Taller del Artista
Artist’s Studio
Tres Ríos, Costa Rica - April 9, 2007.
ELEMENTS
BY CALI RIVERA
“THE IRAZU MANIFESTO”
Final document of artwork developed
by Cali Rivera 1995-2007
Preface
In 1995 I found myself next to a familiar face on a trip to Germany. I was standing in front of the recently demolished Berlin Wall. This began a chapter in my life that would lead me to initiate a reflection oriented artwork. It had to do with the importance of the planet’s sacredness, and its relationship to human beings, as the main element responsible for humanity’s survival. This particular concern led me to develop a series of interwoven art pieces which had a clear bearing: To, through a change of awareness, arrive at behavior that is less detrimental to the environment.
The journey begins with the 4 elements as point of departure. It takes into account relevant world events, acknowledging our responsibility for the results brought about by a lack of awareness of Mother Earth’s sacredness.
YEAR 2000
THE EARTH AS AN ELEMENT:
BEHIND THE WINDOW
Change of era
“Mindful of reality and based on the energy and sentiment that emerges from the spirituality which makes us human, painting has made me go from the conceptual/abstract to surrealism, to magical realism.
It has nothing to do with labeling oneself according to world trends, but rather, with discovering, creating, innovating, proposing and feeling what one does. Knowing why one does it, along with the artist’s innate desire to communicate his/her work in the most honest way.
For this reason my sentiment transforms itself into movement, poetry and song, as shown by my art piece for the beginning of this century, ‘Behind the Window’. In this work, theater, dance and music come together creating, a banner to ‘woman’, that with sorrow and surreal ambiance welcomes a new century with hope for change.
“Women of diverse colors, in a planet with no boundaries, without war. An Utopian vision reflected in oneiric beings of disguised meditation. Images that scream tolerance through surrender and silence, thus reflecting the feminine aspect of humanity. Spirituality is the prime mover, it is the hope for the century we are initiating.”
Cali Rivera, 2000
YEAR 2001
FIRE AS AN ELEMENT:
PRAYER
Inspired by Christian philosophy
I wanted to create a visual prayer for new times through this pictorial work. I thought of wars and soldiers, of the thousands of candles that are lit in the call for hope and - in the search for images - I came across the most basic : FAITH
Cali Rivera, 2001
“Art to be free”
I have always worked under this motto, without being aware of the consequences. Years after having started on this path, I ratify that to be happy, freedom is fundamental and that I have found that freedom in art.
I opted for art because, among all my possibilities, it is my most effective and eloquent form of expression, it pays attention to nothing other than my moment. I have woven my own story, without succumbing to the dictates of fashion trends. I have followed my own inclination and expressed what I felt, always with the clear intention of being in harmony with the Cosmos.
For those who are not familiar with all my work, I will say that ‘Prayer’ was an immense leap. In fact it was only a logical step in my search and a phase in my journey within this medium. It emerged as a result of an exercise begun in the nineties which has varied along the way (as is common with all human beings). I have gone from the symbolic to the figurative, to then return, little by little, to the non-figurative.
In a ritualistic form, on November 2, ‘PRAYER: FIRE as an Element’ was inaugurated at the National Gallery of Costa Rica.
It centered around a series of non-figurative pieces in acrylic that, inspired by Christian philosophy and Catholic tradition, displayed hundreds of blessed candles in a fire ceremony, inviting the visitors to light them as a sign of hope for new times.
Hundreds of candles were lit in a national summons that invited the general public to not only see a painting exhibition, but also to participate in it. The radio participated with a theme composed for the piece and the performance evoked, by means of a fixed image, Mother Earth being flagellated by war.
A musical variation of Franz Schubert’s Ave María, interpreted by me, forms part of a pictorial piece by the same name. An electronic device allows for visual and auditory appreciation. Costa Rica’s Radio Nacional transmitted my version of Ave María twice a day, from mid 2005, to the beginning of 2006.
