En un film de
Humberto Solas,

Lam decia que cuando encontramos
personas que piensan como nosotros

nos da alegria

ya que es como

afirmar que existimos.

What is an image?
¿Que es una imagen?

Barco, flor

(Afterthoughts)

She alludes to the postwar years as a time when men were leaving, as if suggesting an era when men were constantly and continuously leaving the island. Similar to the flow of a river, she addresses those years as the years of one directional mass exile. One, indeed, could refer to an exodus of men to the United States; furthermore this exploration might also incorporate other positions about contemporary discourses on mobility.

The use of rivers as metaphors for the one way migration can be questioned, as this model evokes a coordinated flow, while it denies a change of direction in the currents, hence contradicting theories of circular, pendulous, zig-zag, and other kind of migration.

Isleño

Islander: an inhabitant of an island

Islas y Barcos

Please visit Daniel Montoya's website:

http://danielmontoya.jimdo.com/



A long time ago, I wrote about sharing my live with a visual artist

(see original post: Provocations. 2007.04.16)

...Through the years our works have hanged across each other in our living and working space. They seem to understand each other... It seems like the interplay between you and me. It is in those boundaries were we find each other, beneath the subject, the technique, or the form, it is in our intentionality that we engage and find each other.

The relationship between two artists behind the studio door is invisible to the audience gaze, but I am convinced that our work is possible because of our relationship and vice versa. As we create through years of togetherness and knowing what we wanted to achieve and how our interaction affect our process and subject matter.

...Inspiration and ideas also came with our interaction as we took photographs or practice printmaking together. After a few years, we argue about art less and we learned to communicate with less words. Last week, in the "Van Gogh and Expressionism" exhibition at the Neue Gallery we already knew we will love Vincent and Klimt, we also knew that at some point you will make some comments about the German artists and I will overreact for a few seconds but it will not matter because later on we will be mesmerized by a new art work we had never seen before and we will agree about that piece of Egon Schiele. Then we will leave the museum enchanted, in love and knowing that images are stronger than words....

Not all art is intended to be seen by an audience

1. Soraya Marcano took the "Where are you meant to live?" quiz and the result is: Greece

2. Soraya Marcano piensa que si la tv creo un sentido de la comunidad imaginada durante el siglo XX, el internet es su equivalente en nuestro siglo XXI

3. Soraya Marcano thinks on virtuality as medium

4. Soraya Marcano is handling the situation

5. Soraya Marcano is on Facebook

the current situation

Twitter

http://twitter.com/sorayamarcano

Are cultural signifiers obsolete?

Se solicitan: Historias personales y anotaciones relacionadas con conceptos de migraciones pendulares y estilos de vidas móviles. Los escritos pueden ser anónimos, en inglés, español o espanglish.

Notas sobre El Vaiven, 2003.

Islands

In this laptop presentation of text, image and sound, I provide a historical, geographical, and cultural context for my work. As part of the presentation, I will also display fliers, postcards, questionnaires, and a brochure.

Island is a presentation that explores the Puerto Rican condition in relationship to contemporary times. By exploring issues of transnationalism and circular migration

this artwork, provides an exploration on topics concerning the nature of neo-colonialism. Some of the imagery is rooted in travel and migration; while other images are connected with islands and the subjects that inhabit them. In this work, islands are metaphors for communities that are continuously evolving, as islands carry rich histories of migration. By combining historical research and personal narratives, as they relate with the concern of mobility and transnationalism, I investigate how families moving between different geographical areas is part of the Puerto Rican condition and how this contributes to a transnational discourse.

Islands will be presented in ARTexchange at the 2009 College Art Association Annual Conference in Los Angeles. ARTexchange is an annual event that provides a forum for artists working in all media to share their work with peers and with other conference attendees.

Questionario para isleños/ Questionnaire for islanders:

• Dónde naciste/ Where were you born?
• A dónde has ido/ Where have you been?
• Dónde vives/ Where do you live?
• Por qué te fuiste de la isla/ Why did you leave the island?

Soraya Marcano is on Facebook

Thoughts about collaboration



To collaborate is to work together in an intellectual effort. It is different to inviting someone to participate in an already established platform. It allows for flexibility and negotiation between the participants.


There are still questions about how people can collaborate on a project... hence, this brings up the inability of the viewer in finding a space in the work of art -object, event, video, etc.- It raises the issue whether a "passive" participation can be considered collaboration at all.

There maybe an expectation, from the artist or cultural practitioner, about how people should engage with the work or work-platform. This points out to separation, distance, and misunderstanding, indeed to the impossibility of collaboration in art.

A PAUSE

AN INTERMISSION

A RESPITE

A RECESS

Ideas of social networks are being reinvented to be less local, more global. This kind of environments allow you to be in touch with an infinite number of people. Virtual communities are creative, extremely artistic, full of people that can exist or are impersonations of intellectuals, art practitioners, cultural workers, travelers, voracious readers and visual beings. They are active, imaginative, global, HOT, accomplished, popular, and they are building new forms of social relationships. Virtual and other forms of transnational communities are changing the way in which we relate to each other, consequently transforming culture.