Lady and the T-shirt
Ceramics. 2021
47x43x45cm.
RE
BUILD
to re-connect
June, Amsterdam 2020.
Collective indoor art event to reconstruct the way of how we can re-connect with people during and after times of social disability, uncertainty and fear of physical touch. It is based on togetherness, and body-mind awareness grounded in the materiality of clay.
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During JUNE 2020, 53 citizens of Amsterdam accepted my invitation to meet online and build with clay their new BRAIN Salad Bowl.
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The project was a total success. Despite the physical distance, the fact of making together and touching the same material at the same time gave us a the space for empathy and togetherness; as a result a special bond was created, and that's what makes the project a success!
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This event was granted by AFK and clay sponsored by Keramikos Center. It was totally free of cost for all participants.
Amsterdam, June 2020.
PICTURE AND VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
CLAY DELIVERY:
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After online booking, participants received a gift, the clay to build up their BRAIN Salads Bowls. The amount of clay that everybody received was 1400 gr. which is the same average weight of an adult human brain.
Amsterdam map with participant's locations and pictures of every package left on everybody's door:
ONLINE CLAY BUILDING:
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The clay participants joined me from home on one of the 9 online scheduled meetings called 'the Structure'. With a maximum of 10 participants to build up their BRAIN Salad Bowls.
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My proposal was to take the personal act of hand build with clay a new BRAIN Salad Bowl as a metaphor, as an exercise to work on flexibility and the ability to construct and deconstruct mind settings.
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During three hours, step by step I presented sequences of movements of hand modelling with clay. Rather than teaching and learning a skill, it was a space to safely interact and synchronize hands movements and tactile feelings through performing similar task and using identical material
One minute length videos showing every meeting:
THE PARTY:
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After two weeks the whole group was invited to join a big final online meeting, the Party.
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Everybody attended with their own finished salad bowl and in a playful way, by synchronised movements, as patterns we collectively elaborated constructed images of the bowls together.
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In the same way as we construct our salad bowl, I suggested movements of de-construction. Basically, I showed a way of un-build the salad bowl. Everybody was free to decide to follow my instructions and go back to have a massive amount of clay or keeping their bowl to fired later.