Technical datasheet

"Mario Antonio" Actions and installations within the framework of the

“working VOICES” project

Since I was conceived and before going out into the world, the only sound that I remember accurately is that of my heart; I

remember that sound sometimes fast and other times slow. My real story, living like a prisoner in my own jail, imagining noises that I couldn’t recognize, tones of voices that I couldn’t

perceive, hunting for gestures and expressions, answers to attitudes that I couldn’t understand. Playing in my fantasy that I could narrate or invent something that I couldn’t express

In my heart, which is like a chest, where I keep all my memories, my experiences, my joys, my sadness, even my pains, there, deep within, where I have kept them for a long time; but now I want to share them with the world. I have learned a new

language —ART— unraveling, tying, compiling, creating, filing looks, signs, colors, cultures. I want to get dressed up in my memories and share them with the world, resonate in other hearts, delve into others chests, exchange letters and dream that

one can communicate without speaking.

Text by Laura Steffany Larrea in the exhibition "To my memories" in the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Collective action "Mario Antonio,” Morisco School, Bogotá, Colombia. Photo by Jorge Restrepo

Artists Iván Cano Mejía, Bogotá, Colombia, 1958 Abelardo Parra Jiménez, Bogota, Colombia, 1954 Laura Steffany Larrea, Bogota, Colombia, 1988 Jorge Restrepo, Cali, Colombia, 1961

Titles "Mario Antonio,” "Mario Antonio I,” "Mario Antonio II"

Pedagogical framework Blanca Isabel Pérez Ortíz, Principal of the Morisco School.

Institutions Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), Minuto de Dios, Morisco School, Morisco neighborhood, Minuto de Dios, Bogotá

Date Thursday 2 May 2013

Participants: Students and teachers from the morning shift of the Morisco School

Photo by Emilio Barriga.

Place: Morisco School, Campus A, Minuto de Dios, Bogotá, Colombia

Curator: Harm Lux Curatorial assistant: Caridad Botella

Photography: Emilio Barriga and Jorge Restrepo Video: Cristian Alarcón

Materials: Hearing protectors Facemasks printed with the text: ¨I don’t know how to

read lips” Video camera Cameras Small plastic bags Silicone and silicone Masking tape Tape measure (self-retracting) Drill, bits, extension cord, plastic dowels, screw hooks

Genre: Collective performance-pedagogy

Photo by Emilio Barriga.

Objective Sensitize the students from the Morisco School to limitations inherent in people with speech and hearing disabilities by experiencing a collective action. Specific objectives

Provide continuity to the processes of creativity and innovation that the Morisco School promotes as a part of its institutional education project

Have all the students recognize the artist Abelardo Parra Jiménez as a silent hero from the neighborhood Extol the life of young people like Mario Antonio Quinones, who despite their limitations, have forged ahead

in their academic formation Raise awareness about the importance of teaching the deaf how to read lips and speak Reflect on the challenges of people with a hearing limitation Promote the use of the symbology and languages of contemporary art as complex mechanisms of

communication among the teachers in the school Facilitate an integration exercise in the school, in which action constitutes the central axis for integrating

various disciplines Teach how to applaud when recognizing hearing-impaired people Strengthen:

Soft competencies of the students: Communication, innovation and interpersonal relationships

Hard competencies of the entire school community: Contemporary art

Soft competencies of the teachers: Teaching, innovation and communication

Values in the entire community: Solidarity, respect, commitment, generosity, recognition, creativity and community

Photo by Emilio Barriga.

Background: Iván Cano Mejía writes about the initial idea:

Epicrisis “The only sound that I have been able to hear in my life has been my heart beat,” written for a catalog by a deaf artist. The reasons for my initiative to develop this performance are the foregoing insightful disclosure plus other observations of people who have a severe hearing limitation, who have never had any other means of communication than signs, and who develop other abilities that let them stand out in a very particular way in an art or trade in order to subsist in an indolent and exclusionary society, as is the case of the master woodcarver Abelardo Parra J.

