These texts demonstrated the various ways that borders can be a space for activation and creativity. They each explore the idea of borders from a different perspective. Despite these differences, they share many overlapping themes, specifically overlaps about borders as active spaces and borders as spaces for growth.
On borders or active spaces:
“Since the border is always in between and in motion, it is a continually changing process.” Thomas Nail, philosopher, 2016
“This space has also wanted to be face-to-face, and later on, we managed to meet each other, we found a way to find each other. I think this has been one of the coolest things that has happened with the semillero, that it hasn’t stayed in the (virtual) space, but that it mutates and goes where it wants to be, where it wants to germinate. […]”
I like the idea of thinking of borders as energetic spaces, always in movement and always in flux. These two quotes make me wonder about what causes a border to be so alive and full of energy, positive or negative? Are there aspects integral to borders that cause this energy and this action? Is it possible to create that energy by finding non-physical borders in our practice?
I know this is a very capitalist way of thinking, trying to take a positive from a space, but it’s something that was on my mind throughout the readings.
On borders as spaces for growth:
“In the rehearsal room, we use many different starting points: sounds, images, text, light, actions. There’s a phase of rehearsal which is about generating possibilities, and then there’s a need to reflect and edit and shape.”
“...It was important for us to create or seek these same spaces of knowledge sharing that we had encountered through our Master’s degree. It is a space of a lot of estrangement, and so much commotion. It is also a space for a lot of experimentation…
“We referred to the figure of the semillero…if we managed to turn it around, if we managed to propose a horizontal space for the research group, if we managed to remove the hierarchies that existed and preserve the spirit of research and investigation that the research group has. And to also create a space for meeting with many other people who may not have the same line of research as you. So, without losing that desire to search, research, and play, we took on the name semillero.
“A moment had come when we imagined the seed as a creative power, as a minimal power that brings with it many possibilities that perhaps are not in our hands. After that, we became aware, not only of the seed as a unit, as a power, but also of everything it implies: the terrain where it is found, the conditions, the contradictions it implies, and all these vital processes, the life or death they go through, and everything that could happen around it.”
There is something so powerful in settings where people can learn and grow and explore together as communities in the ways described in both of these quotes.
Other questions, thoughts and quotes from the readings:
I’m interested in the notion of sector-navigating. This was a new idea for me. I haven’t thought of my practice as a form of sector-navigating before, and I’m curious to learn more about what this means on a practical level.
I’m pasting these two other quotes here as a place to store them. I love the ideas in each. In the first quote about “Live Art” as a movement, I don’t think I’ve read a quote that better breaks-down the lifespan of art movements.
“One of the things that became clear is that “Live Art” is an instance, a moment that is going to happen. Just as cubism has already passed. What is not necessarily going to pass are the ways in which certain transformations and changes that are part of life itself manifest themselves and happen.
“The moment institutions begin to take these terms, suddenly they finance them, and that is what is happening here. From being an intuition, from finding a space (because I don’t find my space and this is the one that more or less gives my work a body), suddenly it becomes institutionalised, and little by little loses its strength. In a way, our work is linked to this because we have obviously studied something with [the term ‘live art’] in its title. We understand that it’s a title and that what is underneath are those forms of manifestations, those practices that will continue to come together and that we will continue to explore, and these are the [forms] that we would call our art, our way of traversing these artistic, academic, social spaces… I think I’ve made everything more complex, but it’s the truth!”
I am often questioned and often question myself about why I’m making a painting or print or drawing, particularly when a photograph is involved in the process. Questions come up from myself and from others about why not just print the image as an inkjet? I’ve not been able to articulate my thoughts about this question as well as this quote:
“I remember one of the very first gigs we did with Near Gonewhich is performed in Bulgarian and English and someone asked us – why on earth we had made that choice when Kat’s English was perfectly good. And that is very telling isn’t it. But you can say that about anything. Why on Earth make another drawing of the sea when someone might say that Turner’s version was perfectly good? So, we kind of get back to the sense that we are looking for ways in which we “say” what we want to say in the way we want to say it and show it and hope that more people fall on the side of enquiry rather than – this is lost on me. Isn’t that what all culture and art tries to do?”