RICE Mag Vol. 4

THE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE

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THE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE CELEBRATING EQUALITY AND INCLUSION

Front Cover: Navot Miller Zach’s To Do List

Left: Navot Miller Zachary in Priest Guesthouse in Salzburg

Back Cover: Navot Miller Boy on Balcony

Copyright artists, authors, RICE Initiative 2023. All Rights Reserved.

RICE · The Contemporary Art Magazine

Celebrating Equality & Inclusion is produced and published by RICE Initiative in Barcelona, Spain. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, digitally or manually, including photocopying, recording, online publishing, or otherwise without prior written permission from the publisher.

All images have been provided by the artists.

RICE · The Contemporary Art Magazine

Celebrating Equality & Inclusion · Vol. 4

28.02.2023

Daniela Zamora · Editor in chief, graphic design and writer

Daniel Rojas Noack · Editor

Marlene Lahmer · Writer /interviewer and graphic design

Carolina Castilho · Writer /interviewer

OPEN CALL Nº4 jury panel:

Daniela Zamora · RICE Initiative founder & director

Daniel Rojas Noack · Associate Curator

ISSN: 2696-452X

RICE (Barcelona)

RICE Initiative

rice-initiative.com

info@rice-initiative.com

Sofia Bracamontes The last fear, 2021 Oil on canvas, 4x3 cm

Open Call Nº4 By the Numbers

Open Call Nº5 was the fifth Open Call launched by RICE Initiative. Candidates had the opportunity to be shortlisted by a jury panel to be part of this magazine, and further to be selected for an exhibition at FLIPA Art Gallery in Barcelona, Spain, in summer 2022. The selection process followed a minimum quota system whereby at least 50% of the selected artists were to be women or members of the LGTBQ+ community or racialized persons.

RICE’s objective in doing this is to reverse the current state of favoritism towards the traditionally privileged in mainstream contemporary art, by exercising positive discrimination while still leaving room for male artists and curators to be a part of this initiative.

We are happy to report these great statistics of participation!

RICE founder & director, Daniela Zamora

51 persons per country

countries

Visible Diversity: Painting Against The Dominant Story

“The Western world thinks of itself as white. It is far from the truth, but it is the story we are being told. The main character in this narrative is a cis-gender white male from middle-upper class. Where are the others? I have found it necessary in my art to challenge the dominant narrative and paint the ones that don’t get to be part of the main story. I started this process in Bogotá, where there is a blatant process of invisibilizing the majority of people in their full diversity. Back in Brussels, I have continued painting

www.priscillasuarezbock.myportfolio.com

the people society does not want to see and yet are everywhere to remind us they are there.”

P. S. Bock

Text by the artist

P. S. Bock is a painter and illustrator from Brussels with roots in Chile and Italy.

P.S. Bock La Tiendita Acrylic on paper. 60cm x 56cm

Interview with P. S. Bock

conducted by Carolina Castilho

“I’m 42 years old. I’m a cat person. I have a cat named Mammouth. It’s funny because mammoths are huge animals, but my cat is so tiny! My three-year-old daughter wanted to name it Mammouth. My favorite moment of the day is having breakfast with my daughter and my partner. Apart from that, painting is the biggest source of joy in my life.”

Can you tell us a personal story about yourself?

Yeah, I have a story which is also linked with my painting, which is that when I was eight years old I used to go to this art academy and they used to give us reproductions of famous paintings and say “copy them”, and that’s how we would learn. And I remember choosing a painting from Seurat, Dimanche d’été à la Grande Jatte, which is a really peaceful scene of people walking by the river, and there is this man with a big hat and women with huge dresses, and a lot of colors. I had gotten a box of pencils from my parents and I remember sitting there for weeks and weeks, very dedicated to this painting, which had so many details, and it was a great feeling. I felt like I had found this

bubble, because I really wanted to live in that painting. I remember there were kids screaming around me, but I was really just focused on my painting. And then in my twenties I lived briefly in London, and I went to the National Gallery and they had a huge painting of Seurat, Une Baignade, Asnières, which is also about people having a good time in the afternoon at the river, and because in England the museums are free I went there a lot and just spent a lot of time in front of this painting, just sitting there immersed in the painting. And yeah, that brought me back to that moment as a kid.

what I wanted to do, it just came naturally that what I was writing about made its way into my practice. Which I feel like happened with a lot of artists at the time, I was seeing a lot of selfportrait type of works.

Elements of pop culture and capitalism, especially brands, seem to be recurring in your work. What is the reason behind this?

I think at first I did it without thinking about it, but we are surrounded and educated around brands, to a point where we don’t even see them anymore. For me, painting them is underlining their presence and a reminder that they are omnipresent in our lives, and that they are problematic, at least for me. Problematic for what they represent, because they are just the tip of the iceberg and underneath it are all the social, ecological, economic consequences of capitalism, a system that is really destroying us and destroying our planet. Capitalism is a system that is embedded in our daily life and in all the transactions we make and have with people. And I believe it’s a very decadent

society, we don’t even see its ugliness anymore because we are so used to it, we are born with it. It’s a mixed feeling because we grow up with all that ugliness and it’s part of us and our culture, so it becomes a love-hate relationship. It’s like ‘I want them gone, but I know I would probably be lost without them’. All my paintings take place in cities, because I’ve always lived in cities, and there is a lot of gray and concrete everywhere, so I leave a lot of space for that, and I could change that, but it’s also a part of me. I would feel sort of nostalgic if these things weren’t there.

P.S. Bock

Dealing and Footballing Acrylic on paper 59cm x 90 cm110 x 120cm

Could you take us through your artistic process?

I’m a very impatient person and I cannot bother with drawing a perfect sketch, so I always do a very rough sketch in the same painting where I’m going to paint. Because of this imprecision I always end up having to change some things over the course of the painting, like the direction of an arm because it doesn’t fit anymore, and things like that. I don’t have the patience to do it in another way, and I like it because it gives some spontaneity to the painting and I think imperfection is also a part of it. Also I’m incapable of drawing with a pencil, I have to really paint the shapes with the paint, so it’s a really physical process. I feel like I use the energy coming from the body to paint, so I like to do massive shapes and have heaviness, and it’s also why I use acrylic, because it’s opaque and heavy and it dries very quickly. Again, that’s very important for me because I can’t wait.

and before I wouldn’t dare to paint bigger paintings. I think being far away from home gave me more freedom to just try things. And what is funny is that when I think about the first big painting I did, I didn’t have paper that was big enough, and instead of going to buy some I just took smaller sheets of paper and I painted big characters on them. So I ended up with six of these papers and made one big painting. I think I started with baby steps and then I said, ‘Okay, now I can paint on a bigger piece of paper’. And that’s when I bought bigger paper.

Could you tell us a little bit about your time in Bogotá and the impact it had on your work?

Yeah, I was there for two years because my partner is from there and he had to go back to work. I had never lived in Latin America before, actually I had never lived outside of Europe before, and Bogotá was a big change. I think it had a huge impact on my practice, because it’s where I started using big formats and it’s where I really started to paint. I think because I was so far away from home and everybody I knew, I could finally give myself permission to paint in bigger formats and knew there wasn’t anybody seeing me or watching over my shoulder. I think it’s because it took me a really long time to have confidence in my work,

And I think Bogotá also inspired me on the content of my paintings, because I love painting people but I didn’t really know what scenes to paint. And in Bogotá street life is very important, people gather outside a lot, and at the same time a lot of people have to go out everyday to sell things in order to survive. There is a lot of unemployment and no help from the government, so you see a lot of people coming up with different businesses and they do it in the street. So the streets are a lot more alive than in Europe, and it is amazing to see because you have a lot more contact with people, but at the same time you also think of the reality behind it. So I felt inspired to paint these people in the streets, who are also the people who nobody talks about. They might be the majority, but they are the ones who are invisible to the people in power. The people that nobody talks about but that are everywhere. Bogotá for me was a huge inspiration.