For this project Iván conceived the idea of using facemasks printed with different messages, while inviting the participants to use hearing protectors. Jorge Restrepo has worked in projects the sighted were blindfolded so that they could interact on the same level with the visually impaired, an action that has also been carried out in projects with Gabriela Alonso in the weaving of networks. This performance stems from Cano’s idea, which is fused with Alonso and Restrepo’s collective language of pedagogy within the framework of the "working VOICES” project Mario Antonio Quiñones is a young deaf boy, who was taught how to speak by his teacher. She dedicated her rest periods to this student. In honor of him and many other young people with the same limitation, this action was carried out. Mario Antonio does not know about the implementation of this project as his teacher lost contact with him. The Morisco School is a district educational center of excellence, which has set important pedagogical challenges. On 9 April 2013, for instance, various marches for peace were held in Colombia. The Morisco School decided not to go out to the public square; instead they carried out an "in-house” action, which consisted of having all the kids and the majority of their teachers paint their hands white. Then they formed different circles around the school itself and its surroundings. This action generated reflections about the use of one’s hands to protect, love, take care of, create...

Abelardo Parra Jiménez is a sculptor, who has resided in the Minuto de Dios neighborhood for 50 years. His works have been exhibited in various parts of the world. He has been given scholarships and recognition that have enabled him to teach carving. Being an artist from the neighborhood, he is linked to the “working VOICES” project. Abelardo, who has total hearing disability, inspired this performance. Laura Steffany Larrea is an artist who expresses visual memory through installation art. She also does this through written communication, revealing her thoughts and feelings to the community of both the deaf and the hearing. Laura can hear some sounds that are not recognizable to her; they are like drawn out vowels that she cannot identify. She does not live in a world of total silence, but rather in an environment of sounds that cannot be comprehended nor their direction identified. Iván Cano Mejía is a local artist who develops proposals in which he incorporates elements of daily use, with which he creates a feeling of uncertainty when confronting the unknown in the spectator. He thinks that art should have a social sense, which he has been developing for the past eight years. Cano is participating in this project by invitation from the MAC. He has been a resident of the neighborhood Minuto de Dios since he was a child; thus he is knowledgeable about a very important part of the history of the place. Cristian Alarcón Ismodes did the video documentation. He is a Peruvian artist born in 1979. His work satirizes symbols, rituals and institutions of the society in which he lives, transforming their contents and continents, and assigning them different uses and meanings, using different techniques and formats such as video art, animation, documentaries, installations, intervention in the public space, video maping, drawing and graphic design. He Is a member of the TAS (Wild Crafts Workshop) collective. He also forms part of the “working VOICES” project. Emilio Barriga, photographic documentation. He Is an audiovisual artist interested in generating processes of rupture based on images and the nontraditional use of media and records. His work is characterized by exploring the limitations of the medium and documenting artistic and musical processes in collaboration with artists of different disciplines. The artists Gabriela Alonso, Andrés Mauricio Rojas, Andrés Zamorano, Jorge Espinosa, Darwin Andino, and Consuelo Mora have carried out different action and pedagogy projects, with the scientific support of Jorge Emiro Restrepo. Constanza Leal (Pensart) has generated academic frameworks for action in pedagogy. Jorge Restrepo is an artist, promoter of science and consultant in innovation. His primary interest in art is the fusion between art and sciences, exploring the collective performance from the visual, the conceptual, art theory and neuroscience. In his works from the last decade, Restrepo seeks answers to the question: What is contemporary art good for? In his main works, he seeks the participation of other artists and professionals from various disciplines, as well as from different collectives. He has had 46 art exhibitions and individual projects in various countries and has participated in more than 100 biennials, art festivals, exhibitions, auctions and collective projects around the world. He holds Master’s degrees in Business Administration (ICESI University, Colombia), Public Administration (Harvard University, USA), Administration of Development Projects (College of Public Administration, ESAP, Colombia) and Agronomy (Zamorano University, Honduras). He had a scholarship from the International Foundation for Science, Sweden, entity of which he is now an advisor. He had fellowships from the Harvard Institute for International Development, Cambridge, MA; and the Seminary of Salzburg, Austria. He was a University Professor of Human Resource Management and Organizational Change for ten years.

www.jorgerestrepo.com.

