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Audiovisual Cultures episode 109 – I’ve Been Walking with Janet Sternburg automated transcript


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hello dear listeners welcome to the official cultures stuff podcast where we take into different areas of the parts media and creative industries I'm Paul the planner and in this episode I have the most fascinating conversation which I hope is one of many ways Janet stern Burke as you hear Janet is a writer and photographer based in Los Angeles we talk mainly about hi Janet came to photography website really planning to be back in nineteen ninety yes as a mode of expression or thinking or being in the world while walking while going for EMS walks around cities we get into a quite a lot of detail and thinking through what those acts of walking and photographing in teal and trivial butts we really only scratched the surface so I hope China will return when her next project comes to fruition this timer me in the talking up bites her photographic NSA back I've been walking and some of her earlier work but she's already working on the same sets haven't revealed themselves to her as we record I must say I feel so lucky to be making these kinds of connections and I'm really glad that you can share them with me as well I hope you learn as much as both down and I do from this talk actually that's a really nice thing is that down it felt that that was important for her to say that she really learned something from talking to me today and I love that I love that this is happening on the show before hand you over a massive thanks to our glorious past trends over at Peachtree on dot com forward slash AP cultures but he supports and all the ways I struggle really to keep this go weighing just a quick reminder as well that all the important links for this episode and if you want to become somebody help site to show those are all in the show notes for every you're accessing this episodes if you hear any binding a toll in the pocket cranes I think I should manage she cried the mites but %HESITATION if you hear any binding or popping noises I'm recording this on the face of November twenty twenty one I live in England it's going moderate there with fireworks and all sorts might make her next door neighbors it's very quiet and there because they have a beautiful Kali and he's not been having a fun week so you know I I think they've taken I think a lot of the dog owning places and hence the her his or her off somewhere else having a break so apologies if there any banging noises are coming sorry that I haven't managed to get out of a spot it's not time of the year and I thought it was worth mentioning I was going to leave this until a quieter day but I'm on my own may as well do something I am a bit scratchy because I've been talking all day I can't concentrate on anything else so I thought get just get this done while I'm while over there anyway just thanks so much for listening and please do check out John it's website on her backs and perhaps even days out while you listen to us describing them enjoy this episode Janet Sternberg I'm so delighted you're joining me today on the official cultures you've been trying to set this up for a while a nicer finally saying our recording and it's just such a pleasure and an honor to have you very warm welcome have completely lovely and that yes we have had a back and forth before we finally got to this but I think it's been good enough where you're not we send each other things we talked a little bit from our respective homes you in Ireland now I'm in England's women get enjoy so I have a sort of stealing that not even this is not that formal it feels simpatico nice so Janet you got loads of experience I think we're mainly going to talk about your more recent photography years got it back I just a moment cold iced and walking and photography and I say back but you've been a writer for a long time he's been a researcher you park Jan Feldman media and all sorts of areas so you just got a wealth of experience that we can learn from and I'm so excited to get into a lot of issues that come up straight your work today would you be happy to give my listeners a bit of an overview about you and how you would like to describe yourself without be all right it would be although it presents a problem because I've really never been in England at school getting myself no no I'm quite serious I I I think it's actually a bit of an issue because people who do multiple things they either have to condense themselves into a single description and that makes people happy because they know how cool you are it's it's clear however if you do a number of different things often more or less at the same time it reminds me of something that I read that I find very still interesting there was a writer whose name at this moment is %HESITATION escaping me but it will come back to me and from the nineteen forties who was both a photographer and writer and she did a very beautiful book of photography on the left side of the page and a novel on the right and there was every page and it was not illustrative it was just somehow it just the right oblique angle to each up there and he went back to his publisher for hopefully a new book and the publisher said the world is not ready for an ambi dexterous person maybe said writer maybe he said artist but you take the point and I think it is not working many many more people especially those a lot younger than I am in fact doing multiple things that are not self conscious about it since you asked I am and your what as said to describe myself well I think it well in terms of work although there are many other angles to come into about myself but in terms of work ethic of actually %HESITATION sensibility maybe is better than engaging work I think I've always been a writer I mean was a little girl my mother says March first workers work I don't know if that's true but it's a nice will lead she started fairly wide mother gesture when I was six years old I wrote something a barrister to say what it was but I will I've gone to she's fantasia movie remember and I was so thrilled by it that I came back and asked my mother for paper and pencil the reason I'm embarrassed that wasn't true really that much my first writing was movie Curtis it was more about how much I loved it actually so that's been my intention given many many years when I ran away from that identity I do other things but underneath the beating heart has always been the word and I've always been interested in the word and the image and I've made some forays in that direction I did are still many years ago on the writer Virginia will short term for public television and there was an actor who is evoking Welch not literally playing her but there is quite beautiful landscape not England like England and voice over work courage and after I did that I realized that there has to be a better way of doing it because the visual and the words for each other your room and there were too many maybe like I'm doing now but too many rich and so trying to solve the problem of imagine board is another feature of my life and I think I might have made a real attempt at it recently with this new book we can come back to that but to finally end up the saga not really in nineteen ninety eight I finished a book and it is due to ten years in the writing which is a little bit much but then again you asked me to describe it so I'd like to try to get it right and I was in a very funny position that was new to me the book was set in the past historical and personal and I looked up and I couldn't see what was around me what was in the present I could see it but I couldn't feel it is something and the upshot of this is I went to our second home in Mexico and set myself a little practice of walking every day without a goal without thinking and I saw a window and I liked what was in it and I thought I want to take a photograph first time I've ever thought that and %HESITATION I went to the town square and the only thing that was available was a disposable camera and a lot more to say about that if you want but my life since nineteen ninety eight has been very much photographer writer writer photographer and whatever else you want to add in to talk where she is leading the pack small that's really informative Janet I think that actually sets and it gives us a really fell picture and we can start getting into some details fire when I was reading straight that piece that you're talking about where you describe all of this happening it really struck me that you were because it's very autobiographical and it feels that your photography and stop going that direction as well it's a way of writing the south it's a way of reflecting your style and I feel that there's a lot of South Park teacher coming three and very subtle ways your photography so this wondering if it's not something you have been thinking about aids or what you thought up I thought well I route to be honest I'd love to know how you see that but I will respond briefly I think the through line through all of this is that the way I'm in the world is as a Polish you know they can sound so highfalutin you know %HESITATION %HESITATION addict this poetic that I don't mean it that way it's just how I feel and see the world in terms of being moved I don't know how else to shared without sounding good day and I've always loved autobiography in general not memoir I don't like that would warn bitch because I refused to call one of my books memoir which is sort of stupid because it you know booksellers remember when they were bookstores shelves they didn't know where it went but I really felt memoir and I've said this before so excuse me if that sounds canned but it's me more me me me me me me me we are no that doesn't interest me what does interest me is all the levels and prismatic facets of the cells the cells third time inspection history and connections to other kinds of thinking so I kind of think that everything I've done in church home grocery is as a visual Polish and I think as such the images reveal that fashion having said that I would like to know how you seen an element of an