(Right) P.S. Bock

The lamppost boxer Acrylic on paper 70cm x 49,5cm

“I think being far away from home gave me more freedom to just try also inspired me on the content of my paintings, because I love painting know what scenes to paint. And in Bogotá, street life is very important, and at the same time a lot of people have to go out everyday to sell

Where would you like your career to take you? Where would you like to see yourself in the next few years?

I’m really just starting as a painter, because I’ve been doing illustration for a few years, but I started to paint about three years ago. So I’m just starting to show my work, and I’m really excited for all the opportunities to come. I want to keep painting and to exhibit my work, I have a project of a series of paintings with scenes around a basketball court in my neighborhood, which at first seem normal but then elements of drama become noticable. I’m also working on a graphic novel, and I guess the most important thing would be to be able to make a living out of my art.

try things. [...] And I think Bogotá painting people but I didn’t really important, people gather outside a lot, sell things in order to survive.”

P.S. Bock Chorizos Acrylic on paper 59cm x 90cm

Are there any artists or movements that have particularly inspired you?

Other than Seurat, I would have to say that one of my biggest inspirations is David Hockney. I love many of his portraits, and I went to see an exhibition a few years ago in Paris and it was amazing. His paintings are huge and I spent a lot of time watching the details, the creases on the clothes and on the curtains, the collars, … I really felt a connection with how he paints and it seems like he really enjoys it. Also, he’s like 80 years old now and he is still so modern and he never lost contact with the way art has evolved. I wish I knew more women artists, and I remember a girl asking our art history teacher in school why she only showed us the work of men, and the teacher answered that there weren’t any women that were good enough. Yeah, we were all shocked and didn’t know what to say. We didn’t know a lot of them, it’s true, but it was also her job to show us more work by women. Matisse is another artist who I grew up admiring, but I discovered much later in life the work of Vanessa Bell, who is the sister of Virginia Woolf, and she worked during the same period of Matisse and their work is very close. So her

work is really good, but we don’t talk about her. And then a contemporary artist who I admire is PowerPaola, who is a Colombian-Ecuadorian artist famous for her graphic novels, but she also does some paintings. And then Lola Lafon, who is also a writer, and she inspires me a lot because of how she speaks about her process and about her writing. I feel like she writes in a very physical way, she describes the feelings of the characters by describing what happens in their body. And for me the body is one of the things I love to paint the most, and like I said before painting is a very physical act.

What advice would you give to other female artists?What has been the biggest lesson you have learned so far as an artist?

I don’t know if I have a lot of advice to give because I’ve just started my journey as a painter, I probably should be receiving advice. But what I’ve learned in the years after I finished art school is that the important thing is to work, work until you make it. I hated my work for a long time, for years and years it was hard for me to paint because I hated the paintings. My partner was always telling me nice things about it and giving me words of encouragement,

but I kept hating it and didn’t want to show it. So I kept working because I wanted to see it through, and I had a different job before but I left it because I wanted to paint. It was difficult because sometimes I felt hopeless while doing it and I was doubting my work so much, but eventually I stopped hating it and started to enjoy it. And that was what I wanted all along. To be able to like my work. For me I made it! And if I hadn’t worked so much I wouldn’t have gotten to this point. That’s why I would say to work, work and work. But I do think those years would have been better if I hadn’t doubted myself so much.

P.S. Bock Alimentation Générale Acrylic on paper 84,5cm x 60cm

A Poetic Search Of Light, Space And Limits

“My artwork consists on doing research and not just production. A research about light, space and limits. I explore these subjects in depth, leading me to multiple possibilities and outcomes - like the branches of a tree. I know an old and well-established medium like oil paint can create expectations about style and representation, but I use it rather as a tool to explore my ideas and visions. The result might be abstract, or have figurative elements, but the guiding thread is to explore things which don’t

www.sofiabracamontes.com

conform to our expectations of “reality”.

To me painting is a very convenient medium to visualise almost anything, and challenge the limitations of physical reality and the human condition. The frame is not a limit: on the contrary, I can play with light, colours, contrasts, space and subjects in ways that are impossible outside of it. It offers freedom, I use it as a portal, or a window to another dimension.

I am interested in things which I don’t know what they are, in paradoxes, in ambiguity, in silence, in that which doesn’t exist or is unconceivable. I think it’s my way of reflecting on existence and paying homage to life.

My art practice is in a way my own form of spirituality. It is from a position of peace and contact with nature, contemplation, and flow with “the divine” that I create my artwork at the margins of society. For

me this is relevant in a bigger discourse in today’s society: the reconnection to the sacred as a form of statement and almost as a political act against hierarchies that have gone out of control.”

Sofia Bracamontes is a Mexican artist currently based in Italy.

Sofia Bracamontes Oval Jungle 2022

Oil on canvas (glued to an oval board) 40x30cm

Text by the artist

Sofia Bracamontes The last fear 2021 Oil on canvas, 4x3 cm

Sofia Bracamontes

Black painting 2

2020

Oil on black canvas 50x70

Sofia Bracamontes

I want to be like the first scents of spring

2022

Oil on canvas (glued to an oval board)

40x30cm

Sofia Bracamontes

Black painting 4

2020

Oil on black canvas 35x50cm

Hybrid Beings: Exploring Space With Ceramics

Tony Briffa Svendborg, Denmark

Born in Malta in 1959, Tony Briffa studied ceramics in the late seventies obtaining a distinction diploma from Targa Gap School for Craftsmen.

After almost ten years working in the ceramic industry, he was entrusted with the ceramic studios at Targa Gap, his old art school. From the early eighties, he exhibited in a significant number of national and international juried exhibitions, drawing the attention of art critics and collectors.

All along he also worked intensely in the theater both as an actor and as a designer. He designed sets, costumes & props for major productions by playwrights as diverse as Aristophanes, Moliere, Neil Simon and Peter Shaffer.

Text by the artist

“While attempting to make sculptures, I try to follow this checklist:

These must challenge gravity, occupy merited space, resonate with colour,

own movement, tell an untold narrative and contain a dose of surprise & humour BUT must be restrained and understated. I am sure I have not reached my goal yet…….”

Text by the artist

(Previous page)

(Above) Tony Briffa Untitled 6 Ceramics earthenware with decal application 10cm X 21cm X 10cm

Tony Briffa Untitled 1 Ceramics Raku- decal application 23cm X 20cm X 15cm

Tony Briffa Untitled 3 Ceramic raku with decals 25cm X 20cm X 20cm

Tony Briffa Untitled 2 Ceramics earthenware with photographic decals application 10cm X 21cm X 10cm

Tony Briffa Untitled 10 Ceramics earthenware with decals 32cm X 23cm X 25cm

Tony Briffa Untitled 4 Ceramics raku, extruded 18cm X 22cm X 20cm

Tony Briffa Untitled 9 Ceramics raku slab build 10cm X 21cm X 10cm

Tracing The Destiny Of Anonymous Masses

There are things that don’t want to be written, pages that are more loved when they remain without signs. Each time has its own way of resistance in favor of silence and oblivion. For this reason Walter Benjamin pointed out the struggle in honoring the memory of anonymous people, which is why history should focus precisely on these individuals. The artist, who is the one who isn’t anonymous, should echo this invitation as well.

Dídac could have become mute, swallowed

by the noise of his time. He’s an artist whose work has, until now, remained small and anonymous, but which has a forcefulness and necessity that doesn’t leave anyone indifferent. For him letters are bodies. Anonymous people. Cadavers with life. In a way, the act of making a letter appear and the gesture of drawing it rummage through the mystery of water fused with fire (as in human physiology, that is, as in blood). It is about blowing on Hebrew scripture. I would say that is what Dídac does after

having made it exist. A dissemination, a spreading, a diaspora. It is not like the flowers which the summer has dried and that open in perfect spheres, feathers that the wind can blow, but each letter is in its own way strange, wandering, misplaced. The artist faces his own dislocation with the

letters he makes migrate. Sovereignty will now be in perpetual exile.

