La escultura neo-colombina: intervenciones artísticas y fotografías del alzheimer de oro

Abstract

The cultural, documentary and artistic heritage of the Province of El Oro is in an extremely precarious and alarming state, this added to the scarce interest that the population of El Oro has in knowing its aboriginal culture and its identity value, has motivated the realization of the present work with the purpose of creating an artistic contribution that recalls the ancestral imaginary of the people. In Machala and in the other cantons of the province there have been a series of findings of pre-Columbian objects that, despite their great cultural and historical importance, have been little or nothing valued by local authorities and the community. For this reason, it has been considered to approach this problem from an artistic paradigm, retaking the work of our aborigines through the artisan practice of sculpture and its modeling technique, recreating Neo-Columbian statuettes with the jambelí aesthetics and other contextual symbolic elements that turn them into new objects of artistic identity. The technique of modeling, being one of the most primitive communicative activities of mankind, also needs to make use of other expressions of modern art to correctly convey the artist's intentions. Within these techniques and for our purposes, photography and artistic intervention in public spaces play an important role in re-establishing the link between community and artistic dynamics within the daily context. In addition to these additional resources to the artistic object, it is also conceived to devise the formal aspect of the work with a redesign of the neo-figurine Jambelí, using non-traditional materials such as plasticine, fiberglass, resin, silicone, air-drying pastes, aerosols, etc. in methodological processes such as casting and reproduction of the pieces from a mold. On the other hand, the theoretical foundations of the work are based on the Relational Aesthetics described by Bourriaud and Carlos Rojas' Cannibal Aesthetics, which, based on the appropriation of cultural symbols and physical/virtual and inclusive public spaces, invite the reflection of the passive individual in art and transform him/her into an active receiver of the new aesthetic experiences. In addition to these two main theoreticians, other conceptual authors, plastic referents and, above all, the scarce but important contributions of historical-archaeological research that have taken place in the province are cited. In summary, the project aims at the following: - To elaborate small-format sculptures with theoretical-plastic foundations of pre-Columbian aesthetics and, through artistic intervention in the public space, to disseminate the results to promote in the community an appreciation of ancestral memory and local identity. Contemporary art must then become an innovative tool that makes possible other realities or aesthetic appreciations as a result of a contextual problem. In this way, artistic practice responds to the need to encourage a reconstruction of socio-cultural, ethical and aesthetic values, pretending that subjects isolated or alien to these expressions, are activated and create new bonds of belonging and appreciation through art. The neo-Columbian sculpture, in its attentive intervention and photographic diffusion, will be the nexus that strengthens these ties in the artistic paradigm.