autobiographical self in the work can I ask you of course yes absolutely when I read your text and when I look at your images it comes across to me that it's high you see ed Scriven ye the salvinia ways that you can start seeing boasts the world's and yourself and the world that's really what strikes me by a lot of your images I really love you telling your own story a bite hi you think him to begin dating tests it's really spontaneous it's very much you know you you strike out you go for a walk with site a real practice beside it direction was IT destination you're just doing the acts of walking so it's quite performative in life I'm not sense and I'm really interested in life performance artist while so it kind of takes me dying not area at it's sort of a bite life and arts and arts and life and about play and not really planning anything but spontaneity rose you know contingency rose and that idea of you just felt so compelled suddenly to take a photograph and to just make an image either forty receding I think that's where to me you're documenting how you were saying something out last time that's what you felt compelled to day and then doctor finding right where can I get a camera and so he got a little disposable cameras because that's it's available to you and then you discovering that there are limitations I thought that's a really special box of limitations and again not hi you're seeing the world's and making art out of something very every day not ideal really strikes me as on again it's for me not very much relates to the the art lice relation maths and life performance %HESITATION so there's a life nice there's a spontaneity to the photography and it's not planned date stash but you D. S. specific poetry poetry come see us in those races while Rory Burr evoking an image and repeating out into words some high so I'm really starting to see high at your images are poetic and not sunset if you know what I mean so so to me that's where it's autobiographical toy you say yeah that's helping you realize how you see the world so it's an official culture center it's a way of saying but it specifically your way of saying and that moment I thought time and not play yes and I think there's something really fascinating if I thought that's really worse delving into quite a bit well I hope a lot that I can get some sort of a transcript of our conversation what you're saying is something I would like to have and to go back to and I think it's very astute when I hear about elements of autobiography I changed things somewhat more narrow lead that you're because I'm not a documentarian and any way at all and I think that this question of how I see which of course then devolves to how you see or anybody else to see but that is kind of exactly what I care about think of a few more things to say about what you just said and one is that I always follow my own path and sometimes most of the time is able I think I just I think I can say at this stage I'm seventy eight that it worked out you know like everybody many a bump in the road but I have said well you know maybe I'll get an MFA in writing this is when I was in New York and lived in Manhattan for many many years before coming out west and well maybe I'll do that I'd already worked for some years in the quote unquote other non academic part of the world and I went up to Columbia and I sat in on a class and everybody in the class was looking toward the professor who is a very well known published horse and it seemed like we were kids and they were vying for his approval and they were competing against each other and I walked out and I had a sort of a modest migraine headaches on the way back walking to my apartment in the Upper West Side and I thought no just that's not me it's not for me I can't do that so I didn't something else I studied with one person publishers work I admired because I thought that his approach which was very straightforward would be very useful for me because I can get fancy I don't want to get fancy so everything is beautiful match and so there's no orthodoxy in my life which I realize religiously lately but it cuts to the next thing two more things one is the idea of starting an art form late in life which is what I did with photography because I love the way you're describing the spontaneity but I think that can only come at some level when you don't have a great big critics standing on your shoulders you know we've all had bad words listening tools and been in the world of art region for awhile and that that's really great about we live for you can just say okay I can I'll just do it I'll just do it I'm not going to subject it to a whole set of questions about whether I can whether Ryan from mission whether I'm good enough and that's really something I wish I'd known younger I think would be a great thing to have his young life your dog birthday but it didn't happen later and the last thing the third thing is I think a little bit of what you're talking about is what I love and think of in whole or treat whether it's one word or image or whatever and that's our world it's a show should emerge room not I mean I really love documentary work and being here it actually is a form of witnessing political and otherwise but that's not what I'm doing I'm going %HESITATION and without thinking a lot about it it's like yes this this is something that really I know it's in my territory and it relates to this and it relates to that none of which I'm thinking at the time but it's in a social way of being in the world and making leaps rather than logical connections so I think that's where that comes in from Israel Warrnambool many parts sorry not a toll no that's what we're here for it to talk all of this all right that's exactly what we're here for I just wanted to pick up on what you're saying obey this idea of being late in life in coming to some saying because I think this is something we need to talk about it more and more as a society really is what does that even mean to be are your mates career or emerging I really good friends of mine she said they no longer with us but she was in her seventies and she made this point to many many times that it's never too late to begin any art form and we're constantly emerging and evolving and becoming a hero so it it's a really interesting thing to say goodbye it's being late in life and the way it has this connotation alls I didn't come to the cinema and I I wanna just troubled out a little bit because I think will actually become the things when they're ready for them and then there shouldn't really be a timer I'm not if you know what I mean so I just sort of one that say click dot points a little bit because it seems like you've come see photography at a point where you were ready for it and it was ready for you okay and that was on your terms you know so I I just think you know that's really important so not going to go the pine trees don't have to dictate to me hi I'm Megan hi I create some high I see things and how may be in the world you know so I think it just made me think about I don't know if you have a response why do or should do should there's a really interesting article in the last month in The New Yorker magazine by the renowned and he's writing about how we broadly speaking obviously the west and certainly the United States as a culture we like to think well it's generation Z. your generation extra which we attribute certain qualities and by the same token he talks about well we like to think of the sixties and the seventies and characterized those initial your way but he was pointing out first of all with the generational thing shifts and changes and it's also a vast generalizations talk about well generations G. is more benevolent and more political you know it's it's just a way it's like saying I'm a writer as opposed to I'm a person who does many different things it's a way to have a handle on the world but it's not true handle at least that's what I feel very strongly reading him and I have felt it at all other times too it's a way of being read Dr of the complexity that is in the world there is this phenomenon that people of Britain about about late like Sri H. everything and isn't it interesting that Dillinger Corning had Alzheimer's and he could paint so wonderfully when it was in this whatever eighties years yes %HESITATION I can't so I think that's pretty interesting what drops away perhaps not that Alzheimer's is something one wants and that's not what I mean obviously but but that what drops away is I think a bit of what I was talking about earlier and that strictures that one is imposed on one cell and there is a freedom and %HESITATION what's greater luxury in life is there than to feel free and that's shared I think I am recognizing something that everybody recognizes especially if they're self reflective or or somewhere to almost intuitive and that is what they really are sh dangers that one has to recognize and I think for quite awhile now I'm gonna be very personal those of you who are listening and I feel like it you've got a lovely face and next a deal that I can be that but you're quite awhile through a complex of reasons parents home life whatever I wanted to be known and I wanted to have my work life or admired nothing is terribly wrong with that I was never any good at pushing my work in the world but it has itself gone into the world to one very small but real degree and it's been really didn't recently one of my books the archives for it was acquired by a %HESITATION wonderful our client is a great great pleasure you know it will go on but right now I am in the middle of another stage and I'm trying to figure it out when I say I'm the middle I'm you know I'm not I wouldn't either side but it certainly feels as though I don't need any of that M. at doing it and watching it is running counter to what's right for me now and I think Colbert played a big role at mac because for a year I was able and again please anybody who's listening I do know how unbelievably fortunate I was during this year and most people or not but I have an apartment I have dogs euro and in no way to consider equivalent shoes I have a husband I have a life that was to a large