Text by the artist

Dídac Xibbolet, Pregaries Oil and charcoal on canvas 162 x 130 cm

Dídac Xibbolet II Paint on canvas 100 x 40 cm

Dídac Penal Colony, Lefeu I Oil, graphite, charcoal and fire on canvas 160 x 160 cm

Dídac

Caps, Caps i balançes

Oil, graphite, paper (collage) on canvas 100 x 81 cm

(Left) Dídac En la colònia, II Oil, graphite and paint on canvas 81 x 60 cm

Dídac Penal Colony, Lefeu II, Oil, graphite, paint, paper and fire on canvas 160 x 160 cm

Dídac

Penal Colony, Lefeu II (Detail)

Oil, graphite, paint, paper and fire on canvas 160 x 160 cm

We Are Looking For Collaborators

If you see yourself reflected in our philosophy or you like our mission and the simple idea of collaborating with a platform that (we believe) will grow like rice, tickles you, we invite you to contact us through info@rice-initiative.com:

• Tell us a bit about yourself.

• How would you like to collaborate with us?

• Briefly describe what your professional profile is.

If you’re interested in collaborating as a curator, send us a pdf with images and texts of a couple of projects that you’ve developed so far.

Or if, on the other hand, you would like to collaborate only writing for RICE Mag, send us a couple of examples of articles, essays or interviews that you’ve written, preferably related to art or the creative industry in general.

And well, if you are not a curator or a writer, it’s okay too, follow your heart and write to us anyway, we’ll be happy to hear from you!

Still not convinced?

As a RICE Initiative collaborator you could:

• Make a difference at the social level, actively working to reverse the exclusion and discrimination of women and minority groups in the art world.

• But if that were not enough, you could also have press access to exhibitions and art fairs in your city.

• As well as to have the opportunity to interview interesting artists and other creatives.

Visions of Eternal Growth

Vibrant natures conquer environments that originate from the intersection of Clara Rival’s (Argentina, 1986) memories and visions. In her paintings, lush plants envelope fragments of richly decorated structures and buildings, evoking classical architecture and its evolution to the present day.

It is inevitable to see a link between Clara’s work and the infinite Rome of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1788).

In his depictions, the artist and architect reflects the decadent grandeur of ancient

monuments, transformed by the passage of time and their appropriation by a ceaselessly growing nature.

VISIONS OF ETERNAL GROWTH alludes to these spaces that caress the past and at the same time create new universes. Painted sceneries in which our view is framed and segmented by leaves, as to obscure part of the oasis Rival shows us. The discovery of places in which to thrive, from where to glean knowledge, is central to Rival’s visual journey, but each discovery is only a temporary station. Her path never ends.

To Rival, it is important to invoke the rare moments in which our perception is tuned to seeing attentively and appreciating the wondersome phenomena the universe presents us with.

Getting to these states of vision is like walking through a forest, a jungle, and glimpsing at a conspicuous point in the rear, understanding that you have arrived at a vista you will never pass again. Parts always remain hidden while everything continues to evolve. And the moment of epiphany never lasts. But this short glimpse of meaning is enough to make you go on …

in search of other singular unique moments in which you feel connected to knowledge and beauty.

“I’m looking for a place, when I find it I’ll look for another” says Clara Rival. Her paintings are re-collections of these places and moments, visions of eternal growth.

curatorial text ‘Visions of Eternal Growth’

Daniela Zamora, Daniel Rojas, Marlene Lahmer

Special Interview with Clara Rival

conducted by Marlene Lahmer

“I’m 36 years old. My favourite shirt is big and colourful. I’m from the city, but in the last few years I have been living more at the beach and in natural places, and I think after a while of being in one of them, I need the other one. I have seasons of doing one thing a lot, and then I change and do another. I like to change but to repeat in that change.”

In your paintings, we see vibrant colours coming together in tropical forests and architectural shapes. How is your process?

For example, what was your starting point for “Recuerdo inventado de Xilitla”

(Invented Memory of Xilitla)?

First, I choose a colour for the background and a motif. In this case, the reference is to a surrealist garden in Xilitla, Mexico. It’s an unreal scenery built by Sir Edward James, who was obsessed with the surrealists and wanted to create a complete surrealist environment. There is a mix of memories, factual objects and inventions that come together in the painting. It’s a pastiche, for example there’s a bakery floor I saw on one of my trips.

But generally speaking, my methodology of painting changes all the time, also within one painting. I choose a background colour and then I listen to a song and it sends me wandering and then the mood of the painting takes a different direction. In a way, you never find the answers you are looking for in a painting, just more questions and starting points for further explorations. For example, here I’m interested in how the colours look after the rain and this has been part of previous paintings, too.

(Previous page)

Clara Rival

Cruzar del otro lado

Digital Painting, Fine Art Print

50x50 cm

Clara Rival with her work

In your exhibition at FLIPA. Art Gallery, you really draw us into your world. Your paintings in all kinds of sizes come together as an installation. Is that a recent development in your practice?

No, I‘ve been doing that in the past. It’s something I find great about having exhibitions, I can arrange my work in a way that makes sense beyond a single painting. I like it a lot when I can think of paintings as a group to be exhibited. I enjoy that more than showing one painting out of the blue. Some years ago, I made more works on paper and I did a huge collage of them on the wall for one show. For me, it’s not only about creating spaces in paintings, but about creating a space in which the paintings can communicate with each other.

The plants you are painting at the moment, are they images taken from real plants or do you paint from memory?

More from memory, and sometimes I mix two plans and invent a new one. I take pictures of plants for inspiration, but it’s never an exact reproduction or a very technical one. Sometimes I like a shape and I use it, so it’s more morphological I would say. I take the idea and I like the way it falls, but I start drawing and I invent, it’s not realistic at all.

It’s about creating a space in which the paintings can communicate with each other.

Clara Rival A Visible Illusion Acrylic on Canvas Triptych 50x50, 20x 25

You grew up and studied in Argentina, and then you lived in Mexico for a while, then in France, and now in Spain. What changed everytime you moved?

It’s different everywhere, of course. I like that, it’s fun for me, it’s inspiring to get to know the new things and cultures, and that people are different but the same all at once. Well, in Spain I feel like it’s very similar to home. There are many Argentinians here too. But it changes everywhere. It’s something I enjoy and I find very interesting, the possibility also to adapt to different things and to learn. I’ve always liked travelling for that matter.

everywhere, they were for sure meaningful in my practise. And it’s funny because sometimes after that, in some places, people would ask me if I was Brazilian because of my paintings. It has clear this marked me. When I was still living in Argentina, my paintings were less ... exaggerated, and a bit more sober. Argentina is not that tropical compared to Mexico or Brazil. And when I moved to France and there was lockdown, I stayed with the exotic and tropical colours of Mexico. But well, here in Barcelona I started using some patterns that may be related to Andalusia or Morocco in my work.

Have you been to Andalusia?

Travelling is also an important keyword in your work. How did these different places influence your painting?

Well of course, Mexico is very colourful and the landscapes are exuberant and rich and you can see colour everywhere. Also when I was in Brazil - I never lived there, but I did trips for some months - the plants and the colours in the streets

Not yet, but I really want to go. And I’m planning to go to Morocco. I saw similar patterns in Portugal some months ago, but I think I really want to go to Andalusia. I have been looking at a lot of pictures, and sometimes, when I want to go someplace, I start travelling there in my mind, you know it’s like invoking them. (chuckles)

Clara Rival untitled (sky) from the Altar Series

Clara Rival untitled (bubble) from the Altar Series

To be able to watch, we have to surrender to the act of observation. So I think the door is that, a possibility to enter into what we will see if we really see.

