Platform for (un)Solicited Research and Advice

I could mention several different things that have surprised me for this or that, for more or less logical reasons. Having to think of one I decided to choose this image. It is for me a beautiful image.

The image depicts a bridge and spectators on a ship’s deck looking at the surrounding landscape. It was certainly taken by someone that was also traveling on that ship.

What strikes me is the contrast between the intention of capturing an image of the bridge as a monument or a big remark of engineering and the simplicity that the moment seems to embed. The moment itself could be translated as an interruption, a break in order to be present and to look at what is to be seen. This is the reason why I like it. Though I do believe that several and diverse interpretations could still be drawn around it.

I found this picture at a second hand shop mixed with all different kinds of 35mm slides. I don’t know the author or where and when it was taken. At the first moment I thought about collecting this one and other slides of the same set so I could eventually later incorporate it as visual material on my work. This was the motivation that lead to an obsession, and that later ended with the decision of not using it as my first intention. Instead I decided to invite friends [and friends of friends] for evening sessions at the studio and present all the slides I had been collecting; then, sitting and listening to their comments.

Perhaps the author of this picture was an artist. Or perhaps these slides where assembled together and where once part of an installation of another possible artist that at a certain point of his life gave up of being an artist and sold all his work to a second hand shop. [And the list could go on and on] Several possibilities could be imagined in order to think of authorship and if this image has ever been part of the art world. If it did or not doesn’t change its meaning to me.

I do consider this image as art but not for the reasons I mentioned before, not because I like it. But because it was able to promote an encounter, exchange and somehow generate knowledge. Likewise, I think of biennials as empowered platforms to extend this same principle.