Museum of the Essential and Beyond That's News

Dear friends of the Museum of the Essential and Beyond That,

We have some news: (collaborative reviews, Gallery Trips and Video Room)

1- The series of 2005 collaborative reviews: "Eletric Green Sheep" is over
and on line at: http://arteonline.arq.br/newsletter/ .
There you will know three wonderful women and artists: Isabel Saij (April)
, Millie Niss (June) and Isabel Aranda (August)

The last one - an interesting collection of texts and dialogues is now
complete and on line at:

http://arteonline.arq.br/newsletter/reviews2005/english_yto_cl.htm

Below some apettizers to you visit the third review:

ISABEL ARANDA *YTO* / CHILE
VISUAL & DIGITAL ARTIST

WORK (s):

I- ESCANER CULTURAL

I decided to create Escaner because in Chile there was a very great
emptiness regarding cultural publications (1999). What more motivates me to
make the magazine is the possibility of publishing works of artists not so
famous next to others of great trajectory, therefore the people are
discovering the artistic wealth of the alternative art. My major interest is
the alternative thing, action art, mail art, visual poetry, digital art in
all their forms. But I believe that also is important to include the
writers, the acid critic to our prevailing social system in the West. In
fact, all the branches of art are welcome in Escaner. Because the reason of
the existence of Cultural Escaner is to spread the art and mainly the one
that does not receive diffusion in the mass media. (Isabel Aranda - YTO.CL)

II- MINI ART DANCE

I am intrigued by the mixture of ASCII art (a very spare, minimalist style
based on old fashioned computers) and the painterly, lush style which Aranda
uses in her backgrounds to the animations of Mini Art Dance. I would not
have thought that these two styles are compatible, but Aranda uses them
together to great effect.
(Millie Niss)

It's very feminine and glamorous, isn't it? But at the same time it's quite
modern and even a touch aggressive in places. I wonder if Isabel sees this
as a representation of modern woman in a digital environment, or the modern
female artist in a digital environment - or is it less of a conscious
statement than that? (Edward Picot)

At first I would like to congrat publically Isabel, for me, Mini Art Dance
is one of her best works. It is simple, concrete, very well built, and it
has a fluidity and a sensuality that catches. It pleases me particularly
because although she has antecedents in visual poetry and typical mail art
(years 90), Isabel returns to those subjects but updated them. (Muriel
Frega)

This work introduced the debate: "Art versus Domesticity"

I need to tell you that when I launched the question which originated this
discussion, I was not thinking about how it is difficult for women to be
howsewifes and artists. Everybody knows how much it is difficult. My doubt
was if a woman could live today without a work to make money. This is a
doubt that appeared in the origins of the feminist action, since the absence
of remuneration causes dependence and submission. Also I think that nowadays
very few couples can have a confortable life if the woman does not have an
activity to make money. And, to work with Art today, be it on the web or
traditional, means to be dependent of sponsors, that are always difficult to
get and at the same time dangerous because they limit the artist's freedom.
Unfortunately there are still very few artists that get to live only from
their Art. (Regina Celia Pinto)

I had just read a much more prosaic approach to the expectations we have of
both sexes. In today's newspaper in Austin, Texas - where I live while
working on my PhD- I was reading an article where the journalist discusses
the enormous opportunity that New Orleans offers today to "exotic dancers"
as they're called here (euphemism to "strippers" for a society that has a
complicated (another euphemism) relationship with the body and sex). Here's
what the article says: in a city that is now a city of men - with
construction workers and contractors - what is missing are strip-clubs to
entertain the male population. Very simple, right? Immediately afterwards,
Regina's email pops-up on the screen of my laptop at the coffee shop where I
still am (the ways in which "wireless" changed the lives of women
artists.might be worth some examination in this debate, too). What an
incredible shock! (Ana Boa Ventura )

III- PROJECT "THE HUNGER'S PULSES"

The Hunger's Pulses is a work in progress which intends to focus the hunger
theme in its wider sense.
The Hunger's Pulses is a collective project created by yto.cl. It is an
invitation to artists to reflect on one of the most painful subjects in our
current world.
Digital artists are invited to send animated and interactive web works .
Please, visit: http://www.pulses.yto.cl .
Send the works to [email protected] ; [email protected] .

Debate:
Should Art solve or should Art help the problem of the hunger in the world?

The work made me wonder if it is fair to make beautiful art out of such
suffering. But your work is firmly directed towards fighting that suffering
(at least as much as art can fight real problems like poverty and hunger.)
In your personal life, I know you rescued the ducks who feature in the work
to stop them from suffering. It is not in your power (or mine) to stop the
children of the world from starving."(Millie Niss)

I thought about this when I created the work with that image and in fact I
do not know if it is fair. I am sure that I will not change anyone because
of my work. However it was impossible for me not to use so strong image
after I found it… Perhaps Art and artists put their work above all,
perhaps … perhaps I should have hope that my small contribution and
Aranda's project will make some people concious of this horrible problem.
(Regina Celia Pinto)

Here in the UK, the television has just been showing a documentary by Martin
Scorsese about the life and times of Bob Dylan. I think this acts as a
reminder that there are certain times when art can influence the course of
events, if only by articulating and crystallising widespread patterns of
thought and feeling which are waiting for the opportunity or the catalyst to
bring them into a definite shape. Undoubtedly Dylan did this during the
sixties. But Dylan was a kind of genius, and even so his art is somewhat
suspect at times - he quite clearly portrays himself as a Christ-figure or a
prophet-figure here and there, even if he maintains a saving sense of irony
about himself. Setting yourself up as a spokesman or a polemicist is always
a dangerous thing to do as an artist. Yeats is another example who comes to
mind. (Edward Picot)

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2- The Gallery TRIPS has two new works, browser at:

http://arteonline.arq.br/museu/reformas/trips.html

I - In August 05 the Open Studio of the Arts & Culture Association MEDEA
went on tourney through Poland with an artist in residence stay in Gdansk at
Wyspa Institute of Art. The concept of the tourney was settled in
experimental, prozess-orientated working on the road - in the studio bus.
Background of >Open Studio< On Tour was the theme "Borderline" - a discourse
on dualism, dichotomies, cultural codes.
Artists:
Andrea Reisinger
Carola Unterberger-Probst
Christina Hartl-Prager
Elvira Kurabasa
Martin Kollross

II)- Journey to the Center by Maria Miranda and Norie Newmark

The work is a collaboration fiction. The project was inspired by Jules
Verne's novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth" . The project includes
interviews, video and photos. Really a very good trip!

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3- A new movie by Michael Szpakowski

http://arteonline.arq.br/museu/reformas/video/motion_pictureFS.htm

This movie was done to the museum after a comment of mine on Szpakowski's
work at the community Rhizome. I told him that I would like to see the full
screen movie and he did this for me. I think this movie is very important to
Szpakowski's collection because it opens a new research in this author
work.

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These are really very good and important news, I am sure that you will like
all of them.

All the best,

Regina Celia Pinto