YEAR 2003
THE AIR AS AN ELEMENT:
PRAYER FLAGS
In March of 2003, I inaugurated the third part of this work with ‘Air as an Element’, a piece of artwork that unlike the previous ones, was displayed outdoors, thus becoming the first itinerant display for Costa Rican parks and plazas.
It comprised of six meter long industrial textiles treated with paint, objects, seeds of Latin American trees and resins. Also, some small indigenous Costa Rican textiles that are part of a family tradition at a small town in the city of Cartago, former capital of Costa Rica.
Prayer Flags, as this creation was titled, marked a virtual space in the parks chosen as setting for this impressive work. It raised the glances of passers by up to the heavens, by means of nine fabric Totems that turned in the wind via a metal structure, which also served as a portal.
The installation, inspired by ancestral prayer flags of Tibet, forms part of the world movement in aid of this culture. It caught the attention of various ecologists and conservation groups, such as INTERNATIONAL SEA TURTLE SOCIETY, an organization which invited me to present my work at the XXIV World Symposium.
“The prayer that this installation raises to the heavens is an idealized search for the freedom of nations, through a call to the awareness of Mother Earth’s sacredness and people’s tolerance of each other; it is a moment of contemplation, one more voice in a grand chorus that intones a message of freedom, peace and solidarity among humanity.” Cali Rivera 2003
The itinerant display of PRAYER FLAGS was synthesized in a book that was later edited and contained photographs and illustrative texts about the piece.
IN SEARCH OF MY IDENTITY
Research 2000 -2005
Harmony, Transmutation, October third, April Expo, costari·art, and identity, among others, are some of the exhibitions parallel to the prayer flags, which I accomplished as a result of my experiments with non-traditional materials such as epoxy resins and textiles. This process helped me to define my position with regard to the world and to achieve a form of expressing it through symbolic images, and in this way, also inquire as to my own identity.
YEAR 2003
(ON THE PATH TOWARDS WATER AS AN ELEMENT)
TRANSMUTATION
MY COMMENTARY ON THE WORK
From an investigative process begun years ago emerged an interpretation about world events and their effect on human beings, by way of images created in resin, paint, objects and other contemporary elements. This resulted in a clear and consistent piece that, in my opinion, communes with our reality.
The petroleum problem and the solutions offered by the great world powers put in doubt our condition as thinking beings, for it would seem that the devastating experience of war continues to be the result. The greed of those in power and the lack of collective awareness of tolerance, make us seem like a species of barbarians and primitives in a vast, evolutionary universe.
Spirituality has been neglected. Since we can remember, we have seen how superpowers hurl themselves over smaller and unprotected countries, as was the case of the central government of China in their invasion of the Tibetan people in 1950, or more recently, the United States in Iraq.
This deplorable act of pettiness compels my pictorial work toward the creation of expressive images of evident intensity. These softly merge with the environment by means of objects and resins refreshing painting itself as a language, allowing for a fusion of great esthetic harmony.
We find ourselves in times of change; war brings with it, among other things, universal transmutation that affects all human beings. This energetic change is nothing more than the result of all interdependent energies wishful of survival. Signaling a clear path to follow through a state of awareness.
Cali Rivera 2003
MARCH 2006
WATER AS AN ELEMENT
At the end of March in 2006, due to an unfortunate event, I began with the final piece of artwork of this discourse.
Below is a summary of one of the messages I sent via Internet, due to the theft of one of the ‘AIR AS AN ELEMENT’ flags / Currently catalogued as allegoric symbols of the ‘Letter from the Earth’.
* The full text is attached at the end of the proposal.
MAY 15, 2006
Cali Rivera
WHAT DO WE DO WHEN OUR RIGHTS ARE VIOLATED?
A sepulchral silence has been the reply to the deed I denounced days earlier, the theft of a piece of artwork at the International Festival of the Arts in San Jose, Costa Rica. This caused irreparable damage to an internationally acclaimed collection created over many years of honest work.
