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Marina Cortés Calle interviews William Amaya Torres about {/)() {/}∆‡|(){/}
Marina’s preface:
The first time I visited {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} was in 2016, barely a year after my arrival in Chicago. One of my teachers from the performance department was presenting a new work at {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} and invited our class to discover the space and the talent of emerging local artists. I remember the first impact; a mixture of fascination, wonder, warmth and comfort, an absolute sense of belonging and identification with art, community and the philosophy of space. Experimental processes and unfinished performances, performances with organic, unusual, risky and disparate materials such as fire or body fluids, uninhibited, transgressive, interactive and visceral performances. A few months later, I presented my first performance in Chicago at {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/}; a space that over the years has become more than a gallery; a refuge and community gathering space for me and for many other foreign and local emerging artists who were craving to form a bond and a community. {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} is one of the pioneer multicultural spaces that has driven and encouraged the creation of an emerging performance community in Chicago. Installed in a loft style apartment of about 600 square meters in the heart of Wicker Park, it is one of the few artistic spaces from the seventies that still thrive through the massive gentrification of the neighborhood, tender and vehemently defined by one of its founders, William Amaya Torres, as “one of the last independent artistic oasis with life and beating action in this fancy and filthy, Chicagoan, Damen Blue line stop, historic zone, filled with businesses, world renowned exploitation stores, tax bailed banks, 5am bars, strolling marihuanized tourists at noon and late night drunkards picking fights with themselves against the windows of the most prestigious, cool weird taste hard core and resillient furniture store of the zone ”.
MC:How and why did {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} (no nation) arise And how has it evolved since its inception?
WA:In the summer of 2010, (which is 12010 of the Human Era calendar) I moved in a loft apartment on the second floor, where some friends lived, played concerts, shows and parties, it was called Happy Dog Gallery. Within a year and a half of being in Happy Dog, the friends with whom I had moved finished their studies at the university and moved to other countries or states. I inherited the space as home and gallery, and in order to develop and live among art reinvented the space as {/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/}. We got the name with friend and co-founder Snorre Sjønøst Henriksen. The place speaks to you and tells you, “hey give me life, share life and I give you a little too”. It is a cycle of inspiration that is made possible because the main room of the place is a rectangle of 50x25 feet, it is also possible because the owner of the building lets me take care and fix things my way, for example, when I moved in the wooden floor was suuper dirty, dirtier than the street floor. One day I cleaned it very nicely and painted it bright red with the help of a few friends and Aza Greenlee who is now co-directora. I have repainted and built things all over the place while approaching the situation/space as a living installation that inhales and exhales art. I tell myself that to think that life in exile makes some sense, and it has.
With that spirit and intention {/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/} has been maintained, and has grown as a self-managed place to share and experiment with ideas that become art. The approach I would say has been more than anything in Action Art or Performance Art. In the year 12014 of the human era, the bright and sharp Aza Greenlee joined the story and became the official photographer and co-director of the move. 2 years ago he started a series project called “Smudge Cinema”, which consists of projecting a movie once a week and inviting friends to see it and then likely discuss about it.
It could also be said that {/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/} is a space of interdisciplinary art and radical exchange in the heart of Wicker Park in Chicago-United Slaves of Amnesia, in which we have created and
collaborated in performances, projections, film/video shoots, lectures, reading groups and workshops among other things. Admission is not free, we ask visitors to pay with a poem or a butt print, we have a special station for both, my closet is the butt print station, we use high pigment water based tempera that is not toxic and does not contain lead. Sometimes there are people who want to pay with money, I tell them that if they feel like it, to just hide it somewhere. We do not turn people away for lack of financial means.
We are located at 1542 N. Milwaukee Avenue on the second floor and currently also on the fourth floor,, we just acquired it. The plan is to expand an Artist in Residence program that I founded in about 4 years ago. It's called {/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/} Deschool. The idea is to host/house artists that want to develop projects for 3 or 6 months.
Artists in residence have to present work at least 3 times during their stay, they can be linked to the curatorial process and have more exhibitions if they want. At the end of the residence I put together a plan to have an international exhibition, we have already presented several times in South America. This year we went to Bogotá twice, the first with the residence and the second to an international performance festival for which I was co-curator and organizer.
We don’t count with fiscal sponsorship, so the artistic residence has a price in money for artists who wants to take it. I consider it a good deal because in comparative terms with other artistic residences in Chicago, I really don't know of any other one that offers 3 or 6 months live-work-ehxibit space. If you are interested, send us your portfolio and work proposal.
MC : What is the philosophy and mission of the space?
WA : {/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/} Tangential Unspace Art Lab, is an independent disorganization whose name comes from taking critical, active and inquiring awareness about the relationship between origin, identity and nation. What is nation for us? They are arbitrary lines on the planet, drawn through wars, which in history have been used to reference, indicate or reveal the geographical origin and identity of people. What is a person for us? A person is a being which is an entity that in turn is an event in live development and interaction. When one considers that the origin is the fundamental essence of a being or thing, "the nation" becomes a limited and obsolete instrument that cannot describe either the origin or identity of the person because its history of arbitrariness and violence, by definition, erases the path that leads to the description of the complexity of being.
