Enjoying the happiness and fun of life... up at the crack of dawn and a 3 hour train journey watching beautiful farmland passing by, mountains and rivers and an excited pig running after the train! :-) Meeting Alejandra from norther Chile and being given lots of recommendations my journey to the north. Walking the streets of Concepción, enjoying fish and wine in the local market for under £3! Splashing in the waves of the ocean with Angelica, floating and jumping and laughing laughing laughing.... (although also aware of the danger - the front cover of today's paper was sadly of three deaths in the waves of this same coast last week.)
Also facing the reality of the left over remnants of the tragedy of the tsunami that hit the coast after the 2010 earthquake. The earthquake has been mentioned I would say at least once every day since I arrived in Chile, and there are signs of the damage it cause everywhere. Here is Constitución the signs were particulaury violent. Shells of houses destroyed in the tsunami stand like skeleton memorials of the lost loved ones. Tragically some families are still living in the temporary government shelters.
Another interesting aspect of the day was the adventure with Filipinio's graffiti on the train. He'd drawn up a whole load of tags on the inside and outside of the train early on. Later someone apparently reported it to the lady checking tickets, who obviously came to talk with him. As well as grafiti being illegal in Chile this train is protected by UNESCO so the act is doubly offensive. Reluctant at first, eventually Felipe accepted the act of cleaning it and a few of us helped him out. Once we were cleaning it off it felt like the whole experience moved on from being mildly anxious to an enjoyable shared act between friends. He'd enjoying making the marks, I enjoyed helping out with the cleaning.
It was also a really interesting experience in provoking thoughts and discussion around how we behave in groups and the responsibility we take between as individuals, in groups and as friends. I believe because we are moving as a group during the days of this residency that it is impossible for our actions not to affect one another, but equally it is possible to choose as individuals when we are not in agreement with the group and separate ourselves from it.
This same graffiti adventure also provoked a lot of thinking around the importance of fluidity. That it is great to enjoy the process and images that come from our work, but also great to allow our work to be transient and to celebrate that. From the point at the start of a piece of work where we perhaps have one intention, it is great to allow other folk and creatures and events to affect and influence our work in unpredictable ways, bringing us to new knowledge that we didn't even know we were searching for!
(Another thing.. that I burnt myself badly in the face from all the lazing around enjoying the sun..eeerggh!)
Sharing videos with Felipe and Aaron far into the early hours of the morning.
Interesting to see the project Aaron shared from Peru about artist Salsa who worked within a local community facilitating their painting of the portraits of members of their community who had been murdered. A very moving project with some similarities to that between the Northern Irish muralists and the young kids from Deptford in London.
Best aspect of the day... exchanging knots for artesian weaving with Pablo, Angelica, Raquel. Well happy!
:-)
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