Photo by Ratheesh Sundaram
By
Shevlin Sebastian
A day
after his arrival in Kochi, recently, Colombian artist Pedro
Gómez-Egaña, has a dazed look on his face. “There are so many
impressions,” says the Norway-based artist, on his first visit to
Kerala. “It is going to take me a while to assimilate it.”
But
he is much taken up by the dynamism of the city. “Kochi has a
particular rhythm,” he says. “By rhythm, I mean, the intensity
with which people interact with each other. Like the way they
navigate the traffic. The pedestrian rhythm is slow and relaxed and
the people walk with a beautiful confidence. The traffic, on the
other hand, is frenetic. Although people told me it is aggressive, I
did not find it so. There seems to be an interwoven communication
between the pedestrians and the car and bus drivers.”
Pedro
is one among the ‘First 25’ artists who have been announced as
participants for the third Kochi Biennale, which runs from December
12, 2016 to March 29, 2017.
His
work is a mix of installation and performance-based works. One
striking work is called 'The Chariot of Greenwich'. It is a wooden
contraption, with two large wheels, and several gears and was
inspired by the Chinese.
“The
Chinese built this chariot in 2600 BC,” says Pedro. “It has a
complex set of gears and was built in such a way that an arrow always
pointed to the South. And it always moved around in a circle. We are
also moving, but, many times, it seems to be in circles.”
Like
the Chinese chariot, all inventions have their pluses and minuses.
“According to French philosopher Paul Virilio, when you invent the
ship, you invent the shipwreck,” he says.
“When you invent the
plane, you invent the plane crash. And when you invent electricity,
you invent electrocution. Every technology has its own negativity.”
Meanwhile,
when asked about his life in Bergen, Norway, Pedro says, “A part of
me resonates very strongly with Norwegians. I feel at home. They have
a romantic streak. That is very Latin American. They also believe in
contemplation and solitude and have a beautiful relationship to light
and darkness.”
This
darkness lasts for six months. Not surprisingly, Pedro, from sunny
Colombia, misses the sunlight. “Even if my brain does not feel it,
my body does,” he says. “My doctor said that since I was born in
the tropics, it will get worse every year. I try to go away. Or I
have to take Vitamin D tablets, fish oil and lie under sun lamps. But
it is still very tough. The nice thing is that everybody is
depressed. And there is a collective agreement that we are going to
be moody for the next six months.”
Despite
this, Pedro has been working steadily. His works have been shown at
the Performa 13 at New York, the Bergen Assembly Triennale, La
Kunsthalle in France, the Brussels and Marrakech Biennials, and the
Colomboscope in Sri Lanka.
Since
he is a frequent international traveller, he is well-placed to
identify the global trends in society. “The media is the most
powerful force in the world today,” he says. “However, for the
first time in history, we not only consume news, but we produce it on
our own and share it. As a result, life is being constantly
interrupted by SMS messages, Facebook and Whatsapp texts. There is a
saturation of information. So, people are in a constant state of
distraction. They are unable to engage with anything deeply. It is
affecting the brain, relationships and our perception of time.”
(Published
in The New Indian Express, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)
No comments:
Post a Comment