A Selection of the Art You’ll Find in our Issue No. 56
by Etan Nechin, Print Managing Editor, Issue 56
Maria Lucia Cruz Correia’s workshop, installation, and performance piece Common Dreams “Flotation school” is a temporary autonomous space, with no territorial borders. The constructed floating island invites participants on a journey, to collectively perform in a space between fiction and reality, to create the illusion of disconnecting.
The artwork is a co-production of the city of Gent, Belgium and the Vooruit art center, where Cruz Correia has been in residency since 2012. The performance takes four hours: during this time the participants question whether is is possible to imagine a future not centered around human civilization. They experience what it could be like to have a floating society, disconnected from traditional hierarchies.
The participatory engagement of the audience—operating the vessel, preparing food, fire, and shelter—is more than an act of survival; it is an experience of moving beyond individual quests and towards a shared awareness of collective adaptation.
“We have no way of knowing what kind of world we will inhabit forty years from now,” Cruz Corriea says. “While floating as a collective identity, we are given the space to imagine how the economic, social and political outcomes of a floating society would be. We share emotions and values, and craft a future. We move beyond cultural thresholds, gender, religion, politics, and power. We try to reinvent economic values. We discover the… essential skills to survive. We explore the idea of defining ourselves as a future identity. What are the outcomes of bringing people together?”
*Correction:
Project Credits are missing in our print issue. Here is the credit list:
Photos: Urban Haven MEDS
Concept and Artistic Coordinator: Maria Lucia Cruz correia
Creative Collaborators: Mark Pozlep and Ingrid Vranken
Final Design: Elise Mensaert student from KASK /Interior design temporary installation
Participants MEDS’17 Urban Haven: Mia Martinovic, Marek Svoboda, Tastani Felisia, Sally Al-Ejeilat, Giancarlo Muñoz, Alex Curtis, Rossella Natale, Barbalat Cristina, Joanna Wirkus, Kamila Haja, Esra Oner, Almila Ovali, Steven Alejandro Whitehouse
Local Collaborators: KASK, DOK, Jonge Dokken, Buurderij, Thuishaven, Dokano, Noah, Boot, Dekade.
With the support of Vooruit Arts Centre and the city of Gent.
See more art in Columbia Journal Issue 56! Currently, you can purchase us at Bookculture on 112th and McNally Jackson on Prince Street with more retailers to come this summer. Check out our subscriptions page for more details or to order from us directly.
