LIFE

2008

Life Relational Project ;)

 

Life. (From Latin vita). Union of body and soul.
Royal Spanish Academy. language dictionary
Spanish, Madrid, 1982, p. 1350.

Life is systematically defined as a sum of experiences in a given space of time. But what is the true symbolic value of existence, of life?

The visual artist Gustavo Emé (Lima, Peru 1982) poses Vida ;) as a categorical and extremely dangerous reflection. A participatory and collaborative project where the artist previously sent questions via email such as: What does your fact of existence mean to you? or What is the most valuable thing in your experience of living? These questions led to an interesting dynamic.

Each answer generated questions, those questions generated new answers and so on and on and on  Resounding, brief and laconic sentences where all those who participated ineffably became authors-actors of a conceptual work.

A work of visual anthropology where Emé does not create: he directs an open and procedural work-experience in contrasting mutation and re-elaboration. In this project there is a deep and incisive power of communication and socialization. The networks of reflections-questions-answers use the virtual platform, the instant, fresh and emoticonized language ;), something typical of our (post) modern times. 

The showroom that hosts this project: YACANA ARTE & ROCK BAR located in the Historic Center of Lima, becomes a heterogeneous and unrepentant confessional where each author-actor of this project becomes an exhibitor where Emé is the conductor.

The aforementioned responses, printed and exposed to various trials, are accompanied by a graph drawn up by Emé. This graph is an explosion of vitality and conceptual strength charged with a systematic and defined semantics, a counterpoint of response to responses, a position taking and personal reflection by Gustavo Emé. 

Vida ;) poses an existential route, it has to be defined as much more than an artistic proposal. It is about the staging of a moving sequence, in constant evolution. The union of soul and body patent in a physical space.


David Flores-Hour
Project Curator



I had the pleasant experience of meeting Gustavo Emé, and his Relational Project  VIDA; ),  which has been working for a year. can determine decision-making in the different facets of our lives, even more so in our current cultural scene, where a certain instinct is essential not to let escape  a sui generis proposal and with key ingredients such as the VIDA Relational Project; ).

The creative process of LIFE; ) obeys an  “action”  initiated as a virtual questionnaire sent by Gustavo Emé -action arising from existential self-questioning-, who in turn generates an “ chain reaction” that  involves a wide network of contacts in its operation. Thus, the long-awaited feedback is produced thanks to obtaining these responses, which culminates in an unconventional presentation materialized as the responses  printed  of these key contacts + the “report final”, product of the graphic-conceptual explorations of Emé. Both axes are thus indissoluble elements of this installation that will end in a party made up of this network of these contacts, which make up a social and thought environment.


Edith Cruz
Art Gallery Curator
YACANA ART & ROCK BAR