Has a degree in Fine arts and Stage design. MA – Master in Art & Science and Doctor in Philosophy, art research and cultural studies from the University of Applied Arts Vienna – Die Angewandte with internships at the Academy of Fine Arts Venice, School of Graphic Arts in Brussels and academic visitor at SenseLab -Concordia University in Montreal. Currently working on art projects in Vienna, Berlin and Prague, based in Austria since 2012.
How are you today?
Thank you magazine, even in the summer season quite busy, working on my art projects and developing new ideas. I am happy to showcase in Pride month my artwork called “Schere /Scissors”) on a platform called Return on Art in collaboration with Queer Art Spaces Vienna.
What do you deal with within your work?
My art practice blends exploratory scientific observation methods, and design thinking with cross-art practices. It has a lot to do with deep -sharing process with an emphasis on how bodies interconnect through something I call “connection-ship” to expand “collaboration” into a long-term journey to reach a transformative awareness about time – either as waste, a useless device, or an activator of the here and now.
In other words, my practice deals with „radical togetherness“ and how to create and detect the transactions between me and other people I collaborate with. These nuances are framed in diverse actions involving the body-space-time weft, attracting and affecting people’s genders and political perspectives. The whole process drops translations of these connection-ships into various media; performative experiences (actions), digital expansions or mixed media translations (renditions -drawings).
My work is a fluid transition between Body-based research and deep collaboration.
Can you tell us about your background and how you got started as a time-based media artist and cultural facilitator?
My background started at home with my mother Margarita Valdes as a costume designer and my passion for writing theatre. After I finished my first studies, I developed my practice into years of working as a stage designer in Chile, directing theatre and choreographing pieces. I focused on live actions (performance, site-specific interventions) and video installations. In the whole process, by merging love and funding was possible to create an international art network resulting in a Festival FIDET in 2011, TNC – The new curator’s art platform in 2015 and TAPAR – research group this year, for example. My Time-based media arts were the best “available label” to classify the type of art I observed through my own practice related to body research, mix-media and concept-based practice. Having access to my Master’s studies (Art & Science) and PhD in research and cultural studies (Die Angewandte) gave me the possibility to continue my passion for writing, but this time using my own practice in collaboration to observe and analyse other practices the core concepts in performance; action, time and experience.
Collaboration seems to be an important aspect of your practice. How do you invite other practitioners into an authentic encounter and what role does collaboration play in reaching a transformative awareness about time?
I invite other practitioners into an “authentic encounter” (in presence, not virtual) to expand the notion of collaboration into a long-term journey, this idea is beyond connectedness. The aim is to explore the lower frequencies in a deep connection, build between two or more transactions pact by core beliefs shared and deal with personal and private issues to reach together a transformative time awareness. The collaborative journey is a “self-critical dialogue” in tension with a „radical togetherness“ that provokes a “we-mode”. That mode allowed a merged observation and knowledge exchange by flowing and diving into performative practices. In this case, performative practices that involve actions, goals, and efficiency of resources, affect people in one specific context and could be attracted by strange/ unplanned/ unexpected factors. All those multiple factors behave as a fluid weft, where I and my partner in collaboration drop some translations. The invitation to collaborate has been forced by real-life circumstances: housing searching, internships or touring my art, for example, made it possible to meet life-changing people to create together life-changing projects like Jaime del Val, Maria C. Hilber, Sunny Pfalzer, Federico Moccia, Francisco Gonzalez Rosas, Benjamin Podoba, Änais Marketos and currently with Dorian Bonelli & Frederik Marroquín.
Could you share an example of a performative experience, digital expansion, or mixed media installation that you have created and how it embodies the themes and concepts central to your artistic practice?
My last “connection-ship” with Änais Marketos has two years old at the moment and the challenges within this artistic research and collaborative process, we immersed into an explorative visual-corporeal transitioning together: merged into a physical one. The goal we found is to become “speculative lesbians”, becoming tentacular as an octopus or another entity, matriarchy rather than patriarchy, these are the transfusion blood that this collaboration wants to develop, using pixels into vital raw materials throughout the attempts of transition in every 3d modelling and 3d printing process. All the process results in a transmedial practice. Sounds complex, but in practice was even more challenging, in particular, the interaction and performance together with the costumes and organs Änais design, take me long studio practice and long recording sessions to interact with a physical 3D printed organ and understand how to adapt and live the experience together and then share this experience with the public. One thing is a live-action experience where the event with the audience’s feedback is immediate, rather than streamed into a digital environment as a virtual gallery is silent and most of the time we don’t know how it went for them. My virtual body and other expanded versions of this collaboration are very explorative and every time makes us together to speculate about the status of these organs and continue exploring. Each collaboration opens up new questions and expands my knowledge in many aspects creating a new vocabulary, flowing into merged theories or terminologies to explain what I practice. For example in “Speculative Oktopuses” I am not doing my actions alone, we are seven “bodies” on stage: my physical me, the digital me and the surrounding interconnected organs and two plugged, inside/outside in my body.
What do you have planned for the near future? What are you working on?
At the moment I am focused on two official art projects the deep collaboration with Änais “Speculative organs” which will dive deep into an interactive expansion and performative experiences with other bodies as well. The second project in deep collaboration is “Ko means water in Mapudungun (Mapuche). When I started this idea about territories split by water as a metaphor for the current climate emergency I met Dorian and Frederick as a collective and we have begun a practice together related to KO and their practice, I expect that the first drops of this project will share the end of this year or 2024, hopefully. From my own solo mix -media projects I can do one spoiler alert about Schere, One big collage will be displayed in 2024 in Vienna. About my side projects, are coming more soundscapes in the second half of 2023, music I am creating and producing for my actions, for example, you can find “Tentacular” in music platforms (iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud) as well, stay tuned.
Sergio Patricio (He/They) – www.sergiopatricio.net