extent on zoom but the ability not the ability the freedom not to have to be social just to be quiet and go and look and read me back to what it was like when I was nine years old when I would check paper and pencil and whatever things %HESITATION option this monastery across the street from us I'm Jewish monastery have this tremendous a war because it was a miracle very beautiful S. self conscious about being Jewish in the middle of all of that but that's neither here nor there I was kind of exalted when I would go up there and that's what I was feeling that you're a collision that it was a return to that little girl and she's who I want now to get to stage I mean it's obviously I can't catch her again but I can look toward off happy finding her again so right now I'm involved in during a ceremony things to make the book happen in the world I've been walking macbook one Amazon of terror moving right along you know when I have some wonderful events coming up I'm doing a book signing at a gallery very good photography gallery a week from Sunday and they asked me who I'd like to be in discussion with and it was an easy answer but aren't one person said yes you read genius I think Antonio dimazio minerals scientist whose work is having rate really important to me and then we became friends so this that was a thing on top of batch so this is by no means a complaint what could be lovelier when sitting in a terrific gallery talking in front of people and exchanging ideas with Antonio dimazio so it's not a complaint it's a kind of we know what people used to go around with forked sticks looking for water dousing your no it's like I'm doubting myself she wrote that's a fussing about it cutting it and I really understand what you mean when you're connecting west that young version of yourself that still in there somewhere I think well maybe a lot of us have done not I. P. I hear about a lot of people discovering their inner child and dating it might sound strange but an acting styles parenting and trying to have a connection with their young south again so I really understand what you mean when you say that that's a lovely way to go up I did as well as wondering if we can talk about it by the technology because I think what's interesting here is almost a lock of tack and your photography and that's the point Hey it comes to mind as well you talk about eight the sense of freedom that you have and to me I think that our autonomy you have a choice to be autonomous and just folding lock back into the idea of autobiography and it being a bite the cells do you there south discovery happening here there's several action their self awareness happening you know it's really fascinating to hear that you're discovering a lot about yourself there's an emergence of yourself coming straight and not just yet S. C. H. but yet previous agents as well as she as you look back as well as in the here and now I am sick forward so there's there's really something and not I think but again I think just thinking about the cameras that you've been using so previously you've been using disposable cameras and may even then and she iPhones and I mean we very much associates the smartphone way taking self fees E. date out but in a very different way you know it's a very different way of approaching sells porchetta SLC or at marking yourself in the worlds marking your journeys you know the unplanned nature of your journeys I think and I've been walking when when you set and ready B. Weston's MHS and you start to recognize actually there's some patterns here there are different shapes that are emerging there's hi you like it hi space is taken up how you see yourself and reflective surfaces and you just might catch those you might see yourself an M. car window being reflected its or you'll see just a snippet of somebody going by on the skateboards and deal take a fractional image of that person or you'll see some water but through a hole in a bit of concrete you know it's how you frame sayings and and highly stylized exceeded as well by their relatively restrictive framing of the phone or is a disposable camera and you talk quite a bit of by each focused on high you don't actually have control over focus on its may be quite a flattened image and not sort of saying so again it's coming back said it's how you say but also we can't really change the focus of our ice you we see what we say and that's a bit like comedies communists C. as well they can't really do anything T. tactical with holiday see eyes are %HESITATION and G. ready if that was the human eye which I think is really lovely I think again you you're sort of back to basics what you're really pushing the limits of dot BSX technology if that makes sense I was wondering if you have any further sought some mountain what you're thinking it's a match and if that relates to anything else that's come up in your stinking sense there I do sure the first thing I just want to go back to the image of the US skateboarder which is just his legs in a window above because I just want to talk briefly about feeling the way that emotion becomes a feeling to be more precise and just re reading to Moscow because he was black I was wandering around and there's a large flows of nearby and even Google Tokyo downtown and there's the Japanese American national museum and then down this long sh it's really a pedestrian street but it's quite a wide one is usually on the contemporary arch and it's usually has lots of people and during colder there was nobody and when I saw the pair of legs on the skateboard first I recognized that it was a remarkable image because above that is glass that is should be reflective and it almost makes the upper half of him look not only is though he's only partially remember almost as though he's bursting into flames because of that kind of rate of goals of what some call him and then the strange brick subside it's Jeremy with the feeling was first and he's alone he's a skateboarder usually something which challenge some way in the context there was no context and so I just want to begin by acknowledging the something that I think is the spoken enough about in photography and that is the emotion of taking a picture of the feeling of checking the picture I think perhaps it's some not part of the tradition of straight talk or street which has been to a very large extent not completely by a long shot in the hands of men and I think men are not that comfortable talking about feelings that may be archaic so be it but I I do think it's time for that to enter into the world of singing the other thing is you know I usually very very clean I have read this respect for people who really are technically magnificent and there are a lot of them Mr tell your story and sometimes I prefer to say always confusing well not really a photographer %HESITATION an image maker because that die offs my hat to the people who work within the traditional exquisite means of photography and I do in a sense I mean there's a lot of composition is a lot of howling trolls there's a lot of juxtaposition over traditional elements of photography all the necessary ones I work with so it's not like I'm in nine weeks in World War during around going back briefly did the disposable because it has no direct the you know this you know because there's only automatic focus it took me away from the initial thing that photographers I've been trying to do with her and that is just say I'm like this I make sure I don't like this %HESITATION Blue Ridge and if you can't do that another world unfolds and that's everything in the frame being of equal value and although I am not a Buddhist I read a lot of Judaism and I think about this on my own practice it necessarily and I think it is a somewhat Buddhist approach to refuse the hierarchy of values that one can very easily holes in photography kind of comes with the territory the other thing is that when I was in college which I think that's a picturesque story but we will go next I studied philosophy and I'm still really interested in philosophy so when I saw those first images from the disposable not only did they interest me as images but I realize that a lot of those several things which I've mentioned minimum depth of field and focus I was getting something that I haven't seen before although I didn't think of it that way other people have said that because when you're working with reflection which I was there's always an option and free lander I mean these are great great show tiger first but you know where the photographer is you know he's standing somewhere and you see that imagine you do understand the space between the photographer and what he's looking at etcetera and what I saw I was getting was something that had none of that that's what I saw was this particularly since I had no strictures against brewer I loved it actually %HESITATION and I loved passengers and looking closely at complex emergency room health things in Japan a trait that I was involving a philosophy and it was philosophy about mind and abolished in a certain way politics because if you give up the idea of sharpness if you give up the idea that everything has to have enough facts a wind around ishe you find that you're giving up the idea that the world has to have borders and boundaries and you're also moving into a territory that says well I may need those borders and boundaries but my mind does need them my mind is porous and so I would have backed him not just your way of seeing but a way of being and that was really really important to me for quite a long time and again I think that traditional photography people don't quite talk that way and a little outside of the discourse and that's just fine with me going back to your earlier point it's it's a kind of freedom to come and say well yes senior yes streaming yes thinking it's all part of the process and so I really love developing what I'm telling you in two minutes which was in fact a number of years but those years the article was replaced by the digital I couldn't get things developed I couldn't get things printed so are you do you keep those should be optional I mean I'm not very technological I can work with the computer but I don't