During the month of November, Transformaciones - a collaboration between Swedish artist collective Performing Pictures of the Interactive Institute and Mexican partners Proyecto Zegache and La Curtiduria - reaches its first phase. In the project, media art, traditional crafts and cultural heritage merge into new art works, and a mutual exchange of knowledge creates new contexts.
The project was conceived in Zegache, Oaxaca, which is also the arena where original image meets representation, where image meets its spectator - where an I meet a You.
The project manifests itself through a series of nichos which contain responsive, moving images, in short, interactive videos. The motif appears while the spectator closes in, and it disappears when the viewer goes away. The content of the videos are the product of social processes, namely estetic preparations and ritual-theatrical transformations; in itself the ground of the origin of drama.
The emigration struck village Zegache, and its church Santa Ana, is an established arena for ongoing socio-cultural changes through Proyecto Zegache*, employing contemporary art and traditional crafts as the means of social empowerment. Transformaciones build upon this existing tradition of Talleres Comunitarios (community workshops), which has played a significant role in the development of the village.
As part of the project a series of practical workshops in microelectronics is executed for the artisans engaged in the community workshops. By adding new-media elements, traditional crafts and manual skills can be rendered renewed relevance as well as much needed commercial potential for the community.
The motives behind the project are artistic as well as idealistic and pragmatic: to create universal images that build upon the relation with the spectator, and at the same time uphold cultural uniqueness through translations of a traditional expression into new media.
In autumn 2009, the first of the nichos, depicting The Lady of Guadalupe is produced in Zegache with surroundings, and given the title Movement no.7: To Appear.
*Zegache Communitarian Workshops, originates through the Oaxacan artist and philanthropist Rodolfo Morales’ (✝) initiative. Santa Ana Zegache is a marginalized population that suffers a high rate of migration, but owns a major historical and cultural heritage. The rescue of the heritage, the creation of decent jobs in the town, the return of old crafts and projects related to contemporary art are some of the goals achieved within this initiative.
Thanks to the generosity of more than sixty contemporary artists, through the support of foundations like Rockefeller, Alfredo Harp Helú and the cultural projects of La Curtiduría, the direction of restorer Georgina Saldaña Wonchee and artist Demián Flores, 18 young zegachecos are supporting themselves and their families. They continuously acquire skills and relate to artistic practice. This leads to empowerment and future livelihood.
Image texts:
1. Oscar and Chiquis are working on the nicho, which is made out of cedar wood.
2. For the creation of the first nicho, the costume of the Virgin of Guadalupe has been minitiously designed based on the many sybolics surrounding the myth. It includes an electronically enhanced mantel, filled with more than 60 sparkling LEDs.
2. Knowledge exchange and the acquiring of new skills is at the core of the Transformacions project. Edy and Eli from Talleres Communitarios in Zegache learn more about micro-electronics.
4. On the set for the shooting of the film material for the first nicho, depicting the Lady of Guadalupe's appearance to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac.