… this deplorable incident was the detonator that gave way to the closing of my expositive block on the elements
Currently, I’m working in full on a beautiful circular hand-crafted design with thousands of mosaics that will be the main setting for ‘WATER AS AN ELEMENT’. This will conclude the discourse of spirituality in art.
A most beautiful amphitheater will be the answer to the constant threat that we Costa Rican artists face, given that the spaces that harbor our work are overwhelmingly violated, even by our own government.
*
Those of us who dedicate ourselves to art must act thus: continuing on the path and defending our legacy with our soul, without allowing our dreams to be frustrated. Opening our studios to the people . . . letting them know that being an artist demands a great deal of responsibility and wisdom. That we are needed and that the task of getting to be understood and heard, is a labor that takes many years. That we are an indispensable part of any society.
We are faced with the difficult task of interpreting our environment, decoding cosmic information as well as carrying the banner for the species’ survival. We have no allies and the struggle begins in childhood, because most of the time even family members don’t understand one’s path.
*Excerpt from the document. A year later, the symbol takes shape and the work is almost finished…
MARCH 2007
WATER AS AN ELEMENT:
THE SIXTH SUN
The creation of a mandala in mosaics
Inspired by Mayan prophecies
The ancient Greeks considered water to be one of the four basic elements of the universe. This belief was strongly maintained in the world for centuries. Today, scientists affirm that water has existed since the formation of the Earth and that life originated in the oceans.
ABOUT WATER.
Data from the World Health Organization indicates that 1,200 million people do not have access to drinking water and 2,400 millions lack sewage systems and infrastructure for the treatment of such wastes. This lack is the cause of the death of 6,000 children daily, who pass away from diseases related to the consumption of water that doesn’t comply with the necessary health requirements. What is more, it is estimated that 80% of all diseases recorded in the developing world are provoked by the absence of drinking water.
According to experts, the concern about the shortage of this “vital element” will be the principal trigger for future wars. This hypothesis is not a coincidence: supposedly, water marked the beginning of life, water covers three fourths of the planet and almost 80% of our bodies is made up of water.
But the problem with fresh water is perfectly understandable: 97.5% of the planet’s water is salty, and three fourths of the other 2.5% is frozen at the poles. It is estimated that the remainder is only about 0.01% of this resource.
Even so, it would seem that this quantity would be enough to supply a large population. But the truth is, that it is not properly distributed in the world and in many places it is threatened by pollution factors, waste and infrastructure, as is the case with the dams that affect large river basins.
Costa Rican water tables have been seriously damaged in the last few years due to the lack of Planning Programs to protect this resource.
“One of our greatest treasures”.
The water shortage perspective generates a worldwide movement that has its axis in the United Nations Organization. In 1992, during the first Earth Summit, fresh water took up an entire chapter of the action program known as Agenda 21. In the year 2000 there was a ‘World Water Day’ and currently, a global report is being prepared on the availability of this resource.
Being one more voice in a grand choir that voluntarily communes with a common sense of survival, has moved my work through countless varied searches in order to pass on a message. From that perspective and based on different tendencies, I have guided myself to develop each part of my discourse.
The Mayan prophecies have inspired the conclusion of my element proposal and it was the seventh one that triggered its development.
In the seventh prophecy, the Mayas left us a message of hope. They said that from a voluntary effort to achieve interior harmony and peace, we can develop new senses and integrate ourselves to the functioning of the galaxy. This way we can reduce the harmful effects of the tragedies announced by other prophecies and so, be reborn into a new Era,
"The Era of Light".
For the Mayas, cosmic processes are cyclical and inevitable, as is the change in awareness of the human being that goes through them, being always in the process towards perfection. The current cycle, according to them, will end on the 22nd of December of 2012, a moment by which humanity must have chosen between disappearing as a thinking species that threatens with the destruction of the planet, or evolve towards the harmonious integration of the Universe in a new Era of Light.
All of us, in one way or another, feel that we have begun to experience the announced times of the Apocalypse. We all feel the war.
