creative exploration.

Participants will explore different theoretical proposals and artistic references, to jointly create their own forms of "protest," while sharing and discussing the paradoxical role of the artist in the contemporary capitalist world.

The laboratory aims to open a collective conversation and reflection around the precariousness of artistic work, focusing mainly on the Latin American context, where artistic work and its conditions are often given only partial recognition, as opposed to the value given to the work of art itself. Even though these conditions are, ultimately, inseparable. Therefore, this laboratory seeks to present humor as a revitalizing and enriching tool for artistic practices that use art-protest as a resource.

The performative exercise Abraza a una artista deprimida (2019), carried out by the artists, will be presented as a reference from which the main interest in these questions is born. We will also have some theoretical sessions to strengthen the understanding of these tools. Afterwards, participants will be asked to develop their own forms of "protest" using various media (physical, multimedia, digital, etc.) to talk about their postures in the face of the precariousness of artistic work, focusing on their local context.

Fiorella Faillace and Laura Arboleda: Abraza a una artista deprimida [Hug a depressed artist] (2019). Courtesy: Fiorella Faillace and Laura Arboleda.

Ultimately, the goal of the laboratory is to create spaces for discussing and staging artistic work through collective constructions. This is achieved by working together, as well as providing a learning space where humor, poetics, imagination, and protest materials are exercised as tools that nurture the artistic practice.

The laboratory aims to problematize a personal experience that gave way to our performance Abraza a una artista deprimida (2019). We will read and discuss texts from art history and share our experiences as active members of the artistic field. Taking our own experience in parallel with art history as elements to prompt our political and artistic proposals (discourse, manifesto, etc.), to ultimately transform them into tangible forms (graphic material, audiovisuals, etc.) or artistic practices (performance, interventions in public spaces, etc.).

To do this, we propose two exploratory exercises, where we question what it means to be an artist in contemporary times, and how we can overcome the obstacles faced by young artists when it comes to finding exhibition spaces and even the "support network" necessary to create and live off being an artist.

We believe it is crucial to build awareness about the significance of the artist's working role in the contemporary world through building community. If change is possible, it is through the coming together with other individuals who are also harmed by this dynamic of a lack of symbolic and monetary recognition, and who have a desire for change.

Fiorella Faillace and Laura Arboleda: Arma tu protesta [Make your own protest]. Courtesy: Fiorella Faillace and Laura Arboleda.

— Session 1: Experimental approaches based on discourse. Overview of the program and a review of references. We will carry out a brief exercise of writing a short manifesto.

— Session 2: Experimental approaches through performance. Review of references and literature, and outline of the first exercise. We will present Abraza a una artista deprimida (2019) and propose a performative exercise.

— Session 3: Review of the first exercise and registers.

— Session 4: Approaches to the debate. We will hold a discussion table to share our experiences as individuals operating in the artistic field, making use of the literature proposed in the laboratory.

— Session 5: Mapping. Building a sensitive cartography using the materials developed during the previous sessions.

Participation

Visual artists and artists at large. Anyone working in the art and cultural sectors, or who have an affinity with the arts. People who are willing to experiment and work collectively.

5 sessions
October 17 through 31, 2023
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:00 PM (GMT -4)
Via Zoom

Public Presentation
October 31, 2023, 06:00 PM (GMT -4)
Via Zoom

Fiorella Faillace (Cucuta, Colombia, 1997) Artist graduated from the National University of Colombia (2020). In her work, social networks are proposed as a new instance of public space. From this position, she problematizes different spheres of personal and public life, raising critical and political questions. Fiorella’s work oscillates between issues related to local politics, as well as themes that are more personal. She addresses matters such as her identity and sensitivity as a woman and an individual performing in an era inextricably linked to the online presence, as well as the uncertainty of artistic work in the contemporary capitalist context.

Laura Arboleda Artist graduated from the National University of Colombia (2021). The relational character of space is the central axis of her work, mainly set in the contemporary urban context. From there, she addresses the ways in which the homogenized and sanitized condition of architecture influences the experience of the subject that occupies this space. Her work fluctuates between different media, suggesting a critique of the homogenization of forms and spaces in the contemporary capitalist world.

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