El otro día les contamos about Algo.Local, the space where five creatives that we respect very much would talk about their creative concerns. Is there such a thing as inspiration? How to start a creative process? From where to question the creative process? status quo aesthetic?
With these questions in mind, we held the first edition of Algo.Local last Thursday, April 18, at the premises of LakeSomething. We count with the participation of María Isas, from the art and design project Feeling; Michel Ortega and his memes and contemporary art project Somos la Nueva OlaNorberto Miranda, design BolsónAnanda Cordero de Queremos Pasteland the producer and DJ Danika Vanderlinden. In addition, all of them collaborated with a piece. Temporary, in the case of Ananda's edible sculpture, or flatly ungraspable, like Vanderlinden's DJ set.
Recycling and creativity
Maria Isas spoke, in an ethereal and sensitive tone, about the slow transformation of the materials used in the fashion industry. Recycling and reinterpreting clothes are part of her vision as a creator, but always aware that "a first alternative" to reduce the impact of our activities "is to stop time," that is, to reduce accelerated consumption and stop fragmenting the year into seasons. "That's why I don't have collections," she added. Maria collaborated with a piece titled The voice of the presentwhich you will be able to see this weekend at LagoAlgo.
For his part, Michel Ortega spoke about the two outlets for his artistic work: one plastic and the other digital. His main line of research is to understand the viral potential of ideas, how some spread "like covid", while others go unnoticed. In his opinion, every creative system goes through a "memetic paradigm", that is, a chain of consumption, digestion and production of new ideas. Michel highlighted the importance of being aware of our huge consumption of information while he was explaining algunos de sus memes.
The brilliant Norberto Miranda began his turn by saying "I have a relationship with plastic". This confession served as a pretext to talk about the dignity of waste, the social potential of cultural management projects and the critical contribution of incorporating art into creative life. Norberto, quien se ha especializado en desechos plásticosexplained to a mostly young audience how repetition is the basis of the craft: "You repeat and repeat and repeat until you have a revelation. However, this craft does not rule out "mystical ridiculousness" as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Norberto did not take his finger off the social function of art: "They closed the museums during the pandemic and nobody missed us," he said, but not by throwing himself on the floor. On the contrary, he encouraged the audience to "find what is devalued, what nobody cares about" because that is where creative freedom lies. His piece, P.O.V.: You're a Bananaan inflatable installation that invites to reflect on the use of single-use plastics in banana crops.
New ideas put into action
Ananda Cordero spoke about her background and relationship with food, first as founder of Pistache magazine, and now as a food artist. Her practice explores the sensory layers -visual, olfactory, gustatory- of food. For her, food is a perfect canvas because of its intersectional potential, which passes through the political, economic and, the aspect that interests her most, the social. The interactivity of food is activated when it is touched and destroyed: chef and diner are part of the same exploration, of the same performance. Hence Eating a Lake, his piece for AlgoLocal, used the museographic resource of the diorama to emulate the exuberant landscape of Chapultepec by means of scraps of bread, kale and olives, among many other ingredients. Needless to say, there was nothing left of this edible piece.
Finally, Danika Vanderlinden participated with a reflection on the healing potential of art. His words sought to harmonize a concept of the art of everyday life: "Making a bed and smelling the clean sheets is art," he said. Beyond the technique of his sound practice, Vanderlinden explained how part of his relationship with creativity is defined by the inevitable questioning of whether inspiration is "born or made", and the consequent internal analysis.
The night closed with Vanderlinden in charge of the turntables while diners interacted with -i.e. devoured- Eating a lake. Outside, on the balcony overlooking the lake, the negronis motivated new conversations between artists and attendees: we witnessed the beginning of a new cycle of the memetic paradigm. New ideas were set in motion. That was AlgoLocal: a celebration of mutant art.
The first exhibition of Algo.Local is now available at LagoAlgo.
Exhibition Algo.Local
LagoAlgo
Pista El Sope, Chapultepec II Secc.
April 19 - 21
8.30 am - 7 pm