need to let my work and again that's not exactly anti technology it's not anti Photoshop I'd just like to work with how are you seeing drawback to your fridge and not try to turn it into something that exists between me and the world which is mine manipulation of the world that can be a bit naive sounding close you missing who may be interested in philosophy but it's also true I mean there's just some anyway sure at the level I'm talking when I thought should be digital I started with like an iPhone four year or we're not working with an iPhone and but I continue to get what I want with the new book I'm sure you've noticed a lot of the work isn't inter penetrating isn't forest isn't reflection and I we we have moved into a phase that shows I can have both I can do things that are more well this is what I see and more this is how white banks but many years ago a wonderful man who really cared about my work said Janet you really have to start with a better camera like bought a bunch of other people said it and of course the criterion is are you getting what you want and if I am which I am at this point why learn the whole apparatus of what is in itself a very technologically important art form it's not the way I won't watch that's a really excellent points and it strikes me as well that when you become reliant on the technology the technology does the heavy lifting you you're using very powerful cameras are you're working with different lenses and you're choosing a different lands it becomes stay apparatus that is forming a imagine you're really just pointing it out but it does all the rest of the work in a way and not to adults denigrate that but it's just not as you say it's not what you want that's not what you're looking for and there are lots of people like there he are doing that they're doing it extremely well and they're making incredible images like that but that's the thing it's you making it so it has to be in the exact medium that you want to need it today and I think there's a lot of the static value and that may be the last the end of the year with a sort of meds tack no it's not even low tack it's it's pretty decent stuff in homing iPhone cameras are incredible I think near the old iPhone I have is a Bascom I've ever had in my life he however I know that you know to me because I you know I I know exactly the sort of disposable cameras she you mean and I used it was a lot when I was a teenager you know and then the nineties and early two thousands but I lost a lot of static I actually really like the aesthetic of those older photographs and that sort of lower quality photographs I quite light this is very strange but I quite like odds to talk free inverted commas because they're something spontaneous about it there is something totally unique about it it's an image that's maybe on plans on there something actually quite unique and special about that that I find that's not what you're doing but that's just personal interest I just like that again the contingency of things I suppose on montages passionate about west and boxers the photography so they the more performative side effects so especially with I've been walking I mean what came first did she have the idea that you wanted to do the topic can it be a bike that same or was it you we are finding that you were just going walking and you risk taking photographs and it came from what you were just standing there actually but I will go back for seconds sure I think that what links the people who do this remarkably technologically advanced photographer I'm not talking the people who manipulate on talking about the ones who must cortical straight photography in what I'm doing is that the link is that were ravaged by the world were ravaged by color and texture then sometimes I'll show you something I wish I could think of a good example I think we'll get of my friend Joe and cellist who's just a master at on the textures what one of the things that classical photography on local vision is not classical it's very much your own and I look at I think that's so beautiful and it requires so much knowledge to do that this is not putting down my shelves and it isn't saying that I don't have the sophisticated change on the line I know the I can capture in my way the ravishing the ravishing interjection room color in the world I'm really just pointing to a link between low tech and high tech and that we're both using it I think for this since Aug warning to what's the word I'm looking for ravishing I think you saw the thing on century I write about something called the gas and you're out in the world and you see something and you're just now and are almost instinctive level this is it this is what you are my goodness %HESITATION yes gas click again between the gas and the collectors composition and other things to do some sort of self evident jester WYO that kind of came naturally so I don't want to make a large distinction other than one of honor and respect between the people who capture the world through very high degrees of technology and the very simple forms that I'm using because I think we're both responding to the world engine troubles in the same well I'm trying to recall because you were talking about several things one was the technological in a sense version mark I know you were not in again this simplistic respect but my really wanting to talk about donating %HESITATION but then you remember what else you were saying after that incident really yes there is a bit of a chicken and egg question is hi did depict come a bite sized thing so yes of course of course well you know again the word organic %HESITATION such a cliche but I do believe in it and they're very particular almost biological since your honor I started walking out and they started checking pictures and I got interested in them and I do what we all do which I just love and thats bring the stuff home look at it if you change promising think about it printed out of the home printer try it next other images tries you what they're saying is blue all that kind of thing and I do that every day now I realized pretty much every day that I was checking pictures I was posting them on Instagram which was a new thing for me and your %HESITATION world reckon it should empty shooting and sure people not bastard people should your unusual images and there could be a book sure that's when that became a real possibility as did something else and baggage the initial feeling that I'd heard of seeing emptiness and despair and as I write each are in the introduction to I've been walking the %HESITATION extinguishing of people's aspirations which has a particular product comes from because I've seen it in my parent's life all of that shock started to evolve and I didn't quite know what it was evolving churro just was taking pictures but then someone should remember right it's not so much emptiness and despair or whatever that you're seeing it's human traces in the middle of bash and that went %HESITATION yes that's right old so shortening project it becomes it becomes that's what I'm trying to describe I didn't say I'm gonna do a book about no no no no I'm not even a bomb distortion which is kind of went out there but it be changed again too or maybe repeat too much but we have seen during that time and then I didn't lucky in terms of my professional suppose I have to say career I'm not too fond of that word but it is a reasonable ordinance describe something special because good things have happened like %HESITATION someone seeing the war that person was from Germany she happened to being at my home %HESITATION she happens to be familiar with the world of photography we kept in touch she said I'd like to bring these images to a publisher they said yes and then that was in two thousand seven sixteen century never change and that wasn't the chamber I think they're really wonderful monograph we're wonderful people who I didn't know what was really exciting wrote about my work notably I will I will add distance one in Moscow and still thrilled with this association %HESITATION the director Graham vendors and I have his email in action above because Jones definitely a piece of good fortune but I. centrum work and he said yeah I can see my waiter writing about this and %HESITATION she's seen that book but it's on she arranged for page prose poem because the book is big and it's about seeing the child receive that about my work it's quite a thrilling piece with this book after I felt I had enough questions remember Justin that's J. publisher and they said yes who knows what makes the world turn one's favor or go the opposite direction but these are examples of that much and I loved working with these people and it was all between Berlin where they were insuring Los Angeles and so is all online on June June marvelous designer wear the same wavelength and the chamber production and editorial team could say to me things like well I don't think that's a strong and images that Michael %HESITATION yeah if you're right or no show we made a book we made a very short time a year and a month well all the chicks in the photographs were taken and all the production which which I think is kind of a record of Sir Arthur Foulkes extremist settlers I think it reflects perhaps the urgency and immediacy of that but yeah became a book wonderful that's scripted you've cultivated such a productive relationship then was a publisher that's pretty into here said John I mean I'm wary of keeping me any longer you've been so generous with your time and all of your ideas and everything just have to interrupt and say what's recently Grange is when you're given the opportunity to statements arts and be honest about them and in this particular sometime she wanted candy you know you say things you said before and obviously some of this I thought about that before but I do feel that in this particular conversation I said some things that were new to me which means I learn something so I have to just tell you that it isn't just general I'm sure of it %HESITATION that's really wonderful to hear okay that's great I'm I'm so glad that you feel comfortable enough and that you feel that you've learned something as well I certainly