Photography
Fotografía
Insula was a 24 hour long event that invited artists, curators, and art critics of Diagonal Escuela Libre to share the space of Mansion Magnolia with me and share in the action of inhabiting the site together. The idea of Mansion Magnolia having been once a residential space that has been adapted into a semi-public events venue, and presently, through my action of living within it, back into a private space served as our starting point and informed the process of Insula. The name was thought of by Lorena Pena Brito who was inspired by the idea of Mansion Magnolias as an isolated site located in the middle of Guadalajara’s historic core. Insula for me also represented the neoclassical architecture of the space as well as a set amount of time,12 hours to be precise, of being isolated together within the space, as a group, so that we could collaboratively experience the influence of the architecture on our creative process.
The structure was marked by certain events that were scheduled to take place, unknown to most of the participants, such as the cutting of a bed-shaped cake at midnight, a live pianist playing at 8am, and tortas ahogadas arriving at 2pm. The activity invited the participants to use the event salon’s “tiffany” style chairs and the large inventory of table cloths to make fort-like sleeping structures that would house us for the night. The making of these sleeping structures centered around the main courtyard, but also extended to the garden patio, taking over the entire central space of Mansion Magnolia.
Throughout our time together, we shared meals, interacted with the space in different ways and got to know each other as artists a little better. It was such an interesting experience to see the many interpretations of what inhabiting means, there was even a shoeless futbol game on the dance floor.
For the first night and into the morning of the next day, I was dressed like one of my “Tias”, meaning I was in 1930’s dress and makeup. The cutting of the bed-cake, based on my bed at the Mansion, was a small performance that utilized the formal dining room, set up with the formal table wares of the house, and surrounded by dried roses and their petals gathered from the leftover flowers of a previous wedding. We shared the bed-cake under a giant painting made by one of my “Tias” of the Last Supper. Traditional Mexican Valses of the early 1900’s such as Mora’s “Alejandra” played on the Salon Piano and began our morning. We returned to the formal dining room for breakfast where we introduced ourselves more formally and shared our forts and our artistic practices with each other. We talked about our shared experience the previous night. We lived together at the Manson from 7pm Saturday to 7pm Sunday, April 5 and 6, 2014.
Participants: Lorena Peña Brito, Enrique Hernandez, Carlos Maldonado, Jorge Edgar Pox, Alan Sierra, Guillermo Guariño, Javier Barrios, Juan Pablo Ruiz, Lino Octavio Ramirez, Olivia Ramirez, Maria Fernanda Camarena, Ramiro Avila, Bruno Viruete, Iván Estrada, Saúl Becerra
Insula was a 24 hour long event that invited artists, curators, and art critics of Diagonal Escuela Libre to share the space of Mansion Magnolia with me and share in the action of inhabiting the site together. The idea of Mansion Magnolia having been once a residential space that has been adapted into a semi-public events venue, and presently, through my action of living within it, back into a private space served as our starting point and informed the process of Insula. The name was thought of by Lorena Pena Brito who was inspired by the idea of Mansion Magnolias as an isolated site located in the middle of Guadalajara’s historic core. Insula for me also represented the neoclassical architecture of the space as well as a set amount of time,12 hours to be precise, of being isolated together within the space, as a group, so that we could collaboratively experience the influence of the architecture on our creative process.
The structure was marked by certain events that were scheduled to take place, unknown to most of the participants, such as the cutting of a bed-shaped cake at midnight, a live pianist playing at 8am, and tortas ahogadas arriving at 2pm. The activity invited the participants to use the event salon’s “tiffany” style chairs and the large inventory of table cloths to make fort-like sleeping structures that would house us for the night. The making of these sleeping structures centered around the main courtyard, but also extended to the garden patio, taking over the entire central space of Mansion Magnolia.
Throughout our time together, we shared meals, interacted with the space in different ways and got to know each other as artists a little better. It was such an interesting experience to see the many interpretations of what inhabiting means, there was even a shoeless futbol game on the dance floor.
For the first night and into the morning of the next day, I was dressed like one of my “Tias”, meaning I was in 1930’s dress and makeup. The cutting of the bed-cake, based on my bed at the Mansion, was a small performance that utilized the formal dining room, set up with the formal table wares of the house, and surrounded by dried roses and their petals gathered from the leftover flowers of a previous wedding. We shared the bed-cake under a giant painting made by one of my “Tias” of the Last Supper. Traditional Mexican Valses of the early 1900’s such as Mora’s “Alejandra” played on the Salon Piano and began our morning. We returned to the formal dining room for breakfast where we introduced ourselves more formally and shared our forts and our artistic practices with each other. We talked about our shared experience the previous night. We lived together at the Manson from 7pm Saturday to 7pm Sunday, April 5 and 6, 2014.
Participants: Lorena Peña Brito, Enrique Hernandez, Carlos Maldonado, Jorge Edgar Pox, Alan Sierra, Guillermo Guariño, Javier Barrios, Juan Pablo Ruiz, Lino Octavio Ramirez, Olivia Ramirez, Maria Fernanda Camarena, Ramiro Avila, Bruno Viruete, Iván Estrada, Saúl Becerra