Article in Diario El Sur, Chile.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

By Nicolás Martínez Ramírez.

espectaculo@diarioelsur.cl

As part of the final selection for the MAVI UC Award in Santiago

Video installation invites you to explore the boundaries of Sofía Bernasconi

The artist from Concepción is the only representative from the region in the exhibition that highlights the talent of young artists throughout Chile.

The "MAVI UC Larraín Young Art Award" is one of the most important recognitions for national artists under 35 years old.

That's precisely what attracted Sofía Bernasconi (29) to apply. Known for being a "seeker," the young visual artist from Concepción was one of the 46 chosen ones - among more than 250 applicants - to be part of the finalist exhibition of the competition.

Characterized by a constant study of the human body from a hybrid, cyborg, transhumanist, or ecotechnical perspective, her work "También somos una cortina de cordeles" became the only representative from the Biobío region in the exhibition.

"The work I submitted is the only one that was unpublished. Technically, it was the only one I hadn't exhibited due to the pandemic and social unrest. I unpacked my works and went to try my luck in Santiago," she commented.

Specifically, this work is a video installation that reflects on the body-technology condition, proposing new ways of understanding the body from a transhumanist perspective, presenting corporeality as a hybrid, volatile, and tensioned framework.

Thus, the body merges into cords through a looped projection that shows a naked corporeality experiencing various emotions.

All accompanied by the sound design of Dayano and the performance of Caterina Riquelme.

EXPLORATION

Being an old desire of Bernasconi, the award's rules required the presentation of an unpublished work, and being her first video installation, "También somos una cortina de cordeles" fulfilled that requirement.

Starting with pictorial explorations, today, most of her work revolves around audiovisual language.

"Trying to find some kind of redemption from the human body, finding ourselves in technology. I think that was a triggering thought from these investigations," she said regarding the study of the body, a constant in her work.

The video installation was created for about six months in 2019, prior to social unrest and the pandemic. These same situations led it to remain unpublished until today.

According to the also art curator, "my first explorations were projections on different materials that would reveal the naked body; I always worked with that." "Within this search for a suitable material for the body to imprint but in a translucent way, I found the cords, which seemed suitable to me because it is a walkable curtain. My work is open to touch and to be transformed by whoever interacts with it," she added.

–   Here in Concepción, classic art is more prevalent. How were you drawn to video installation, transhumanism, and all those concepts?

I think it all started because I took a video workshop at the university, with Francisco Huichaqueo, and that's when I started getting into the camera. And I said, "I won't let go of the camera. Everything I do from here on out must be with it." I just like to mix things; I don't like purity. I like hybridity in every sense; my reflective thing is the hybridity of the body and how I live, it's the same. It's a personal way of seeing the world. It's not purely contemplative.

–   Where does your idea of exploring the human body, nudity, come from?

Actually, what I want to play within my work is with the limits of the body. Nudity facing technology is like the most obvious edge; it is organic skin, if we were to talk about a Cartesian or dualistic thought, it would be nature versus the machine. I want to play with that and face them naked, that seems to be the best way. My work is usually quite brutalist, with cables visible. Just as the body is naked, I also want the machine to be naked so that they have that encounter, that edge.

–   How do you see the current state of this type of art in Concepción?

We lean more towards the classic. I was influenced a lot by reflections, for example, from Plataforma Mínima. Just as they are making those reflections and using technology, also Valentina Villarroel, all of the Teoría del Universo, or Proyecto Cerca. Concepción is having a boom of this kind of cyborg technology. Although they are not yet being taught in academia, there is a scene emerging.

The exhibition will be available until September 10 at the MAVI UC Museum, located in the famous Lastarria neighborhood of Santiago.

*Acknowledgments

For Bernasconi, it is essential to thank Tomás Camposano, Ignacio Pérez, Gustavo Bustos, Óscar Vargas, and Miguel Mendoza, who helped her with the assembly. Also, her mother, Marienne Le Roy, from whom the idea of the of the cords comes, and to the teacher and artist Leslie Fernández, who guided her in the creative process.