have learned things and not so what this podcast is all about is everybody learning things to her so I'm so glad that that's happened very late and we mentioned before is that we're really just scratching the surface I think here and I know you you need to go so you're so welcome back anytime I've loved this conversation I will love to have more conversations this year I think you're you're fabulous and I think you're working nights something in me at at night said intellectual curiosity that reminds me why I got into all of this in the first grade in addition if you re that's what you want I like your word I tend to think of inspire but I think it's not it's just a marvelous March and if we can do that for other people that's just great %HESITATION passing on the spark I will tell you I know myself very well I get absorbed and that means that I probably will not raise my hands and checked all what can we do this again but if you want to would you contact me and I will say yes in a heartbeat I'm just telling the truth about me because I don't just get absorbed absolutely okay will very quickly before you go I know you've got a website we G. just point our listeners to your website I'll get it in the show notes but if you just say it for them where can we find you online what a something first nobody knows how to spell my name right so I'm gonna %HESITATION stern Berger S. G. E. R. N. B. U. R. G. everyone I won't tell you what everyone does but I want planted in your mind but Bergesen shitty Star City is how it translates if you I kind of like that and because I have a hosted Mexico I sometimes want to say see ya sorry one meter or not you're still a bit one Nita Dane Estrella just see but I I like to think that we're thinking about manage moving back to so if you know that you can find me anywhere I have two websites one is for photography and it is W. W. W. if you want to think that way Janet Sternberg photo dot com Janet Sternberg photo is one word and it's your case and then I have another one and it's for writing what's surprisingly books and that one is W. W. W. G. Sternberg dot com so it's not hard I would have been nice Google Christian so I can be found on the writing website there's a link to the photography one why should one of these days we don't go back maybe yes maybe no so I am find a ball I would love to do phone by and large %HESITATION on the cryptocurrency website up at the top is my email and that's wonderful thank you for that well thank you so much for doing this and I think I definitely will be in touch as she possibly in the new year and to look at and say a lot more stuff I think I love it I love to do you know what you're doing and love to give you a loan New York I'm going to show you something no not really R. O. this year's cannot see this that one holding up is a plastic sheet of %HESITATION you know the kind of thing you can slip photos insurance your ticket nine half by elevens spiral bound and %HESITATION here it is holding it up and you know just which one selfish you know writes a little I don't know something it she says new also it exposed I'd been walking and so course I look at it and I'm trying to find out what it's about you will find its way all right lovely thank you Paula bye bye thank you John thank
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Audiovisual Cultures episode 44 – Performance Art Against Violence with Elvira Santamaría automated transcript


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hello and welcome to audio visual cultures a podcast that examines aspects of signed an image based cultural production and its implications and wider issues around it I'm Paula Blair and the host and creator and I'm very pleased to be joining you this time from Belfast my home city I've come over for a bit of the visit and I'm recording this short introduction during a while Kerry that rather lovely botanic gardens and so I spell fast I'm very close to the awesome museum for a bite to mates as their assent the Maria Torres she is an international nines performance artist and action artist will hopefully have a really fascinating chat about her work that you'll get a lottery does justice saying it really big thank you to everybody who Spain sharing and liking and engaging on social media it's a really huge help sabi ko CA and thanks as well to our regular supporters on Patreon there aren't many if you put the ones you have are so appreciative of what each day to find out how to support us financially and how to support by sharing and social media stick with us at the end and I'll be back with information about that person I I really hope you enjoy this conversation with my name is Sylvia Santa Maria I'm originally from Mexico I'm a performance artist I now based in Northern Ireland in Belfast I have been based here for almost ten years between Mexico and Belfast I must say that I travel a lot because my work performance our demands on performance there are other terms I think could be maybe just unpack some of the terms that we can apply because C. D. pro sass arts and a range of different approaches like performance installation and action art how do you feel about the sorts of labels on your work what do you feel it is see J. in Spanish I use the term October action out of the action on the generic for dot con to call her performance art durational performance process are osis gesture starting to gestures to combine with photography order performance installation I told you and maybe something else I'd like to label what time do we because that tells me not to classify the No Way or organize only certain ways to perform but it kills me to reflect what time what is doing it for four months what are the elements data for performance art in how are you really working on that for example time would correspond to rational performance if I'm interested in the process how one working with time that is very important to focus on that and also to save people this is about time so I said I'm going to do our process our process peace means that I'm not aiming a resort but to go into a process that people connect with on this end to intervene the proposal of the materials the space and certain principles of I'm going to apply we take us somewhere in a journey in that process for the support and even called a chamber performance our performance that happened in a close call she space give me the chance to deliver some people focused on that without any disturbance maybe I can arrange in a wake up lights to make something special like it maybe in the Asian chambers chambers C. new Grange you know there are places something this special hop in there and we need to place for example that is the need for me to label but these are more of a work of conceptual work in my in performance art or action thank that point if I indication then you work and site but there's a lot of our site as well a lot of site specific where I'm just thinking about it any work you've done in Mexico and I've seen images of and there you may be dating last things like violent or traumatic memory you know I've seen images with the with the channels and your toes and the objects that you'll find in claims and the actual landscaping things what do you feel are the differences are in the different materials with the spaces that you're working with it whether it's between an indoor event or something like that that's an option for me is very important to consider a space or even fifty tuition costs part of the larger war or even an element that will be fine what to do materials as well I used to say that I don't use I don't materials I dialogue with them I really am not using any I don't think I don't know what the space I don't know what the situation and I dealt with the materials that cost to be really a concentration focus there that we can be part of like the famous they we can collaborate with me I if I don't need your vote to eliminate them that is based for example on this the streets and to I have to consider that to be a part of that if a person is only because I'm in the public space and have to deal with that part of the not a problem that comes in the store I would never consider dot on it to come the firm of architects the allies he Katie in the reality social physical political reality in that context tweet anything so we have to be prepared for yeah really stating that we have to be awake in the moment to take on all this and just thinking about you saying collaborating with the winds I think probably one of the first actions I ever saw he was on Helen's bay at the base something with I think it's been liner by the plastic banks are you know when hi I'm making huge string of I'm so there's these beautiful shapes Manson across quite make area spans with the by do you have a name %HESITATION what do you think it is in general when they do these kind of works I don't have any title actually did try to come up to I kind of took the country deal for me but for my company I don't know what will happen in for me the title of puppies a performance or even to conserve told the station customer come up before I'm dealing with the reality that I don't know that because I have experience I could visualize something but you never know and I know that's a performance artist because the prices kind of company and even with very simple things like the plastic white box I said okay this is three may be able to afford in the night twenty two with many many I didn't know how it's going to take a look at that and then I remember rob myself you don't die didn't all these plastic possible when my body was also part of this process that they didn't know that I wanted to do so it's quite late today so the captain and I make might make my notes and reflected sometimes I found poetry that is correct so the title or the name even the concept of the station deeper way state because I have always had previous idea permissible to do have always finding the show lady but afterwards because most of the production I thought some of the Titans it's a nice idea that idea of collaborating with the elements arranging because you're harnessing it but then you being close to asylum in Europe but against