The mind is an important place to you, right? The other day when we were talking about your work, you said, “it’s like invoking the magic, but the magic happens in the mind“.

There is a song by David Byrne - „Strange Ritual“, it’s actually about his travels and the rituals he has seen around the world – that starts with the line, „a man sits in a field contemplating his crops, in his mind he travels all over the world“.

Yeah, the mind travels.

Yes, I was talking with my cousin and she likes tarot and witchcraft a lot. I was telling her what I wanted to do - something about magic - and she was like, “but you have nothing to do with magic“. No, it’s not that kind of magic … I mean the magic of being able to see the fluorescence of colours after the rain, the natural magic, the magic of perception.

Clara Rival Después de las lluvias Acrylic on canvas 40 x 40 cm

One of your paintings is called “Cruzar del otro lado” (Crossing Over from the Other Side). There is a doorway in it, but the other side remains in the dark. What do you think awaits us there?

I think it’s an entrance to ... maybe to this kind of magic. Somewhere I said, „to be able to watch, we have to surrender to the act of observation“. You need to put all of yourself in there in order to be able to really see, and the other side is maybe when we get to this state of calmness or presence in the moment … in order to be able to see. So maybe that’s what you get when you cross to the other side, you get to be in this place where it’s you as an observer.

I also talked to you about the word „paravisiones“ that was part of a chapter of a Julio Cortazar novel, and the chapter talks about this experience. This narrator is stepping on dry leaves in the street and he finds a special one and takes it to his room and puts it in the

lampshade. The next day, a friend comes and pays a lot of attention to the leaf. Then another friend comes and doesn’t even notice the leaf in the lamp but discovers something the narrator didn’t realise. And then the narrator says, „I stay thinking of how many of those leaves I won’t see, me the picker of dry leaves. So many things that are in the air, but these eyes won’t be able to see. For everywhere there’s going to be lamps and leaves and things I won’t see. So that’s when I think of exceptional states in which, for one instant, you guess the leaves and the invisible lamps. They are in an air that’s outside of the space. It’s very simple, every exaltation or depression pushes me to a state that I would call ‘paravisiones’.“

Like this little second in which we are able to see all this, but the next second the epiphany is over.

So I think the door is that, a possibility to enter into what we will see if we really see.

Clara Rival Altar series

Installation with paintings Variable dimensions

Clara Rival Nocturno con artificios Acrylic on canvas 80x 100 cm

Clara Rival Invocando Tanger Acrylic on canvas 80x 100 cm

Clara Rival Sueño con piscina Acrylic on canvas 80x 100 cm

Clara Rival

Recuerdo inventado de Xilitla Acrylic on canvas 80x 100 cm

In a time of environmental crisis, what do you think it means to paint those landscapes with exuberant plants?

Different things. Of course, I love nature and it’s something that worries me a lot. And sometimes it makes me sad to think that probably one day we will only have the photos or the paintings of it. Also I like the possibility of being able to observe and to have nature with you. Maybe a painting is also a good way to be able to think of nature. If I have a painting of a car, I will probably think of a car. But if you have a painting of nature, it lets you have it present in your mind maybe.

Clara Rival Busqueda Fluroescente Acrylic and Oil on Canvas 93 x 112 cm

How did your painting develope in the last years?

In the last few years I could make a living by painting and be a full-time artist, which is something I really feel very lucky about, I’m very grateful for it. I hope it can continue this way, but sometimes it’s crazy because there are these moments when I get scared about what’s going to happen next month – when I’m finishing this commission or that exhibition is over - and every time the moment I’m about to get really nervous about it, something comes up. And so I take it as a signal that things end up getting together ... working out. But it’s something fluid I think.

Where do you think it will develop in the future?

Wow, that’s a good question. I hope it will develop into the possibility of continued travelling. I loved travelling even before I was painting and then there was a moment I realised I could paint and travel painting. And I hope it continues to take me places physically and emotionally. But it’s very difficult for me to try to imagine where I am going to be in some years, and it always has been something difficult for me. It’s not like I decide that I want to go back there or there, I really don’t know, but I hope it will continue making me travel.

What advice can you give to emerging female artists?

To make community. Getting in touch with people and into interesting things will always bring more cool ideas and opportunities. And also to not stop doing. Sometimes you don’t know why you’re doing it or what’s going to happen about it, but in the end things fit or work. And once I read something like, “it’s a lot of pressure to ask for your art to support you, but it’s better to ask for whatever you do to be able to support you doing art”. It doesn’t matter, I want to paint, and I hope I can always have the economic means to be able to do it. But it is better to know that - I want to paintand then no matter if it’s art or something else that I make a living off, the important thing is that I continue painting.

Clara Rival Desde las alturas Acrylic on canvas 45 x 55 cm

Vivid Travels Through Body & Mind

“FIZ’s aesthetic contains traces of all the disciplines she has explored throughout her artistic career and is defined by the decomposition of images into an analogue glitch, an effect that was taken as a starting point after the images created for a digital project for Instagram Infinite Canvas, whose main characteristic was to explore the improvisation as a leitmotiv and with a never ending narrative. A way of working that has subsequently evolved into paintings that show images broken down into a

complex language of figures and organisms that collide with each other in a map full of signs, without any meaning but with all the possible meanings one might want to find. A library of elements reminiscent of icons, flat colors and typographies used in graphic design. Elements that show a bigger picture starred by unidentifiable characters in spaces where hidden messages emerge out of floating letters or shapes that evoque words. These images invite a deeper and calmer observation, and suggest, after

a closer look, micro-universes, supernovas, landscapes or cartoons that are there in such a subtle way that they are not THERE at all.

Ambiguity as parable. Horror vacui as a pattern. Digital appearance. Tangible state.

Misleadingly Perceived. But fully understood.

Excess and overload are part of FIZ´s work along with the study of the perception of

color as well as the forms of abstraction in the background. And this is also a statement, as the works call for slow observation. An observation that invites the viewer to enjoy hhere and noww w w v .

InUtero-Resurgence (Detail) Mixed media on Finnish board and golden leaf. Acrylglas Showcase 48x28x2 cm

Text by the artist

And above all, an observation of the work IN SITU, thus rejecting the rapid consumption or fast feed to which social networks force us through their unstoppable bombardment of images that perish after 15 seconds. And to prove that the works are tangible despite their digital appearance. As Mother of Images, she gives birth to pieces full of contrasts that invite the viewer to observe and get lost in the madness of the elements captured, discovering a

multitude of interpretations. This proposal seeks a slow and curious look, and aims to immerse the viewer in a universe of infinite meanings through the creation of a universe composed of 3D paintings, totems, puzzles and audiovisual material. But stop! The scripts are part of the paintings too, as it is the artist’s WEBSITE, which invites to play and to imagine new meanings with FIZ-a-Puzzle. Because very often you can find them in the titles, wordings or any other chance that allows you to work with texts which will be decomposed in visual metaphors made out of the characters in the sentences .

Lately, all her images are being combined with acrylic glas showcases that portray a new layer of meaning that dances along with the underlying

These laser-cut showcases add a cleaner,

more industrial look to the paintings and give them a strong digital appearance. The showcases are composed of layers of acrylic that extrude the paintings and turn them into objects.

