entransito

MONTEVIDEO BIENNIAL Collateral Event March - 2013

$Gardens, flags, nests and symbols to be experience. Alejandra Mettler, Argentinian artist now living in Uruguay, carries out a social committed work that pretend, in a way, to break with established conventions that keep art isolated, as a territory only made for specialists. Her works are also platform to promote the activities of her non-profit organization, Banderas Unidas, where giant flags have been knit; being many of this pieces the result of more than 70.000 hours of willing work. She had worked with native people communities, schools, with men, women, children, fathers, mothers, students and teachers. The knit is a tool, such as the materials that she uses. In this work technique doesn’t matter, only the ideas and actions. The Knit represent the social intertwine; the flags are the representation of people's identities. They are knitted as blankets "to embrace", and the knit action is bonded to "knit consciousness that protect us". The artist formulates a project, and then invites people to knit white and light blue cloths to build a big flag with them. This is a solidary act in fact, since once the flag is exhibited it is fractioned again in blankets to warm up people who need it. The flag is a reflexion of a new idea of nation, one with a collective conscious. Mettler also proposes the construction of symbols and other flags, with different materials that can also be the ones usually present in the art system; canvas, papers, acrylic paints, pens, etc. In this collective actions success or failure they are not in play, since the objective is to expand the artistic experience and to open possibilities for creativity, community and creation. We live in a society where big utopias have become impossible tasks, where reality is shattered and personal identity is just an unstable value due to the globalization pressure. For now, we live in a liberal society where there is a tendency to loss identities and consumer’s alienation. In this context, artists like Alejandra Mettler invite us to think about it and participate in the creation of our own identities, as a game, as something built in a ludic way. Those who participate in the creation of this works are also being part of the self-confirmation of their own identities and belonging. Besides, the artwork is not anymore a well-defined and self-contained entity, and transforms itself in a symbolic object on constant mutation, brittle, and constructed with the collaboration of the audience. The work then is not anymore the result of an individual effort and activates the relation between audience and artist. The biggest work presented at Carrasco International Airport, “Naides es más que Naides”, comes from a quote belonging to José Artigas, happily step aside of bronzes, marbles and pedestals; it sites us and make us think as a Nation. We found this title is a metaphor that equals the artist’s figures with those of the audience, breaking with the idea that the artist is a special being, almost a god, who has special qualities and skills different to the rest of the mortals. This work is to be collectively constructed; we all together paint our flag and no one could be better than anyone else, thus, building new ethics, from the anonymity, generating inclusion and coexistence. Mettler also has works that make references to people's inclusion and reconciliation; other acts refer to peace and love and the actual instability of these precious elements, essential in every society. There are also wool symbols to protect, different fabrics to be painted by anyone, and also symbols made with newspaper pages, making reference to communication and information. A contemporary furniture serves as metaphor of human being identity, sheltering inside birds nests that refer us to the "home sweet home" search, even having some knitted "eggs" lying around, made with white wool. These are flags-nests-symbols that construct an intertwine, connecting people, conscious and persons. In the little garden located in our magnificent Airport, it is presented "El Jardín de los Prematuros" (Premature's Garden), a work that also have a social nature, realized by thinking on other people, the vulnerable and the needy. The artist intervenes the garden "knitting a new consciousness". In words of Alejandra Mettler: "my work is an open and active space for expressions, exchanges and experiences that invites to strengthen the relations between each of us. The symbols and the wool help me call to participate in this artistic production and to represent it in the context of the contemporary art, granting it with a new meaning". This is a work to be experienced. Gustavo Tabares$

IN TRANSIT Project This project was, born more than five years ago, over several stages. Back in Buenos Aires, the city where I lived, one of the experiences consisted on inviting people to knit cloths with different colours in order to form a universal symbol. After giving my thanks to all the participants for the work they had done on the donated knitted cloths, made with such love and kindness, I travelled to the North of my country where I had worked with native people and communities, with whom I had already realized other social projects. Working with them I was able to learn some of their wisdom, and the teachings, they passed on to me, that knowledge about Earth care and the treasure that it represents, have changed my vision of life. In that occasion I invited this community to participate in an artistic action. The propose was to share and join together cloths with several different colours and stitches, giving form to a peace symbol, renewing the meaning and value of the knit as ancestral expression and as one of the oldest ways of expression of all human kind. The act then was made in the Great Salt Lakes, at 4500 metres above the sea level, and also in Tilcara, Jujuy province, with the support of the Culture and Tourism Secretary of the Province, and the ONG that I found, Banderas Unidas. In that first stage, the "Reverencias a la Tierra" project (Reverences to Earth), consisted on hoisting a Peace flag of 22 x 7 metres dimension, knitted by willing hands from all over the country. Later I exhibited the Peace and Love universal symbol of 7 metres diameter. To conclude in that grateful atmosphere, I draw the same symbol on the floor with the same diameter, using as artistic material the colourful soils of Purmamarca's mountains, essential part of his incredible terrain. At that time, my objective was to coincide with Pachamama's holy celebrations among the native Andean people, who give their thanks and respects for Mother Earth. This is one of the most significant cultural manifestations in our country, and I made a photo and audio-visual record to proclaim dignity for our beloved land and praying reverences to her. Actually, thinking about at the Carrasco Airport, making the new work “En Transito” (In Transit), I repeat the Peace and Love symbol, this time made with actual newspapers, using the old knitted symbol as support, in an effort to call for aware about the intensity and velocity in which we live today. In Renaissance, a person received in his life the same amount of information bits that a common present citizen, like you and me may have every day of our lives... The out-of-time symbol could be like a clock and his hands, reminding us what is the present time...which is my time...what time... Alejandra Mettler

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