yourself or you're just finding a way of visualizing the wind away almost do you find the right to come something your work quite a bit the eighty three two or repetitive actions other things that you need to work through for no for our work in different ways it's interesting for me because I can tell you I've never seen this before yeah sure and we know that always really never the same but I'm not really interested to get this talking please yeah I'm really interested to explore again and again with some of the material the space over my phone number to the station when I once and even if people like it if I didn't like it was not on the way to discover something new or even just to do with the way I want I go again and repeat the idea for me to %HESITATION when I step to the performance in nineteen ninety two tweet I really made a kind of rituals really we kind of believe it really performance of sometimes with my lord I have a Norse there to take my blood tonight make with that tweet hold to watch the storm can I make a transfusion of my block to the store calling eight I think I called that performance no nation for that you can use like fire force anyway the doors I kind of chamber performance but better to only stick with many elements the only element we told that the west not to repeat it to you to repeat but yes many elements Qatar sees not told is a ghost which to cut taxes but to storm performances in the beginning of my practice what really good tactic people cry and I didn't the card to myself like that but that in no way the bees make people enter in a story forty nine number to leave in a story that the narrative that triggered something in them but to also give them a space in a place to deal with emotions sometimes if you don't understand what what I was doing but to hold when you do decide I cry because I went to the store anyway sometimes I do something like a kind of ritual for example the last performance I have children dead weight was smoke portrait I smoke a trust the last of my face seems like I'm burning my face but just the glass enough to turn the glass is covered with the smoke in my face disappear and I'm dressing in black and I'm four and then they do something like drawing back to smoking make a drawing on my face on the smoke inductees in the meantime we be done several times only performance the door was with variations introduction or a DM depending in the place in the culture with the people I am is not the same when I do we do in Latin America Mexico when I it's not the same but I D. N. the big element that people seem to want to I want to bring them burning smoking the glass have you noticed any other differences in hi spectators react between Latin America and Europe or UK or Arden's and terms is it cathartic in fact some of the aspects of it do you find that it's different emotionally or does it depends what kind of thing that you do yes can be very different from one culture to another depends query takes place if I do the street actions usually mural people tried to ignore it because many think Scott people don't want to be part of a joke Suffolk County Kameron I didn't this time Mexico for example in Mexico and Latin America in general people in the small room willing to assist you they didn't have a problem with it usually they are going to do that you'll have a problem he's ordered to ask you what is going on or they take time to stand in front of the jewel in the center of your to be read out what you are doing and it's not the OSC in Dayton literally I mean to run because people want to talk about and I like that because I kind of stopped to talk about when I speak with people I'm not talk about all these performance on to my lord no I'm talking about people what is the concern of people that they have seen in my password in Europe is difficult in Northern Ireland people come to that the two people can be very tough officer Blane performing my life and I'm learning approach in public space but he told the people depict the culture of the city sometimes the point of a person passing by in doing something the artwork could change completely upside down and I have to be prepared to embrace it and continue with that change the issue of contingency is a really quickly one and performance art invites Martin general where you see artists are the most wonderful person in the room or the area whatever it might be because anything could happen and I think most audience members we tend to stand back and think there's a natural barrier that forms probably because we are fairly cherry and spice cinnamon cedar to not step over us wrestles you can comment for everything and you don't know if you're doing something I decide whether somebody's going to come up in a call she or demand to know what you're saying or whatever it's really fascinating to think about cultural differences from place to place where you might be doing that because you're internationally performing all over the world the T. or so I'm very conscious about would do or say to please recent history and help people close to close and sell the motion to vote for the motion on the part there there was a bunch of sometimes the mechanisms of resilience mechanisms in ourselves too close for many things portability so violence aggression and you can see their doctors performance Oct is a notion my purpose or my aim is not to make myself vulnerable even if I become a notable because I go to a public space for example can I do something that is out there your phone calls and that is a provocation wanted or not it's a privilege log to I'm interested to learn it do not force them to be very conscious what do you want to do that what do you want to be at the front of the to be you want to give something to people something for sixty think about something negative %HESITATION just self assessment data always is good to get the results you want and then okay now I want to do this because I want to tell this to the P. ten something like a one people for example something that maybe should have them connected in order to the city that is very strange like in a dream what happened to me and then maybe he does and then one of these options might be part of his life like a dream to work something out something in the deeper or any different levels maybe being forgotten it's quite we need to know very well already tensions in public or in close indoor spaces because I'm not sure really it really is powerful thank another person tweeted I did talk about any exhibitions you've been part of his wild because there are times when you're not necessarily working life for your working life as part of this may be a collective exhibition or something like that and there was one last year and I didn't get to see it unfortunately but you were part of the points arts festival just a few months ago we check to tell us a bit about that yes I was invited by the human don't know debt to be cold Connery with another four artiste female artist to make this exhibition what sort do make exhibitions but he knew that we had some remarks that might be interested to see a site or performances I present to that came out to a follow up persist please that they made enough Salvador so I wouldn't dare to a village that ten seventy one a big muscle car thousand people children women and old people were massacred by the Salvadoran are they wanted to call today resources in the sympathies in a radical way to the curriculum and the massacre many many people and I want to go with them let's see what happens after so many years colorless the please help people cultivate their memory hold the memory of help people leave after that because they're still alive people so when they're in I was speaking with people some crucial for David please I mean all the people living there had lost a member of the committee in documents in my process I want to walk to the healers people describing you know here the girls of the village were taken and raped and then more of the same wasn't very very strong so was so strong and so hopeful that in one moment I asked myself how do he and B. anyway some of the stories that way and then I'm going to focus now in this short sure wait in the gallery these are a settlement on how to approach is there these are proces it was just there looking at that very very rare it was very busy because he's really like which is the quality of the soil but anyway it makes total sense the next step to discover these because people and then a person from the village told me maybe there are many the army said there are shopped on the village no wonder everyone to just the food to be destroyed this call for those so was horrible what's that mean island's western made I used I stopped him I didn't want to do anything on March because I felt overwhelmed by that and then they start just to I don't want to safely but in no way to explore explore the quality physical quality and I reached out the image putting these past conflicts between my toes and then I said this is the steps of memory I told you before that the Titans come after hours many hours I was three days many hours only for that picture and I said and then I published in my website sure so that and he told me I wanted that is the way to continue to be a part of an exhibition for cities even discover any image through a process or sometimes a couple ideas maybe I need one of these buttons it's going to show me something for many times these different articles and then I said this is the picture but anytime there's some conformity that supports in a kind of investigation I mean much of the day delivered a summer photography or even up the deal if you haven't done much the title of the exhibition was I stepped outside and she stepped in again yes it's really fascinating title and then just what's come out of that one image no be say that was an amongst other works by other women artists but that idea so I stepped out and she stepped in again I'm thinking about eight different steps that you're maybe re treading but you're walking amongst where people had been before Ford violent things that happened before it's a really wonderful title that fits you come up with that title was