Platform
The realization of the platform Fear and Trust in Bogotá englobed three different artistic actions: (1) the construction of the online version of the mobile app ‘ Fear and Trust’; (2) the realization of actions in comunities and with local artists in the public space; (3) the realization of the performance / lecture ‘Diner’ in two socialization events.
Process
During the residency period, the artist had some experiences that changed his perception and understanding about the some aspects of the platform.
First of all, by deepening his comprehension about the complexity of the peace process, the artist changed completely his understanding about political participative actions. In this sense, the lecture of Paco Nadal in the Re Banderas Exhibition, promoted by Fernando Arias / Más Arte Mas Acción, had a very important role in this sense by intriguing the artist with a harsh statement about the inefficiency of some performances and manifestations aiming political issues.
According to Paco, those kinds of performances and manifestations are inefficient by not proposing any transgression as they are midiatized and socially accepted. This statement hit the artist strongly, and for days he paralyzed his research to try to understand another poetic strategy to deal with the subject.
So, intrigued by the new information, as a first step, he started to participate more and more of the events and actions of local street artists and local communities with the intention to comprehend better social aspects of their artistic motivations and desires.
Field Research
The interaction with local street artists, which happened to be also a local community, brought a new range of possibilities of actions in the public space the artist was not realizing.
He contacted the collective Atempo, a group of graffiti artists based in the art occupation Re Publica at Caracas Avenue in the neighborhood of Santa Fé, and the collective Jardín Guerrilla, a group of artists that works with urban gardens and urban ecology. The Re Publica occupation turned to be a very important meeting point for the artist as he could start to build his network with local artists and local communities and, therefore, start to idealize his actions in public space.
The participation in parties, openings and in their actions was essential for the development of the project and for the development of the mobile APP interaction. With their help, the artist was able to understand the urban space territory and social rules, which led him to accomplish three stencil actions (1) at the event ‘Pimp my Carroça’, (2) at the center of Bogotá until the 53rd street and (3) and in the neighborhood of Santa Fé.
Action Stencil :: Pimp my Carroça
Action Stencil :: Center of Bogotá
Action Stencil :: Santa Fé
Diner / Oniguiri
The artist socializations were made in the end of the period in two different places: (1) in Centro Memoria, Paz y Reconcicliación and (2) at the Universidad Nacional de Bogotá.
The artist presented the performance ‘Diner’ in a different way: instead of serving a meal, he was serving rice balls called oniguiri.
The purpose of this performance is to contextualize the audience with the artistic platform, its motivations and conceptual research and to link with the actions and research realized during the residency period.
By discussing the radioactive contamination in Japan and the relation of fear and trust implicit in the subject, the artist points parallels with the peace process and how the relation of fear and trust operates in the decision taking. With no pretentions to discuss the peace process it self, though.
The most interesting of this action, and actually its the main objective, is to promote a discussion with the introduction of the theme and, therefore, new points of view and reflections.
Both performances were very successful in this context and had different discussions as the public changed. By the end, they turned to be also part of the research and not only a presentation, as the discussions were very rich and diverse.
Mobile Phone App Research
The research about the mobile APP changed after the experiences of the artist with actions in public space. The original purpose of this app is to humanize the experience with urban violence through a sensible relation with the theme, but the artist started to believe that it is more important to understand what people want to share than to direct their interaction with a determinate theme.
So, finally, the Mobile phone app ‘Fear and Trust’ turned an interactive technology in which the public is invited to share a personal experience and/or an urban intervention related to urban violence motivated by intolerance to the difference, cultural diversity and urban space occupation. *
In that sense, the new idea is to create a collective and aesthetic memory of the relation of people with the urban space in the different cities of the world through the point of view of its inhabitants. The user is invited share audio and texts that can have some practical purposes (for instance, someone can post some information about a urban garden so that people can acknowledge when they must water the plants), and to propose actions and/or intervention in the public space.
* A prototype offline version has been developed in São Paulo during the Paco das Artes Residency Program 2014-2015. It has been improved during the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Residency Program in 2016 and now it has free public distribution in Apple Store.
Conclusion
Instead of dealing with one single theme, the artist is now working with different actions with the APP, that can be related to different subjects related to urban space. And the most important: the main objective now is to promote real personal artistic experience to the public by inviting them to be an artist themselves.
This was the final conclusion of the research, and maybe the most radical artistic statement the artist ever did. Art only promote social transformation when the public is truly invited to express themselves in a poetic way. And by doing this, they will experience what all artists experienced when started to express themselves in the urban space, a deep and internal human transformation of perception of it and a new relation and sense of community.
Considering the terrible political background in Brazil and in the whole world, he was driven by a single question with no solution so far: how can an artistic performance/action change the world? And moreover: how can I sensitize an evangelic or a police officer or a military with an artistic performance/action?
In this context, the next steps of this research is to force the friction of different socio-political realities through promoting personal artistic experiences and, with these actions, try to understand the potential of the artistic platform it self and of the mobile APP.