October 26, 2020

Link to full program

  • Shamanic materialism – Superstitious materialism – Superstition, suggestion, premonition

    Fragile historical dispersion – interval possession – hypnosis – interval rapture – suspended superstition

    Twelve pictures that inform and establish a relationship of proximity and nearness with an audiovisual reverberation that doubles the number of pictures which, in turn, form a questioning constellation: What land is this? Twenty-four premonitions that suggest, hint, point to, outline a destruction, a repetition, an interruption, an excess. Their form of composition is the spell, the incantation, the trance, the rapture, the torsion, a superstitious penetration into the landscape, an animistic proximity and nearness to things. What we recover in this way is the irrational condition of the testimony, the aesthetics of the trance or the shamanic insurrection, this is what we perceive as shamanic materialism, here the empirical nature of things gives us its dazzling brilliance and the suggestive aspect of its agitation gives us the premonition of a testimony: Impressions of the wonderful Toloache, a testimony that allows us to underpin a fragile historical dispersion under the condition of premonition, suggestion and superstition.

  • Materialismo chamánico – Materialismo supersticioso – Superstición, sugestión, presagio

    Dispersión histórica de frágil contorno – posesión interválica – hipnosis – arrebato interválico – Superstición suspendida

     12 cuadros de relación que informan y se encuentran en relación de vecindad y cercanía con una reverberación audiovisual que duplica el número de cuadros los cuales, a su vez, componen una constelación interrogante ¿Qué tierra es ésta?. 24 presagios que sugieren, insinúan, apuntan, esbozan una destrucción, una repetición, una interrupción, un exceso. Su forma de composición es el sortilegio, el hechizo, el trance, el arrebato, la torsión, una penetración supersticiosa en el paisaje, una vecindad y cercanía animista con las cosas. Lo que así rescatamos es a todas luces la condición irracional del testimonio, la estética del trance o la insurrección chamánica, esto es lo que percibimos como Materialismo chamánico, aquí lo empírico de las cosas nos da su brillantez fulgurante y lo sugestivo de su agitación-relación nos da el presagio de un testimonio: Impressions of the wonderful Toloache, un testimonio que nos permita apuntalar una dispersión histórica de frágil contorno bajo la condición del presagio, la sugestión y la superstición.

  • On October 16, 2020, curator Almudena Escobar López met with a member of Colectivo Los Ingrávidos to discuss the programs selected for the current series, Shamanic Materialism: Autonomous Forms of Remembrance. The audio from this conversation is posted above, with transcriptions in both Spanish and English linked here:

    Colectivo Los Ingrávidos en Conversación con Almudena Escobar López

    Colectivo Los Ingrávidos in Conversation with Almudena Escobar López – English

    We welcome your feedback on this program and on the series as a whole. Follow this link to a GoogleDoc where you can leave questions, comments and observations. The artists and curators will check this document frequently and respond when appropriate.

    The VSW Film Series is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by the ArtWorks program of the National Endowment for the Arts.