naides es mas que naides

$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$

NAIDES ES MAS QUE NAIDES PROJECT MONTEVIDEO BIENNIAL Collateral Event Carrasco Airport - 2013 In the end of 2001 I began the "Simbolos Patrios" project (National Symbols) starting with the photo work named "Corralito". The fence, great door and symbol of the lands and resources of my country, was painted with the colours of the Argentine flag: denouncing and speaking ironically about the economic and social situation that the Nation was experiencing at that time. In the second stage I knitted a small Argentine flag and went through the different squares of the city, embracing the monuments of our national heroes with the knitted coat, and making a photo record of the action. Next, I began with the " La Bandera Tejida - Arte en Acción " project (Knitted Flag - Art in Action), since I could not avoid what my eyes were showing me; people eating from garbage, sleeping in the streets; heart-breaking and nonsense images, given the resources we have in Argentine. These images provoked a great change in me; the Individual Work then started to be a Collective Work. I invited people, without distinction, to participate in the Actions and to feel as a Nation. The objective was to work with the Flag as tool for a collective construction, of identity, integration and solidarity. In this act I also had the support of the City Government, the Culture and Education Secretary, the Citibank and the support of the family company Yanabey that donated the wool. I invited to knit 30 x 30 cm cloths with the national colours and to then join them until a big flag was made. Later, this piece would be exhibited at public spaces, and fragmented once again to finally be giving as blankets among the needy. A photographic record of the entire act was made, and more than fifteen hundred blankets were donated in different places of the country. This artistic Action became a "Work in Progress" that still lives on, and I feel it as a child that grows and experience different stages. Destiny invited me, almost three years ago, to live in Uruguay. There I had again the chance to replicate this Action, so close and beloved to me. In this stage the project was named "Uruguay te abraza" (Uruguay Embrace you) and it was developed with the "Uruguayan American School", an international educative institution where students from more than 35 different nationalities were studying. The proposal was then open for all the community and the result was very positive; in one month 65 blankets were knitted for the premature babies of the Pereira Rosseil Hospital. I also had the opportunity to share the project with the "Family Association" of the Inter-American Bank of Development (BID), and the residents of "Los Refugios" (The Refuges), an institution of the Uruguayan Government that protect homeless people. It was very dignifying to find out their collaboration to knit for the babies, and we were able to donate other 60 blankets to the "Hogar del Bebé" (Baby's Home). I want to highlight that it was a great honour for the ONG that I lead, "Asociación Civil Banderas Unidas" (United Flags Civil Association), to be chosen as example to follow in the BID reunion "Encuentro Anual de Asociación de Familia" (Annual Encounter for the Family Association), that took place in Washington DC, USA, in the year 2013. Another lovely experience was to share some time with Rural Schools, which allow me to sensibilize myself and to know the reality of the inland provinces, as well as the different realities of the students that accompanied me in the experience. In that journey we were able to knit together the sun over an already knitted big Uruguayan Flag. Later, we exhibit the knit as the Knitted Uruguayan Flag - Art in Action, at the airport of that country, in the context of the "Tejiendo una Nueva Conciencia Latinoamericana" project (Knitting a New Latin American Consciousness). Thanks to this act, made with the collaboration of so many kind hands to join our bonds, the civil association made an alliance with Petrobras and the Avellaneda local government, involving the Culture, Education and Health Areas, and being declared as of Cultural Interest. Finally, I presented this action in all Latin American territory thanks to the International Relations Ministry of Argentine support. The present project is called "Pintemos Juntos" (Let's Paint Together), and it is made over a white canvas, with each person working in its own way, reminding the distinguished "Artigas" with his wise quote; "Naides es más que naides".

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