PLEASE take a LOOk. CLOSER

Text by the artist F

InUtero-KeepUsWild (Detail) Mixed media on Finnish board and golden leaf. Acrylglas Showcase. 48x28x2 cm

InUtero-AmI(ProstitutingMyArt) (Detail) Mixed media on Finnish board and golden leaf. Acrylglas Showcase. 48x28x2 cm

InUtero-Resurgence

Mixed media on Finnish boardand golden leaf. Acrylglas Showcase, 48x28x2 cm

Mixed media on Finnish boardand golden leaf. Acrylglas Showcase, 48x28x2 cm

Contemplative Geometrical Vistas

Barcelona, Spain

www.labotanicabarcelona.com

Ferrario

Clarissa Ferrario is a Swiss artist currently based in Barcelona, Spain. She owns a creative coworking space for artists and artisans, with a space for workshops and an art gallery. The goal behind this space is to be able to paint and create alongside other creative people with different religions, cultures and genders and share the day with them.

“My work is a game of colors and geometrical shapes that come together on the canvas to transmit peace and tranquility. I think that is something we all deserve.”

Clarissa

Text by the artist

Clarissa Ferrario Immenso Acrylics on canvas 73x60cm

Clarissa Ferrario

Lugano

Acrylics on canvas 72,5x60 cm

Augmented Bodies:// Functional Diversity in Cyberspace

Brooklyn, United States

www.jesusluvsmemes.com

“We dream of augmented bodies, pushed beyond the boundaries of organic living. Yet, when we augment disabled bodies it causes discomfort and disgust. Our relationship with technology hinges on our association to wellness— augmentation is only divine sleek and transcendent as long as it does not remind us of mortality. During the pandemic the disabled and chronically ill have been used as a blunt instrument on either side of the political spectrum without meaningful change or societal care implemented with us in mind». Ash Hagerstrand is an interdisciplinary artist,

writer, and curator based out of Brooklyn. They graduated with a BFA from RISD in 2018. Their artistic practice explores the often complicated intersection of disability and technology. As an extension of that practice they created Chronically Online Gallery, a virtual gallery space dedicated to showing disabled and chronically ill artists.

Text by the artist

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Ash Hagerstrand

Ger Girlies

Digital collage

Ash Hagerstrand

Horse girl

Digital animated collage, Projected video

Ash Hagerstrand

Rose Water Digital collage

Ash Hagerstrand

Self diagnosis

Digital animated collage, Projected video

Dating Sim

Digital animated collage, Projected video

Ash Hagerstrand

Colonoscopy

Digital collage

Everyday Harmony In the Boldest Constrasts

Navot

Miller

Berlin-based artist Navot Miller is a bright star on a vividly colored sky over the Metropole’s thriving art scene. Born in Israel and raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, he moved to Berlin in 2013 to study art. He started with pencil drawing on paper, but “quite quickly [his] use of colors became more apparent and strong”. In recent years he has focused intensely on painting, exploring oil on large scale canvases. His work shows encounters between people and architectural settings. He lingers on feelings and details and transforms them into expressive compositions of moments

Berlin, Germany

www.navotmiller.com

of harmony. Frequently, queer and Jewish characters enter his scenarios. Intimate male nudes and men in erotic interaction are interspersed with groups of friends, street corners, and fleeting moments on the subway. Navot’s paintings are like gazes over the shoulder. He depicts what he encounters, what touches and surrounds him.

text by Marlene Lahmer

Special Interview with Navot Miller

conducted by Carolina Castilho

“My favorite colors are pink, blue and yellow. Although it shifts from one to another and it depends on the tone. I have a strawberry tattoo, a small one on my ankle. My best friend is a very special person I met at a house party shortly after moving to Berlin. We share this beautiful friendship, the exchange of knowledge, care, love, feedback, anger… It is never ending.”

How would you describe your work in one sentence?

Well, I can tell you three words: personal, biographical and intimate.

The use of color seems to be very significant in your paintings. Have you always painted this way?

I didn’t always paint, that’s the first thing. I don’t consider myself a painter, I only started painting with brushes and on canvas less than two years ago. Before that I drew with pastels on paper, and before I worked primarily with pencil on paper. You asked if my work was always colorful… I think as a person I am, and was from a young age, attracted to vibrancy, colorful objects. So that’s my interest, but then what do I consider my work? If I consider my portfolio for architecture school my work, that was mostly pencil on paper. But I think quite quickly my use of colors became more apparent and stronger in my work.

And how do you go about choosing the colors for each work?

Usually I sketch on the canvas with an oil pencil, so I draw the picture on the canvas. And then before I start to paint I write the colors of each shape. That is my preliminary plan, but it always changes, and as I start to paint it will shift. Maybe the yellow will become orange, for example. So the initial plan is not really precise, but at least I have some guidelines when I start to paint. And I do that because I work relatively quickly, so it’s not like I paint and then the oil dries, and then I paint again. While I’m painting the oil is still wet, so if I’m painting with white and the brush touches yellow, then it messes up the white. So I plan because I like to start painting from brighter colors to darker, so I always start my paintings with white. If I’m painting with yellow and the brush touches white, it’s not as dramatic as if the white touches yellow. It’s all learning by doing, really.

(Above) Navot Miller Boy in Nesso Oil on Canvas

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Navot Miller Nikos with Bike on Sophienstrasse, Kids reading books Oil on cavas

What

is it about daily life and everyday scenes that attracts you?

I don’t think of my work as being very conceptual, I think it’s more organic in the sense that if I see something that I think is interesting enough for me to work with and maybe add to how I want to see things, I’ll use it. So often it will be a painting, or a video, or a text… Again, I’m not looking at myself as a painter per se. Right now I’m absolutely concentrating on painting, and even though I also like to make videos and I write sometimes, that is not something that is as public or as evident as my painting. I think working with everyday scenes is not necessarily a conscious decision, like “I want to work with everyday life scenes”, it’s more like “Oh, the way my friend is sitting on the window is interesting” or “Wow! I’m so mad at this friend, she is driving me so mad and I want to paint this”. I’m directing my thoughts and my feelings towards something, and painting is an extension of that. That is why I said I consider my work to be personal, because mostly my work is about things that have touched me, things that are associated with me.

Navot Miller Angelo and Sergio in Casa Biulu Oil on Canvas

How has your experience as an artist been so far when it comes to inclusivity? What issues and inequalities do you think the art world still struggles with?

Well, I haven’t experienced anything that made me think “Wait a minute… I am excluded because of some reason that might be a personal reason towards me or something”. Personally, I did not experience or encounter something like that, either from fellow artists or galleries, collectors, curators.

“I’m directing my thoughts and my feelings towards something, and painting is an extension of that. That is why I said I consider my work to be personal, because mostly my work is about things that have touched me, things that are associated with me.”

How do you feel the representation of queerness in art has changed over time? And what about in your own work?

Again, because my work is quite personal, it’s an extension of me. I’m not sitting around and thinking about what I am going to paint, or what is the reason behind this color or behind this object. I’m bringing to the table whoever I am, whatever is associated with me, whether it’s my background, my sexuality, my interest in architecture, … It’s not so much that I intentionally decide to show queerness in this or that way. In that sense I think I show

queerness because as a gay person it comes naturally for me to show men together. And about how this has changed over time in art, I think we live in a world where things are possible that were not possible fifteen years ago, and we live in a time where to paint a dick being sucked by a man is not forbidden, for example. Tom of Finland’s work was forbidden until like the sixties or seventies, and so were many others. And I think now that it is not forbidden we are seeing more of it, and I think that’s brilliant.

Navot Miller Michele in Impruneta Oil on Canvas

Navot Miller Swimming pool in Casa Biulu Oil on Canvas

“ I show queerness because as a gay person it comes naturally for me to show men together. “

What is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?

Gut feeling. You know? When you’re about to do something or you’re about to make a decision, this feeling of “should I do this?”. I think it’s a mixture between not pushing, as in staying comfortable and confident and assertive, and being able to say no to things, even if they seem attractive for some reason (financial, PR, etc.). I think it goes back to how you organically feel about things. If I’m too stressed about a meeting with someone because I feel like that meeting was too aggressive or too pushy, these feelings count. Each of us knows ourselves the best. And I knew this before, but working with people and working more and more has polished that idea. Own your feelings and listen to them.