The arbitrary and violent origin of the "nation" leads it to become a social implant that brings more preconceptions than revelations. Therefore we reject the nation and nationalism as a reference of origin and identity. First step towards {/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/}, second step to posnación, third step, welcome to an unplace of accessible questioning.
{/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/} has to do with reality, when what marks it is a state of condition or conditions. How does reality change? It is changed through exercises and/or actions; of art and performance art in our case. We are aware that our actions are alive and that our artistic exercises are part of reality and alter it, changing its conditions, flowing in their constancy to where we imagine them. Immediate gratification may not be our favorite dish, we aim at internalized learning through the subconscious, activating our group conscience, taking a step together towards the unknown starting from the duration of the current event, the performance is/as/how, like that..,
If you have work that you want to show, write us, we are open.
The rules are:
1- Do not kill anyone in space
2- Do not commit suicide in the space
3- Do not set fire to the house
4- Do not flood the house
Our objectives are to continue offering a space that supports art and artists free of charge, to continue creating connections, to approach sibling spaces, enriching and thus evolving together and getting the necessary means to live a decent life without having to worry too much about the expenses of the next month. Our dream is to participate in the creation of a friendly, relentless but kind, and intelligent dialogue to vomit and sweat from the guts and innards of the mind and soul a society of love and infinite inspiration that critically pierces, breaks and transcends social implants of thought.
N a t i o n s a r e a r b i t r a r y d e l i n e a t i o n s i n g e o g r a p h y t h a t t h r o u g h h i s t o r y h a v e k e p t o r / a n d e x p a n d e d t h e i r b o r d e r s b y m a k i n g w a r s a g a i n s t e a c h o t h e r ,,,N a t i o n a l i t y i s a s o c i a l i m p l a n t a n d a n o b s o l e t e p r i m a r y r e f e r e n t t o i d e n t i t y.
MC: Any anecdote or remarkable experience that moved or impressed you?
WA: One day we opened the space to U.S.A. army war veterans who were workshopping on how to protest and not get arrested, they were the ones that threw medals in rejection to the wars that NATO and the United States started in Iraq and Afghanistan. They did it the next day.
MC: How is {/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/} funded and what are the difficulties of maintaining a DIY / independent space?
WA: The currency of no nation are poems and butt prints. This is a commercial suicide and probably any idea of sustainable business that a semi expert wants to give you will be better. It is a finite experience and what you have, and/or, is, exists while, when and during. Debts and debts that at the point of minimum wage might take many lives to this denational mutant to pay.
{/} () {/} ∆ ‡ | () {/} also stays afloat with a combination of things: The artist residency program, various jobs and debts and payment plans with gas and electricity.
MC: What are some present and future projects you are planning?
WA: Projects are constantly coming, maybe this week we go out to see a show and meet an artist or group of artists who want to share their work, so we put it together. Sometimes it is also planned with a little more anticipation or we get contacted to participate, collaborate or host.
MC: How do you imagine the future of {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} ?
WA: As an Inter/extranational happening in the streets and centers of different countries, making performance interventions through living reality. We are also planning to go back to Colombia in april of 12020 to perform and work again with our artist friends from ACCIONARAR, the AVD Performance Art festival and LAVAMOTUMBA amongst others. We also have a pending invitation to go to Brazil and make and participate in a festival, we will see what happens.
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˚˙:˙∆˚˙˚∆ :˙˚˙◊ ◊ ◊˙˚˙◊∞◊ Fin de la entrevista ◊∞◊˙˚˙◊ ◊ ◊˙˚˙:˙∆˚˙˚∆ :˙˚
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˚˙:˙∆˚˙˚∆ :˙˚˙◊ ◊ ◊˙˚˙◊∞◊ Fin de la entrevista ◊∞◊˙˚˙◊ ◊ ◊˙˚˙:˙∆˚˙˚∆ :˙˚
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Marina’s preface:
The first time I visited {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} was in 2016, barely a year after my arrival in Chicago. One of my teachers from the performance department was presenting a new work at {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} and invited our class to discover the space and the talent of emerging local artists. I remember the first impact; a mixture of fascination, wonder, warmth and comfort, an absolute sense of belonging and identification with art, community and the philosophy of space. Experimental processes and unfinished performances, performances with organic, unusual, risky and disparate materials such as fire or body fluids, uninhibited, transgressive, interactive and visceral performances. A few months later, I presented my first performance in Chicago at {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/}; a space that over the years has become more than a gallery; a refuge and community gathering space for me and for many other foreign and local emerging artists who were craving to form a bond and a community. {/}() {/}∆‡|(){/} is one of the pioneer multicultural spaces that has driven and encouraged the creation of an emerging performance community in Chicago. Installed in a loft style apartment of about 600 square meters in the heart of Wicker Park, it is one of the few artistic spaces from the seventies that still thrive through the massive gentrification of the neighborhood, tender and vehemently defined by one of its founders, William Amaya Torres, as “one of the last independent artistic oasis with life and beating action in this fancy and filthy, Chicagoan, Damen Blue line stop, historic zone, filled with businesses, world renowned exploitation stores, tax bailed banks, 5am bars, strolling marihuanized tourists at noon and late night drunkards picking fights with themselves against the windows of the most prestigious, cool weird taste hard core and resillient furniture store of the zone ”.
ESPAñOL ARCHIVE H O M E ︎︎ ︎︎︎