"We are not perfect, just go do it" !
These were the words that my friend Fredone Fone said to me during my stay at LaTinta. Coming to a new landscape all that was known had to be forgotten. I entered two weeks of learning, listening, talking, discussing, philosophizing, cooking, walking, thinking, questioning, doubting but most of all (un)learning.
I was constantly entering new terrains, trying to navigate capitalization of art, racism, inequality, decolonization, binaries of black and white and otherness. All that while figuring out the commons, zones of understanding, compassion, care, sharing and knowledge exchange. But most of all collaboration. Collaboration in these critical life and art zones we navigate every day. During those two weeks we continued where we were all these years since we have known each other. We continued deepening our space of collaboration, sharing experiences and learning from each other. Only now were we able to leave the remoteness and engage in a face to face interaction. New paths were made between Fred's LaTinta and my project Artist's Menu. Both exploring places of art making and doing, strategies for art and life and all those invisible processes that keep it all going.
I mapped, wrote, photographed, mixed, distilled, cooked trying to understand all that was coming to me. Working around my methodology of instruction based experiential cartography, my work New terrains came to be. Contextualized and produced in a form of a dinner exhibition it follows our sharing principles: to work with what you have, on spot, mostly low budget with found materials because that classic artist scenario of little to no money follows us both. Dinner served as a bridging element, a trigger for communication and engagement with those that gathered in our hidden, intimate event.
Hiding as strategy or hope as strategy were just some of the topics we opened up in our daily discussion. Those and many others were shaped in a recipe. Hand written and displayed alongside the dinner table it served as a provocation and discussion trigger, a food for thoughts. Accompanied by a 50's dark jazz like sound mixing by Fred we immersed ourselves in the atmosphere of what LaTinta and Artist's Menu create: communicating, cooking, digesting, caring, supporting, critiquing.
Place for interaction, giving and receiving, probing and questioning, (un)learning, listening, trying, failing but raising up to continue. As we made first steps in this unknown terrains, exciting ideas emerged, new collaborations have started and we continue to navigate it together.
This lifetime experience was made possible thanks to: Joana Quiroga, Francina Coelho de Oliveira, Fredone Fone and Pamelly! Thank you again for your hospitality, warmest welcome and care.
I am still going through the research materials, compiling it and making a map of the emotional, intellectual and cultural landscape I walked with these amazing people. This valuable research, discussions, experiences and knowledge exchanged are finding their roots in my PhD work I am currently working on.
+++The residency trip was supported by a mobility grant from the Ministry of Culture and Information of Serbia.