huge because he wanted us to perform in maybe create a dynamic performed together and create a dynamic where we come in we need collaborate by taking the place of the order maybe the materials and three troll %HESITATION Israeli Spanish writer on women's issues including back the action to maybe just Peter over performance all performance in become really gauge collaboration that's why he decided when he told me and they even took photos over his performance would be part of that in nineteen really emerging in a kind of Oregon these elements of the older participants I was really rooting for me and very interesting to develop these dynamics suggested or proposed by him I was wondering is will affect the use of body performance argument that's your primary to really as the body but this one does body come up or do you think it comes up as the same very much in your work or is it parts of the body because I mean what if just talks but there is centered radio on your face my feet are doing and where they are and what they're engaging with you know or and other works is seen you do it you're putting something together with your fans wondered what you thought about that to you how much your body comes in what is the ideal body or their relation to deal with B. the parliament or so given that we are for some performance artist especially jumper from one side to the domino in the sectional very often %HESITATION moment in our lives I'm very concerned about so they go to the polls the naked body or difficult to explore our or expecting any closer to the house in relation with that sexual or gender equality I was never interested in that I was never had this concern the day was considered in depressants Dodge journey for stability to be president the president is more complex the presence of body odour mental faculties believes no also because you'll be late with your your body my word my body is my presence in my presence I want to bring with this residence reveals something can be on a hunt can be to hit could be the whole body I used to dress in black to neutral is a little bit in the meeting but cannot because of the lack of custom made but anyway do not put all the content that I don't want people to focus and then explore and explore the reality of the site I found that my body will perform I wanted to make the I went to benefit to local deadlines I didn't want it to stay which is I mean you know Salvador I felt so so bad yeah and I felt that that was such a kind of sacred line of people to die innocent people and I do want to stay yes Sir six quite when or then I discovered that happens like that usually my performance or could I have a clear idea of what they want to engage my body the way neat but for me it is all right I think are you more likely since the mind body yes not only me but my place to get the police report I don't want to be by did make these two companies in this one this one is the way to be a person that is more than the body but we don't that body I cannot be if it's all right then three thank you bye your collaborations and your work is part of the collective be beyond based in Belfast maybe some of the events connected right manager involvements you on your own in your own right sure and international artists and you perform follow and everywhere else and have collaborated twice many different artists as well but hi does not compare with being part of a member of a collective and how important is being part of a collective and what you do as well four means he's fun tastic that to be beyond axes a subgroup that diversifies at the same time in a collective collaborative group to perform and also in the group that organized and tried to promote performance there's different aspects BBM and sometimes for me so I need to the morning one or another sometimes I need to promote events some ideas that I have in in I collaborate with the committee notice from others to enjoy because I enjoy very much when I perform in this way black market he is one of the few collective soul groups the company's two lasting D. for performance for me but the social collective organized a couple yes to promote but also defended the art because easy to establish performance not only in the art scene and then the country bought in dialogue with the people they're always there something wrong oversees the store being close to someone that is part of existence I think it's part of racing questions through in the particular way to collaborate with them easy to resting spot sometimes I don't find any connection with them there's I don't find that they've really collaborate they repeat and repeat and repeat very much the same there's not really risking then I got part a little bit I am but I support it so we need to collaborate you don't and I'm going to just call me when I find a good idea to collaborate for me there's not collaboration if you choose to be to get them to do the same for me this is not collaboration collaboration is a dialogue in these are the date I debate in action that kind of report I've read really the margins of reflections in poetic that the business section talks about repeating monthly meetings maybe doesn't allow us to read actually now that I don't know if you decide to rescind that we don't have the time to reflect well we have we need to propose into work how to come together in different ways what do we need to debate not only in that to reflect about what we are doing in other teams around the practice I suppose and if it's okay can I ask you about your experience of being in Northern Ireland you know what's that like for you as an artist trying to work here in Maine he said earlier this is been the most challenging probably place for you to perform the check on my lamontagne times you know I've spent a lot of time when I was living here going to the baby on this month place and being quite peripheral to those things you for a while I think it was almost my own spoken job to be the person who media's it's with the general public and people would be up at free excited by what was going on and so I was the person say their artists you know they're just playing there just having playtime attention you can join in a few months you know and you get talking to drug addicts or alcoholics that we're sitting rounded writer square or families on the beach and that sort of stuff I was quite fun for a bit but yes it must be I think because here and it's okay for me to say this you never know when it could tip over into violence there's always a hint of a threat there so is wondering how they how do you feel how does it affect you being here which is in general Northern Ireland has been difficult for me it is a very different culture no the Mexican language I thought that date I mean the list within the but if they told you before this interview I'm kind of dyslexic that when I need to speak another language and my in the last maybe two years it took a little bit with the peak in March in the war so that you see what is the weight what is good for that but it has been very difficult the language especially the information with the performance only in public spaces when I do something in the same sort of space accent but I'm very interested to explore on my own and I can donate the public the space in really enter into a dialogue with people and if I get that that would be a big achievement for me have a big achievement in you for something solo and Kamera so I can buy some witnesses and maybe a camera connecting couple but from far away and let the action speaks for itself and see if I can connect with people of people even if they don't like it I can make a dialogue with them engage with you know they go with them it reflects that this is my name but for me to be a great country another thing that jokes because just on all the general it is very important because it is part of the eighty group or a social construction group but I also like once I realized that I the store to the context six people mostly that I don't know what Nigel cracks I explain joke is is what anyway because the two ladies with identity and identity has to be with the authors and the authors important this could have been made one tree speaking this country like China the weather the weather or see something else I need some but I did maybe you don't like like before but they could see their myself with a good performance artist would make problems in action yeah I mean that I learned how to feed myself please continue to leave the country how to make the best what I have and then I I do like rainy days but that's because time to before and read and write it's waking them up from they're working retain muscle awhile ago I'm just trying to think back because this is probably a few years ago nine a lot of the places you were doing was sold I'm worried in case of mixing it was Brian as well because I I know that what she did when you were lying on the crimes and the soul was on a black sheet or piece of paper or something but ever since I can remember anyone that was an umbrella yeah so that will miss in Germany which has been using salt is immaterial I use for in the same way I have the two all the time to come from the only two time off to work this one in Canada in two thousand seven I made up Rosi's there three days four hours per day with a couple different elements and I'm all those I was when I start to blow Seoul nice way to shape to draw some something you there was a accident on the floor that makes something and just for me to do that in the that day do you have for a while indeed my lord king other concerns about makes you call that like to know about the situation come try G. I put in this short to express something about the former got the idea to draw down makes the kind for a long time and that took me down to Mexico Oaxaca in the contemporary art museum in Oaxaca forty days eight hours per day I started with for mountains he also talked to the middle share and that was great was when the camera filming it was an exhibition at the same time you enter a room one got into two rooms the first thing you find out who she each each time and then continue to the next room and I'm I didn't see that coming