Gisella Mailen Scotta

“This project will take as a springboard my own artistic production, which focuses on large-scale drawings divided into pieces, It seeks to take that exploration far beyond. I am especially interested in examining the subordinated voices of history: those that do not necessarily reinforce the well-established narrative. I think of the series I produce as scenes or chapters, complete with characters, landscapes and situations that overlap in a fragmented narrative. The way I construct these images, using cut-outs and free associations, allows for a non-linear reading of the work, where figures are linked without any fixed hierarchy. In particular, I am interested in Alberto Heredia’s series “Ricky y el pájaro” [“Ricky and the Bird”], in which the strokes are full of tension, where the human body and the bird intersect, merge and create something new, made up of parts. To me, this evokes other ways in which animality has been represented throughout history, as a mark of otherness, deviation, danger or fascination. I would also like to focus on the assortment of objects Heredia collected. In the collection bequeathed to the Museo Moderno, there is an intensity of lines that reveal a certain way of being in the world: an affected, clumsy and deeply physical way of doing things. This project will create a dialogue with Tecnología de la torpeza [The Technology of Clumsiness], Roxana Ramos’ research at Casa Heredia in which she proposed a reading of the archive not from a perspective of skill or mastery, but from one of error and uncertainty. I believe it is appropriate to continue along the same line, approaching drawing as trial and error, as a practice that is closer to accumulation than composition. I will start by immersing myself in the Heredia archive – in his drawings, papers, objects, whatever waste may remain from his productions – and exploring the work Roxana Ramos left in the artist’s home. Drawing will allow me to sustain the process of creating a montage and dialogue between fragments; tapestries are a format used for telling stories through decorative objects. However, decorative objects are not innocent: anything made to hang or adorn always carries a message. All images installed in a space build meaning. I am interested in tapestries as a place where the visual becomes language, where decoration tells a story, and taste is a form of positioning. My time in the residency will be organised in the following stages: the first one will involve the study, observation and recording of material; the second stage will include testing, cuttings, sketching or formal trials; and finally, if time permits, the last period will be dedicated to assembling the piece.”