Do you have any advice for emerging artists who are starting their careers?

Think of people that you appreciate, that you think have something interesting to say, people that you love, that you think are authentic and honest and real. Think of such people and be close to them. I think we live in a world where there is so much inauthenticity, and we lie all the time in the way we live and communicate with others, and we’re all a part of this! There is something in Western society that is just not real, and then when you find someone that is honest and not trying to play a game… I think these people and these moments make life very meaningful and if you have someone that you think is valuable for whatever reason, keep them close, be with them, spend time with them.

“If I’m too stressed about a meeting with someone because I feel like that meeting was too aggressive or too pushy, these feelings count. Each of us knows ourselves the best.”

Would you say that your work also reflects that search for authenticity?

Yeah, I would like my work to be honest, to extend my feelings, my emotions, and to speak to people not only for one reason but for it to be accessible to many people and for multiple reasons. I enjoy hearing what people see in my work, especially if it’s something not good. I appreciate negative feedback, obviously it

needs to be communicated in a proper way, or in a way that I would be able to perceive, but I very much appreciate when someone comes up to me and says “I don’t understand” or “I would do it differently”. I enjoy feedback and criticism and dialogue. Again, I would like my work to be honest and to be how I would see things or I would like to see them, or how I saw them at a certain point.

(Right) Navot Miller

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Navot Miller

Johanna pretty with flowers Oil on Canvas

(Un)homely Dreams Of Today

“My work is majorly based on my emotions, research and observations. As an art student I want to document the time I live in through my paintings. Being an avid observer I want to paint my poetry that proves a testimony to my current time.

I consider myself as a very young artist and hence don’t adhere to a particular style or way of working, rather I have a very explorative and experimental approach when it comes to painting. I work through

various techniques that suit my portrait the best. I consider myself as being in an explorative process and I definitely enjoy the journey more than the destination.

Being a part of an Institution as such

I completely acknowledge the historic background it brings along, my work is driven and motivated to keep up with that legacy that follows. When approaching a painting I often have a constant quest for what I can bring new to the table. Being a

student I focus more upon my research and education as it is the foundation of what all I try to build upon.

Through my work I try to reflect my surroundings, my generation, daily mundane happenings. I try not to restrict myself too much on the fundamentals, though I rely heavily on them I try to have a painterly approach while brushing. My goal is to capture the subtle underlying aspects of the figure which are not randomly seen,

which can only be seen if one stares at a person or an object for a long time. My attempt is to bring those subtle emotions, tones, halftones, features, gestures and actions on the surface for everyone to witness.”

Sanyukta Kudtarkar Self Oil on Canvas 76.2 × 60.9cm

Text by the artist

Sanyukta Kudtarkar Virtual War Oil on paper 60.9 × 45.7cm

Sanyukta Kudtarkar Virtual War Oil on paper 60.9 × 45.7cm

(Left) Sanyukta Kudtarkar Brancusi Charcoal on paper 25.4 × 38.1cm

Sanyukta Kudtarkar Cube Oil on paper 76.2 × 60.9cm

(Right)

Sanyukta Kudtarkar

A thought Oil on paper 76.2 × 60.9cm

Beneath Covers: Dreams of (Be)longing

Filippa Moberg

“I am working with encapsulation and covers. What does it mean to feel protected? And why does something partly covered intensify someone else’s attention? The translucency of a protection, as clear lacquer, implies inaccessibility for the viewer: The shiny cover seeks for attention, attention for the untouchable inside. I am interested in the layer between inside and outside, between object and viewer. And how this layer changes if there is no inside. Just as potato peel without potato. For me

Sweden

it’s about the mystery around us. Hiding, aiming for protection, is what releases a temptation for unveiling.”

Text by the artist

Filippa Moberg Wüstenweide, 2022 analogue photography printed on velvet 145 x 95 cm

Filippa Moberg VELUM photography prints, sculptures 168 x 145 x 180 cm

Filippa Moberg

ALONG MY MOTHERS LEGS, 2021

Installation: knitted metal, mirror, plastic foil 290 x 70 x 40 cm

Intimate Nightlife Moments on Tapestry

“Llinos Owen’s autobiographical textile practice begins with personal written and visual material from her diary. Writing has always served as a ritualistic element within the artist’s life from an early age as a way to process different experiences and thoughts relating to the vulnerable themes of personal relationships, mental health and anxiety. Although the artist initially wrote in her diary as a form of meditation, the documentation of these experiences unexpectedly but naturally evolved to

become the starting point, a key element to her creative process, and the main source of inspiration for her textile practice.

Llinos Owen’s textile practice explores memories, relationships, and personal life experiences to create textured tapestries focusing on youth culture inspired by figurative imagery through the medium of punch needle rug hooking. Owen’s highly personal textile practice explores themes relating to the artist’s identity as she views

her diaristic inspired pieces as forms of visual storytelling and self portraiture.

Identity and gender are important themes within Owen’s practice as the materials and techniques she explores acknowledges the history of feminine identities by focusing on historically women dominated craft, which blurs the lines between the domestic, the mundane and the gallery space. Although the artist predominantly works with textile materials, Owen’s practice is heavily

drawing-focused and still considers her thinking and approach to making as being very painterly.”

Llinos Owen (b.1998) is a Welsh Fine Art textile artist, originally from North Wales and currently based in London.

Text by the artist

Yarn on Hessian

Interview with Llinos Owen

conducted by Carolina Castilho

“I am 24 years old. I’m living with three cats, but really I’m a dog person. My dog, which is now my family’s dog because I moved out, is called Olive. It probably sounds cheesy, but it gives me joy to be able to do the work that I’m doing now … Aside from being an artist, it’s definitely going to festivals, gigs, seeing live music, being able to let loose and enjoy with my friends … I always look forward to that throughout the year.”

How did you fall in love with tapestry?

I’ve always had an interest in textiles, every time I was doing sketchbooking or any type of work apart from textile I would always have textile samples or drawing with thread. And then when I was at university I studied Painting, and during that time I decided to explore with textiles a bit more, doing embroidery and stuff like that. During my final year, the pandemic started and I went back home, and because I didn’t have access to the facilities or the studio space I started doing research on different techniques and things I could do from home, and that’s how I found the technique that I’m working with now. So yeah, because I had all that time during lockdown I was able to teach myself how to do it and fell in love with the making of it. During the lockdown was the point where I was like “Alright, I’m a textile artist, this is what I want to do”, and I’ve been doing it since then.

It’s so fresh the way you almost paint everyday life with textiles. How did you come up with this concept?

So the concept came to life quite naturally, I’ve always been the type of person to keep a diary and write down different moments, and during the pandemic I was writing a lot more frequently, and I was writing a lot about mental health and anxiety, and also about losing out on my youth and stuff like that. Which I know may sound a bit dramatic! But then when I finished my degree and had a lot of time to do what I wanted to do, it just came naturally that what I was writing about made its way into my practice. Which I feel like happened with a lot of artists at the time, I was seeing a lot of selfportrait type of works.

Could you expand a little bit more on the connection between your writing and your art?

Right, so as I was saying writing has always been a part of my life, but I’ve never really written for it to be seen by anybody else, it’s always just been for my own head and just to write down personal moments that I want to remember. But then it just naturally evolved from there … So all those things about me and my identity and moments in my life have moved into the textile works, so I see it all as a form of selfportraiture, really.

How do you make each piece? How do you go from your first idea to the finished product?

