river ritual
ritual de río
This project was selected amongst the 35 finalists for the 2024 Premio Nacional de Artes Visuales Clever Lara by the National Institute of Visual Arts in Uruguay.
Jury: Guadalupe Ayala, Ignacio Iturria, Analía Solomonoff.
(EN) I watch the water echo as I trace its sway. The shadow escapes, but the threads that embody its memory no longer determine a predictable course. The flood does not heed the call to halt. The roots have forgotten what balance means and let excess slip through, longing to feel absence. They do not know it yet, but soon we will no longer find ourselves in the silver reflection left by the storm, and then they will writhe, yearning for the absence of absence. Perhaps it is time to ask—please.
This work is conceived as an object-based exercise, evoking ancestral rituals in which objects were erected as portals between the tangible and the will of nature. Each piece seeks to embody a living symbol of humanity’s inherent need for control and the difficulty we face in taking responsibility for our own excess.
Accepting our inability to directly shape the fate of our surroundings would mean accepting ourselves in absolute fragility, while the creation of artifacts as intermediary deities embodies the paradox of our existence: to be both designers and prisoners of our own illusions of grandeur.
(ES) Observo al agua hacer eco mientras repaso su vaivén. La sombra escapa, pero los hilos que encarnan su memoria ya no determinan un curso predecible. El diluvio no entiende la voz de alto. Las raíces olvidaron lo que implica el balance y escurren los excesos, ansiando sentir la falta. Aún no lo saben, pero pronto dejaremos de encontrarnos con el reflejo plateado que deja la tormenta, y entonces se retorcerán deseando que falte la falta. Quizás sea momento de pedir por favor.
Esta obra se define como un ejercicio objetual y remite a rituales ancestrales donde se erigieron objetos como portales entre lo tangible y la voluntad de la naturaleza. Cada pieza pretende conferir un símbolo vivo de la necesidad de control inherente al humano y la dificultad que hallamos a la hora de responsabilizarnos por nuestros propios excesos.
Aceptar la imposibilidad de incidencia directa sobre el destino de nuestro entorno implicaría aceptarnos en la fragilidad total, mientras que la elaboración de artefactos como deidades intermedias encarna la paradoja de nuestra existencia: ser diseñadores y prisioneros de nuestras propias ilusiones de grandeza.
– Silvina
The Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo is a repurposed space within the former Miguelete Prison in Montevideo. Built in the 19th century by architect Juan Alberto Capurro, the building follows Jeremy Bentham’s panoptic model—a structure with a central watchtower surrounded by radial cell blocks, distributed across four three-story pavilions.
2024 – installation, stoneware, glass, metal.