this is very high you see only me working there and then when you go to see them up because there's less is more please for forty three days she makes I don't I have to make these these Mexico what kind of what we did tonight any of these G. G. we have a big disadvantage of Mexico and I agreed from that time even the drug dealers that's to do with these two countries so I want to develop that is why I made to September last September the second part of this project and they need to go to the United States to freeze I kind of decided have some chances I hope so I'm not thinking about it yes but also the joker fan of these places and geopolitics as well that must come straight whether even if it's not explicit but it must be an implicit same coming straight weather here and Mexico Canada and the states anywhere else in America or here in Northern Ireland to miss Mary Anne I guess you mean has anything been coming up with by borders and borderlands something that I need to find ways to get into it maybe they don't have to go posted June or in England maybe which the two went to concrete to %HESITATION to finish this idea these three countries and I have to be very interesting responses from both pieces Dr command tonight this call for dialogue and what that common sense not to send people to drive to the east coast to debate I was thinking because it's such a huge confidence he feel like comment that it's so far away from Mexico but really you're quite close neighbors in terms of there's this one country between you but actually that joined together in this he comes in and the miles so what were the responses like in Canada when it was shaping that tomorrow blowing it up by blowing it's not like your pain and try to make the proportion you know when you start to having office space to shape also United States in a little bit of Mexico but the main west kind of many people most interested in the meaning of what and I think it was interesting for them because it was you know he said the first question first question that salt mine but so many people was thinking what is the meaning of this concern you know thinking to talk them through their superstitions to I'm leaving meaning so we just have to perform that Mexico they all it does I think people that think that they don't believe in such things I would like what they want to like themselves to call them to make sure we have connected with the means we learn the number five our own and and then people just have to be concerned two courses also with salt but then there's other stores that I come to you short for example was used by the Romans cartage rebuilt I guess the Roman Empire in the Roman Empire defeated them they went to college and they must occur to people and they I didn't always short field landing fields to avoid to grow anything in many many years really but not to the concept that thank you to the store the people there all the all the people that were on but what's an effect on the and I thought it was the leading lady if your economy politics kind of countries in the country the launch of the countries in the last week yes yes that I could see the doctor to see these these economic twenty not to start Mexico to form in the crisis finish I called now with the new government talk to the call to solve many problems posted Oct the staff this is huge the problem is too big too big to be sold in six months but yeah I pointed I mean the legacies of colonialism on where another anywhere say that country if something is taken away from them your crafts or something and generations go by and the countries that originated thought to them saying Friday that love them and pay the people dying and don't align migration well actually it was your ancestors did it to them in the first place that's why all these problems arose and there's no then culpability there's no responsibility so maybe it's reminding people of that as well at school are white people and sensors because kind of problems in the heart we need to go to history memories we need to reflect what happened before they call me many of the economy they're not interested in politics all right right eight the right side of the duties individual concerns do you it is good to based on the biography we dialed the number you'll receive an introspective but I don't know if you ask me in my right he's really optimizing industry making more individualistic society one thing about this and last year or two years ago goodness it wasn't twenty seventeen in public you propose dot just a simple soon but that project to tell some fourteen and then I couldn't be here but the development assistant position and I think it was great we had the chance to see officials about performing in in what he but for many people we had some potential ideas ideals we are doing in the for example just before about speaking with people was watching outside yeah I think otherwise and we're really not committed to dialogue with people I think the schools these about these and other issues in from the west wind the only thing that the top very few people that is my only the rest was well organized and we need to continue that dialogue I have very fond memories of the site just happens to be in Belfast the way that it was happening and attended it huge monthly meeting that coincided with it people around that was not just the Vegas that file faster Northern Ireland ever seen but it may have been the biggest collective's performance action ten year effort because there were so many people there I scrambled around in chalk on thurs is right on the grind what people were doing in the you know so that was amazing but also what made it ready for me was that there was also this was an custom size square and both fast and I think it was said by gang or remote but I can clover something had also made that their meeting point at the same time for Hugh charting they were having so these chi quite massive sayings descended on this on the square in the city centre at the same time and we're perplexed by each other and it was incredible it was just something amazing and so the idea coming back operating with whatever syringae they couldn't help you find the same space I have to just exist side by side for but to truly do you try to go by we occupy we didn't give them much space to their he had to leave but anyway that was the potential for a please take therefore may be called for commenting laughing and all that one was okay not to any conflict there but didn't get it was fun moment that will keep me busy I the people to to come together usually he's here when a person decides to join or even the twenty five it was a bit difficult but I wrote feel free to join and talk in the growing nobody nobody second no because I had decided to be silent but it just right I was just describing everything that was not nice is right and she keeps saying you know I don't know what Chris still staying or Sandra striking a plan to really you know stuff like that just trying to make a pass on the insulation it was overwhelming how many people it was incredible more people in the state just to see what company it was classified it was quite remember it was unseasonably warm April day and there was I remember a woman sunbathing and she was there the whole time and she was still there when she made my cleaned up and she was still there two hours later when I went for the ball set so there were people he hung around and asked what was going on and some of the side of the side and just tried to explain it but hi could you explain welcome I think just curiosity and I can not coming from a place of either failing or demanding stress but just what's going on here all these people and when you explain to them what was happening this song okay well I'm here so this is what's happening then so it was kind of accepting expose it was a kind of critical mass that the depressed people to say okay there's a movement and Sir anything you would like to talk quickly detected Silas suburbia but something you're going to be working on %HESITATION ideas she got fifteen years working now in the project that calls for machines I plan to keep workshops which I call laboratories for people to they do reflect how he sees many things hello I'm not sure my gesture practice discipline whatever you want to do my instructor might help if you need an accountant or some kind the two point three wait to see yourself more positively when you achieve something in action in this position because I'm going to do it in Mexico I'm really committed to going to laboratories shops in different communities just trying to help this regarding the violence hi top in his company and his company HM my practice and also in the middle of some process that some patients to perform with black market it is still on in other exhortations to perform so is the best place to keep up to date with what you're doing with that P. on your website to publish some information on the place some place to perform and what is coming and I wanted to talk more of it although this is a project that I'm organizing with brand partners in this part of the IBM project this year in these human this process a performance artist I'd work is going to happen the week of the international women's day I proposed this project to be beyond the question all the members of the emergency more than seventy two hours and then we don't have something to just to focus and see what is the practice of mobile for most artistes in addressing the issues to the school so all that said that that week the technician and the second part would come may for twelve that's a nice thing often been talking for over an hour so thank you so much reading really wonderful thing the audio visual cultures with me call up there and my special guest appearance on the media this episode was recorded and Belfast and edited by all of their music keeping hearing aids the common grind by air shown basis under a creative Commons attribution three point zero and Stein noted both from CC mixer dot org if you are in doing what we're doing and you find it useful and interesting and you want to help us keep making more and 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