So the process starts with the writing, and then I’ll look back through a collection of writings which could be from a few days ago, a year… And although the textile piece is what everybody sees, drawing is also really important for my practice. I keep a sketchbook which I always have with me, and if I see a picture, a person, anything that I find interesting I’ll either write it down or sketch it down quickly. So after I revisit my diary and find a concept that I want to convey in the textiles, I’ll go through my sketchbook and the different drawings I’ve collected, and I sort of collage everything in order to form the narrative that I want to convey in the tapestry. And once I find a composition that I’m happy with, I ‘ll move on to the materials, draw and then use my punch needle in order to draw the design with the textile materials. It’s almost like a painting, but with textile material.

“So all those things about me and my identity and moments in my life have moved into the textile works ...”

Llinos Owen Midnight’s Embrace 2022

Yarn on Hessian 120 x 85cm

How do you see your career evolving and what are some goals you would like to achieve as an artist?

My main goal that I would like to achieve as an artist is to just be able to keep creating the works that I want to create, that I’m happy creating and that I enjoy creating, and to be able to continue working with different artists, galleries and curators. Talking just about textile work, my goal every year is to up the scale. I’ve just moved into a studio now, so I’m excited to use the space to create bigger pieces. I’ve been creating a lot of works based on clubs, nightlife scenes, etc., so I think the next step in my career would be to collaborate with an artist that is within that world or to collaborate with a venue or an organization that is linked with the nightlife scene. I think the next step for me is to reach out a bit more and collaborate.

Llinos Owen

Together and Dancing Again Under Synthetic Stars 2021

Yarn on Hessian 120 x 75cm

Where do you draw inspiration from? Is there a specific artist that has been particularly influential in your art?

Well, with my writing and the works that I’m doing now, related to the club scene, when I go out I find a lot of inspiration there. Artist-wise, I’m always looking at different textile artists that I follow on my social media. I feel really lucky to be based in London, as I’m surrounded by so many amazing galleries and there’s always new exhibitions happening and openings, and I try my best to go to those events because I always leave feeling really inspired. Some artists that come to mind when I think about who inspires me are Anya Paintsil, who is a textile artist who works with a punch needle, similar to me. And Erin Riley, who is a weaver. Both of them work with similar themes, related to identity and life experiences, and Erin’ work often refers to her journal and vulnerable subject matters that you could find in somebody’s diary. They’re huge inspirations to me, and then because I have a background in painting I’m also heavily inspired by it. My textile works are very much inspired by figurative painting, portraiture, …

So I’m always looking at new painters, and I went to a show very recently of a painter called Seline Burn, called Mother and Thistle, and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to. Her paintings are just so detailed, and she is a huge inspiration to me at the moment. But the main artist that I always say inspires my practice is Lydia Blakeley, and she has a specific piece that I always go back to, called The Pony Club, which depicts a group of women in which one of them is about to puke, and she’s crouched down and they’re all wearing heels and dresses and it’s just a group of girls looking after each other and holding each other’s hair, and that image came from a tabloid image that was related to an article shaming these women on their behavior and for being drunk and on a night out. And so the artist has reclaimed the image and made it into a painting that is celebrating female friendships and changing a negative narrative into something really relatable. So yeah, I always go back to that painting, especially when my work is inspired by parties and clubs.

“The main artist that I always say inspires my practice is Lydia Blakeley, and she has a specific piece that I always go back to, called ‘The Pony Club’, which depicts a group of women in which one of them is about to puke, [...] and it’s just a group of girls looking after each other and holding each other’s hair.”

What is something that you have learned since you began your career that you would like to share with fellow artists?

The main lesson I’ve learned, I think, it’s to try not to compare your success as an artist with everybody else’s around you, whether it’s in art school or on Instagram, which is people’s constant high points and successes, and obviously it’s such an important tool for artists today. I think it should be important to remember that everybody’s ambitions and ideas are different, and the advice I would give, as cheesy as it sounds, it to just keep creating the works that you want to create and enjoy making them, and not make your work to fit in with whatever seems to be successful on Instagram or wherever you show your work. Your work will stand out if you have passion for it and enthusiasm to create, and I feel like all artists should remember that your passion has longevity whereas a successful Instagram post of your work will often be forgotten about in a few days. That’s what I try to remember, if something isn’t as successful as I want it to be online, it doesn’t matter.

Llinos Owen A Helping Hand 2022 Yarn on hessian 57 x 57cm

The Fabric Our Thoughts Are Made From

Andreas Sjöstrand Gothenburg, Sweden

“I stand in awe and celebration of the unfathomable mystery of my own - and human - consciousness and the very existence of anything at all. I carry a deep fascination with the vastness of the cosmos, time, and space.

Drawn to concepts that bridge these worlds, coexistence of chaos/order and complexity/ simplicity, I try to make sense of and merge the scientific and spiritual.

Awe-inspiring ideas and concepts, as well

as emotions that need addressing, trigger images in me. Thoughts fall short, other means of exploration take me further into the understanding of the ineffable. I’m fascinated with the body and its anatomy. Be that in drawing or lesser-known domains such as installation, performance, or other.

In my drawings, I set purpose and rules that dictate my movements and (try to) let go of my conscious self and its desire to alter it on superficial grounds. And I give it time, time

to go deep. It serves, among other things, as a comment on and a personal grounding from the ailments of today’s society.

Agnes Denes, Hilma af Klint, and Marina Abramovich are among the artists who currently inspire me.

worlds and filters of reality are as diverse as we are people on this planet.»

My deep hope is that what comes out of my explorations can resonate at some level, even if your journey differs from mine. Our

by the artist

Text

Andreas Sjöstrand Mara and Me

Andreas Sjöstrand Linescapes of imperfection

Andreas Sjöstrand Profundity

Functional Diversity & Culture: Art as a Tool for Activism

Antonio Centeno Barcelona, Spain

Antonio Centeno is an activist and creator who puts an emphasis on life with functional diversity in all sectors of society. He acquired his functional diversity – tetraplegia – when he was thirteen. Antonio graduated from Mathematics at the University of Barcelona and tought at highschool for eleven years. Currently he teaches in the Master’s degree ‘Gender and Communication’ at UAB. He joined the Independent Living Forum in 2004 and has been working publicly for inclusion and equal rights for persons with functional diversity ever since. Together with Raúl de la Morena, he directed the

www.antoniocenteno.barcelona

film „Yes, we fuck!“ which focuses on the sexuality of persons with non-normative bodies, including queer circles and circles of functional diversity in Barcelona. He has been involved in audiovisual projects such as “Trèvols de 4 fulles” (Four-leafed clovers) and „Living and Other Fictions“. Among many other initiatives, he advocates sexual assistance for persons with functional diversity to be able to experience their bodies and sexualities.

text by Marlene Lahmer

based on Antonio Centeno’s website

Special Interview with Antonio Centeno

conducted and translated from Spanish by

Marlene Lahmer

”I am 51 years old. When I think of a superhero, I think of my father. When we went to the mountains, he knew everything: animals, plants, where to find mushrooms, figs, almonds. He was a man who, for me, had superpowers. [...] I think today we have more capacity than ever to create knowledge and to access this knowledge, to distribute it. But the fact that we are destroying the planet is by far the most worrying development.”

How did you first get in touch with activism?

At the end of 2004 I got to know the Independent Living Forum through the internet. It is a virtual community of persons with functional diversity and I was struck by the definition they gave of “independent life“. They explained that it doesn’t mean doing things on your own without support, but having control of the support you get and that you need to handle your everyday life. It’s very fine, very elegant, and puts into words what I had been feeling and thinking for many years in one way or another. And well, from then on I started being part of this forum that offers debates, ideas, but also action. A classic struggle for what is central to activism: human rights. And

then over the years an evolution more towards the question of culture.

Because in the end you realise that even when you have the tools to make changes - if you don’t know where you are going, if there is no change in the way you look at values, then in the end, no matter how many tools you use, you will end up making mistakes in the same places.

And that was the beginning of my interest in doing activism in the cultural sphere, always linking it to functional diversity. But that was a bit later, around 2013, when we started working on the documentary.