Justification In this project the advances of the Morisco School in the use of action as a language for building awareness and citizen participation are strengthened. With this project the school lives a new experience in action with symbols. The progress made in comprehension of embodied, situated and distributed cognition are of interest to educators; thus the inclusion of both a collective experience and its respective reflection are of importance to an institution in the process of keeping up to date with developments in the field.

"Mario Antonio I" - Installation in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. Photo by Jorge Restrepo.

Description The action includes the following steps. Component I: Planning meeting. Blanca Isabel Pérez, Iván Cano and Jorge Restrepo met on Friday, 26 April, to analyze this project and define the agenda for executing it. Component II: Communication. On Monday, 29 April, Blanca Isabel Pérez sent the technical datasheet of the project to all the teachers, announcing the details of the project’s realization. On Tuesday, 30 April, the teachers informed all the students about the project to be held on Thursday and what the event is about. On Thursday, 2 May, the students arrived at school at 06:30 a.m., at which time they received general instructions. They proceeded to their homerooms to leave their bag packs and went to their first class. Component III: Action Thursday, 2 May 08:00 am - The artists Iván Cano, Abelardo Parra and Jorge Restrepo arrived at the school, bringing the materials. 08:10 am - The teachers assembled their students in the patio of the school. 08:10 am – Then 650 small bags with printed facemasks and hearing protectors were distributed to the students;

additional bags were given the other people present. The students then put on the facemasks and hearing protectors. Everyone remained in silence for five minutes.

Note: The only people who were not wearing facemasks were Abelardo Parra and Laura Larrea. 08:20 am - Abelardo and Laura expressed their gratitude that a school had "put themselves in their shoes" for a

while. Jorge Restrepo then asked for applause, moving their hands according to the custom for applauding among and for people with a hearing limitation. The facemasks and the hearing protectors were collected at the end of the action. The students went back to their classes. The hearing protectors and the facemasks were then taken to the MAC for setting up two installations.

Component IV: Documentation Cristian Alarcón, Emilio Barriga and Jorge Restrepo documented the action. Component V: Installation On the same day, two installations with the facemasks and the hearing protectors were set up in the MAC. On the same date, they were presented. Component VI: Integration During the following week, the teachers held discussion groups with their students in class, analyzing the experience they had had from the perspective of their field of expertise. Component VII: Conference To be programmed: Jorge Restrepo offered the teachers at the school a conference about action art and pedagogy.

Laura works on the installation "Mario Antonio II,” describing graphically what sound is for her, Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá. Photo by Jorge Restrepo.

Installation "Mario Antonio I" - A sound wave crosses the Museum of Contemporary Art Iván Cano Mejía and Jorge Restrepo installed the majority of the facemasks used in the action "Mario Antonio" in the Museum as part of the products of the "working VOICES” project. The wave represents the presence of sound in the neighborhood and its absence in the senses of the deaf.

Installation "Mario Antonio II" - The exercise of graphing sound. For the two deaf artists, working with the hearing protectors —which had been used before by hundreds of children and young people who had rendered them homage— was, in itself an action of great symbology. After several discussions, the work team of the four artists reached an agreement where they would graph what sound was for each one of them, starting with the recognition that Abelardo is in a world of absolute silence and Laura can hear sounds that she cannot recognize.

Through the installation carried out by them, they sought to express how they store noise in their memory, its rhythm in their memories. They sustained a dialogue; while at the same time, they were creating symbols and shapes that permitted them to graph vibrations referring to different situations. For Abelardo the sounds are vibrations that he feels in his body; but in general he relates the visual with a conjecture of sound, being able to imagine distinctive intensities according to what he observes. Laura, on the other hand, lives immersed in a space of unrelatable sounds. In their designs they agreed on how the different situations are like bursts of energy: some stronger than others, some surprising, others more paused and even silent...

Photo by Jorge Restrepo.

Special conditions for the action: A morning when it is not raining

Products: Technical datasheet, analytical text, video and photography. Installation in the MAC, using the facemasks and hearing protectors.