The pollution generated by our technology is alarming. We have weakened the Ozone layer that protects us from the Sun’s radiation. We have contaminated the planet with our industrial wastes and garbage.
If we look at our planet, we are left with only 3,000 out of the 8,000 million hectares of forest that existed at one time. Since the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, 2.040 nuclear trials have taken place; 17.500 species disappear every year.
The devastation of our natural resources is bringing our water sources and the air we breathe to an end.
Global warming melts the planet’s polar caps.
Glaciers and snow are melting, large floods are occurring around the world.
The climate has changed and temperatures have increased in an incredible manner; global warming is alarming.
The poverty generated by the effects of an economy based on the generation of wealth, rather than on people’s wellbeing, is felt in almost every country around the world.
We are all searching for answers and a safe path for the times in which we live. Due to the problems that we deal with on a daily basis, it is evident that we are not living in harmony and that we are the cause of the ills that affect humanity.
My work is nothing more than a message of hope and reflection that brings together a vast quantity of thoughts from different philosophical schools, all revolving around one central message:
The sacredness of Mother Earth and the survival of human beings as a species.
THE END
Complete message on the theft of the flag
MAY 15, 2006
“A feeling came over me…! Not existing! To find oneself extinct. Or to be more exact, to be disqualified, ignored by the timely pettiness that shelters those who are vulgar and masked, who disguised as dignified artists suffer from sudden amnesia when responsibility calls. Puppets of the State who look out for their own wellbeing and dress their activities in borrowed clothing to deceive the people.”
Cali Rivera
WHAT DO WE DO WHEN OUR RIGHTS ARE VIOLATED?
A sepulchral silence has been the answer to the deed I denounced days earlier, the theft of a piece of artwork at the FIA, International Festival of the Arts in San Jose, Costa Rica. This caused irreparable damage to an internationally acclaimed collection created over many years of honest work.
Two things still to be carried out.
Aside from having publicly accepted responsibility, we should have acted as it corresponds in a State of civil rights like ours, and legally pressed charges against the State as well as against the “security company” responsible for the safety of the paintings at the last International Festival.
THE MOST IMPORTANT
2. Continue working accordingly, as this unfortunate event was the incentive to the conclusion of my expositive block on the elements.
Currently I’m working full time, on a beautiful circular hand-crafted design with thousands of mosaics that will be the main setting for ‘WATER AS AN ELEMENT’. A most beautiful amphitheater that will be the answer to the constant threat that we face, given that the spaces that harbor artists’ work are overwhelmingly violated, even by our own government. This, in addition to the already known Taller del Artista, (Artist’s Studio), is intended for the furtherance of art. We hope it will hold in time for the service of culture without having to count on government mediation.
Those of us who dedicate ourselves to art must act thus: continuing on the path and defending our legacy with our soul, without allowing our dreams to be frustrated. Opening our studios to the people in creative ways . . . letting them know that being an artist demands a great deal of responsibility and wisdom. That we are necessary and that the task of getting to be understood and heard, is a labor that takes many years. That we are an indispensable part of any society.
We are faced with the difficult task of interpreting our environment, decoding cosmic information as well as carrying the banner for the species’ survival. We have no allies and the struggle begins in childhood because, most of the time, even family members don’t understand one’s path.
The artist’s work goes beyond that knowledge forcefully imposed by books. Now is the historic moment to make this known, to make our position valuable within society. We are respectable and professional workers and we must not forget what our job is and what it concerns: the legacy that endures and forms part of the present moment. We must not forget that through many periods of history, art has been the only witness.
The language that decodes art is the language of the spirit and is the essence of humanity and it is important not to be deceived by those who flaunt themselves behind an artist’s disguise for personal benefit.
__General and Artistic Director_
ID CARD ·1-748-765
www.calirivera.com
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Apdo 310-2250 San José – Costa Rica
TEL. 348 37 85
2 78 35 94
References for the development of the document.
Internet and primary research.
www.portalagua.com
www.unep.com
www.formarse.com
www.un.org