I don’t think so, it hasn’t reached many people really. The basic objective of the project was, for example, to broadcast the documentary on public television, which means addressing not the people who are already interested in the question and are already thinking about it - about difference and inequality - but people who have never thought about it and suddenly it manifests on the screen in their homes and they would see something they didn’t expect. That is something we haven’t achieved, only the local television of Barcelona has used the documentary, but the other public channels didn’t follow suit. I think that few people have seen it.

Among these few people, the truth is – well, it’s not that few people really, it has circulated a lot in activist spheres, different kinds of activists, connected to culture but also functional diversity, and above all to feminist and queer movements. But the point is that we need to reach other people.

What we have achieved is that the docmentary has been a useful tool in activist environments; I think it has served to established contact

between different activisms. Also the process of making the documentary was a process of getting to know each other between the queer world and the world of functional diversity, very interesting and very very powerful. And the documentary is the way it is mainly because of this process of approaching each other from different activisms. In this sense I think it has been a useful and powerful tool.

But we have a way to go in reaching beyond the activist circles, appealing to this broader common sense. This is costing us a lot, because it’s already more controlled, or the filters in the cultural world are very efficient: very efficient at keeping things the way they are, very efficient at posing resistance to change; and, in earnest, the documentary has not worked well enough to get where we wanted to get. It has effected changes but, as I said, in these activist spheres, not much further I think. Also, as far as I know, there hasn’t been much more production, after the documentary, related to the subject matter we addressed, not that I can think of, neither documentaries, nor films, nor novels. We cannot say that the cultural world has continued working on the question, or looked at it from a different angle, or promoted it. That’s why I don’t think we have had enough impact.

Your film “Yes, we fuck” has reached many people. Do you think this has drawn attention to functional diversity?

“The process of making the documentary was a process of getting to know each other between the queer world and the world of functional diversity, very interesting and very very powerful.”

Well, I think that audiovisual culture is the most powerful tool to change how we look at things, or at least to construct an image of how things are. That is a complicated undertaking, but yes, it is very powerful, above all to break the preconceived idea you have of an issue. Even if it seemed to you like a part of reality until then, because what you were seeing fit in the box of that preconceived idea. Well, the image has this capacity of putting into crisis, of challenging

previous thoughts, prejudices, clichées. And it seemed to us that a book, an article, ends up being read by people who already agree with what you think or who already o are concerned with the issue. Whereas visual culture has this capacity to be distributed in a much more agile way, and to arrive more easily. At least to challenge prejudice, and then, as I said, to construct another imaginary. Well, that is something very very complex, constructing another imaginary, and we regret that our film has not had enough impact to promote more initiatives like that.

Why did you choose filmmaking to convey your message?

Antonio Centeno & Raúl de la Morena

It’s very interesting what you just said, that the moving image can “put into crisis“ what we know.

It is very very direct, very immediate. To do the same with other cultural tools is more difficult. It’s necessary but much more difficult. Ah and also it wasn’t so much that I chose filmmaking but rather that filmmaking chose me. In the sense that the proposal for the documentary came from Raúl de la Morena, who is the documentary filmmaker of the project. It was his proposal and from there we went on to making it. And once we had made the documentary, other experiences followed, like the film „De vivir y otras ficciones“ (Living and Other Fictions) or the TV series “Trèvols de 4 fulles” (Four-leafed clovers). All these were possibilities that came from having made the documentary. Well, the opportunity with Raúl came along, and it made it sense to me and the other experiences that followed, too.

And how was the collaboration?

I think it’s very powerful when you work from such different points of view.

Raúl is a professional in the field of film. And my participation in the project came from that personal experience and personal contacts, and knowledge of certain stories, certain realities, that made sense to be shown in the documentary. It was definitely very enriching for me, on the personal level as well as on the political, the process of making a documentary. And I think for Raúl it was too, because in the end it opened these windows of great intimacy. The persons show themselves to the camera in situations of great intimacy. Despite the fact that, all their life, they have received negative statements about their body. Like „this body is bad, or ugly, or broken and has to be repaired, has to be rehabilitated“, like „it’s a body that is not supposed to be that way, it is not a desirable body, it’s a disgrace, a problem“. So expecting people who have received that message about their bodies all their lives to be willing to show the most intimate moments of their sexual practices – even just to talk about them – was very difficult. It made sense, Raúl being the cinematographer, for me to participate in the project as co-director, because opening these windows was nothing easy.

“The persons show themselves to the camera in situations of great intimacy. Despite the fact that, all their life, they have received negative statements about their body. [...] So expecting people [...] to be willing to show the most intimate moments of their sexual practices – even just to talk about them – was very difficult.”

Would you call yourself an artist? Why or why not?

No, because I see my relationship with art more as instrumental. I see art as a tool to address political struggles /questions. But it’s not a one way street /a one-sided relationship: I think art is not only a tool in service to activism, they enrich each other. Activism can enrich art too, it can make it more powerful. It can give a truth of lived experience to art.

You have worked quite a lot with artists and curators, such as Urko, Paul Preciado, or Eva Egermann. Which changes would you like to see in the art scene so it becomes more accessible?

Well, something that has accompanied us through all of history is the necessity to have one’s own voice. The necessity for people with function diversity to have access to the circuits of artistic production with their own voice. Without necessarily being mediated by professional artists, as someone who comes to help from outside or wants to use you or in the best case collaborate with you. But it’s necessary, this own voice, this facility, this access to art production for persons with functional diversity as their own persons. Also access to the art circuits as the audience of artistic works. And it is also about facilitating this access, because, even today in 21st century Europe, this access is nor guraranteed. Take for

example the theatres of Barcelona - and it’s one of the cities most recognised for its physical accessibility for people with functional diversity - the theatres have one space reserved for a wheelchair, or two, in a specific place, so you cannot just go to the theatre with somebody and sit where you like or choose your seat when you buy your ticket. Something as simple as watching a theatre play when you are moving with aid is just not contemplated, so there isn’t this easy access to the theatre, for example. Or to the cinema or to exhibition venues. Perhaps the museums are a little better, although when they set up the exhibition they don’t take into account how low you are and how high the pieces, the paintings, whichever artworks, are

placed. In short, what I would like to see is the access to culture being not only possible but also facilitated, so that it can be a part of life for persons with functional diversity, too.

“I see my relationship with art more as instrumental. I see art as a tool to address political questions.”

All film stills from “Yes, we fuck!” are used with the permission and courtsey of Antonio Cento.

What would you advise to aspiring culture workers and activists?

Well, that they let it be. (we both laugh, but in the laugh sounds a knowledge of the hardships of dedicating oneself to culture or activism)

That they open up to getting to know each other, the other’s point of view; to share. The outcome will be richer if you let the others contaminate you a little, with their roles and points of view and obsessions. And they will have something very interesting to say about all this.

I would encourage them not to have a very fixed idea of how things have to be, but be open in their approach to art, also to approach social and political movements and whoever there is on the other side to be interested in art - not only as something beautiful and entertaining, not as entertainment, but as a political tool, too. And in the other direction, for art to have social and political movement not only as a

topic, but as something that should be taken into account in artistic production itself. Like what sense does art have, or what is your position in the world and how should your art relate to reality. What is its responsibility in the construction of reality? Because in the end, it’s a very interesting sensation to experience in certain projects. A very clear sensation in art doesn’t only represent reality – which is already important, that it represents, that it shows and makes visible – but that it goes further: art creates reality.

How is 2023 looking for your projects?

My project, let’s say at the political and professional level, is a novel. I am trying to write a novel. And I hope this year I will be able to finish it. This is what I have most clearly in front of me, trying to finish the novel.

THE CONTEMPORARY ART MAGAZINE CELEBRATING EQUALITY AND INCLUSION