construction and de-construction, construction!

June 2nd

Currently sitting inside the studios of Raiz Di Polon. Gisela has been given access to the space should she choose to use it for trainings of any sort. I am here with her and she is doing just that, practicing. Had a bite to eat across the street at a restaurant/bar, more like a bar, for there was limited food for consumption. In there I met a fellow that I had previously come across at the opening of Texturas Da Cidade. I was introduced to him by Angelo. He is from Brazil, a percussionist. That day of the performance he played in a concert that Gisela and Magaly went to, today he was getting a quick espresso, needed a lift up he said. He mentioned having some gigs towards the end of the week. He will play at the Quintal Di Musica; the hot spot for young music talent, young and old really. I told him that after our exhibition this Friday, Assomada to Praia, Direitu, we will swing through and watch him perform. He reminded me of how having a child really changes you. He has a one month and half old son. His life was one of carelessness and ignorance, drumming the beats of improvisation in a city that appreciates this and encourages it, but now he has to be more serious, pay checks now have to come in, and the future is now more calculated.
I was interviewed today by the Semana, a city journal that has a weekly culture section on anything and most things cultural. The meeting went good, but one never knows until the publication as passed printing and is directly in front of one’s eyes. She asked the usual questions, of my practice, the residency, my Cape Verdean background and my aspirations and my thoughts on the art scene in Cape Verde. I need not go into such answers for they have been covered by this blog, and will continue to be covered. Have to say though that we have been treated well, more then well, for a Diaspora child to come home, his true cultural home, and feel welcomed, well, it’s a blessing. We are gearing up for our show, CICER 08, let’s punch it good I say

June 4th

Really gearing up for this exhibition, tried to talk Angelo in to the exhibition but he placed the lack of heart in the discussion, what he meant was that his heart and critical engagement would not be were he would want it to be, so time was best. He asked that we consider this collaboration next year, where he feels he’ll be more apt for such a task. We had recently spoken about how all he needed to do was bring his work space in to the gallery; exhibit it as shown; his desk and all its contents. I see his creative practice as more personal; he blogs with his friends and colleagues, placing small snippets of interest in the everyday cultural conversations of the city. I found this to be a good insight into the spaces of creativity now being developed. It’s a good example of how his chosen creative dialogue utilizes artistic methods but re-adjusts the idea of the Role of the artist. He utilizes images, shapes and sounds, humor and artifice reminiscent of early performance art work in New York city, just without the self mutilation. He does not claim to be a fine artist, nor is what he’s doing fine arts, but it is creative and in a space where he Role will soon be omitted the Fine Artist will soon find himself no longer existing.
Today was my first work day; working on a sound piece. I pretty much stayed over my computer, reading and editing. I have written an abstract on the themes of the exhibition and small bios to accompany the program. Would be great to have a catalogue, but figure best to document this process good, in time a catalogue may come out of it. I would want such documentations, even if late, so I may place it in libraries, such as the one here in Praia, the public library in London, my old university library, even extending it to the States and other parts of Europe. I will use the residents that come to the residency to establish a connecting web of documentation; as they leave they will look to place such information in places of information where they live. Gisela too is off working and exhausting herself over what she will exhibit. So far it seems to be a video. She is also thinking of performing, but this may be more then is needed. She has a shoot tomorrow for Abraao’s work and then she has to edit some sound work for her video. Magaly seems to be in coasting mood. She’s refining the last strands of her work, while helping Gisela figure out the tech side of hers. There may be projections that day, will see. Below is a small blurb on the exhibition make up:

And so are the conversations presented to us today that say we are speaking of something globally familiar. Gisela Creus’ work fixates on to us the person of person, the role of the shadow as a convoluted reflection of the Self. With her studies of the Self, she questions positions of foreignness and identification. She contextualizes herself as Other by de-contextualizing her walking partner, seen only when light is shed on her. Literal light then becomes a metaphor for understanding self; placing herself where ignorance is no longer justified; she has entered the space of the gaze. But are justifications not a play of sounds, of thoughts and quiet hums, where such hums often bounce into loud and interrupting levels; where it seeks to be justified. Antonio Rocha’s work emphasizes the thought of modernity’s interruption by simplifying it into repetitive phrases that ask of its value. The work becomes anything but answers to the questions they may pose, but more like loud thoughts in search of answers. Abraao Vincent’s conversations could also be in thought, fragmentation not only distracts communication it also emphasizes thought. If movement is a sequence of uninterrupted thoughts then how can we interrupt the sequential need for narration—possibly by splicing the conversations and abstracting the narrative? His interruptions of movement in his photo montages speak not only about the need for periods of thought, but also for space and un-recollective narratives. The artifice of narrative, should one choose this case, can best be seen in Magaly Ponce’s work, where collective imagery responds to personal whim and listens to creative composites of thought. Ponce’s work transplants and transposes the changes she has gone through in the country by amalgamating images into postcards scenes. The images themselves are inherently fiction, yet they remain absolutely real. She asks, what is it that is really fixed in this emerging and submerging Kreolu culture.