Espacios en crisis

 

Adrian Preciado

Andrea Galindo

Andres Jaramillo

Danilo Estacio

 

 

For some of us, everyday space has become a concept increasingly distant since the advent of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Under the influential discourse of bio-safety, many governments around the world have called for the minimization of face-to-face contact between the citizens, which has exempted us from everyday exposure to corporeal interaction with the other in public spaces - streets, schools, offices, coffee shops and the public transportation system among others.

 

As many researchers point out, this physical detachment together with the widespread concern about the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 infection had an unprecedented impact on our attitude toward the localized human communities. Certainly it could be said that the circumstances of so-called post-COVID19 “new normal” somewhat diminished our sensibility toward everyday space as a site of divergence, replete of misunderstandings and conflicts, which requires the constant use of spontaneous tactics for negotiation in the face of living together with the social/cultural other.

 

In Colombia, the critical importance of everyday space surfaced recently during the nation-wide political protests that broke out on April 28th, in conjunction with the Paro Nacional (national strike) organized against the Ivan Duque regime’s tax reform proposal.

 

Emerging in the midst of the SARS-CoV-2 propagation, this social turbulence, during which thousands of protesters filled the city’s major streets day and night, virtually invalidated the official regulations set forth against the spread of the virus, which stipulated the use of masks, maintenance of the social distance, and above all the mandatory weekend lock-downs. Facing these massive protests , by the first week of June, the city authorities saw no options but to lift all the Corona virus-related restrictions, despite the fact that the number of the infected among the city’s population was reaching its peak.

 

For many people in Bogota , the coincidence of the two major crisis (that of the COVID-19 and the political protests) after April 2021, has been an unprecedented opportunity to reflect upon the nature of everyday public space as a site of the most immediate confrontation and dialogue, without which the proactive intervention in democratic processes seemed impossible.

 

With the hope of narrating the actual circumstances in Colombia to the broader art communities, Espacios en crisis presents four video-artists based in Colombia, whose recent works revolve around the understanding of everyday space as a sphere of conflict and negotiation. Produced between 2018 and 2021, and seen against the backdrop of the aforementioned global/local crisis in Colombia, these four works show the degree by which the discourse of the post-Corona ¨new normal¨ has standardized our daily behavior and perception of everyday space, phenomenon which has perpetuated the homogeneity rather than diversity within our social networks, in which the figure of the other tends to be absent.

 

Takaaki KJ

Curator

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​Filipino Artist-Run Art Spaces:
click on each to see their programming for HATAK

 

Alief Art House - Matt Manalo (TX)    

Mata Art Gallery - Nica Aquino (CA)   

North Willows Attic - Katrina Bello(NJ)
The Orange Door - Mic Boekelmann (NJ)
From Typhoon - Robinick Fernandez & J.A. Dela Cruz-Smith (WA)

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https://www.micboekelmann.com/?fbclid=IwAR2h4sZk_buc8sSTKFPQ-buQ5YJimppFrQY_pWUOsLsXmavY1NGlsqbA-5w

https://www.mataartgallery.org/?fbclid=IwAR1zsbves_Jc5WrWtcxf1g6ykLIsQpK_zw7tzvQNQPWkHiHNjbjLFwF88DE

https://www.mattmanalo.com/?fbclid=IwAR3uMNDleGCS2fyva3waNinHD-ohL1W9yAcgqcE059BRlkLvH_AezexhmlM

https://northwillows.com/?fbclid=IwAR09FRoHYC7_XH-ENs2KpR6CurB2K3qlQvbnfIVqjxwpO4flhJ3YrkGQOrs