Creative Process in art = Creative process in life

After an art residency in Madremanya, Catalonia, Spain, May 2023

Introduction to Grif, art process and desire

Performance presentation and workshop

29th September 2023

Grief is fertile soil awaiting a creative and re-signifying elaboration. The loss of a loved one, love, a familiar and stable situation or joy, or even a job and others, opens an inevitable process for renewal and transformation in one's life. Either they are elaborated by relying on all our available human faculties and creative resources and our most authentic desires in pursuit of well-being, or one gets and remains stuck in old sadness and regrets that usually lead to the detriment of life. The most important is to make elaborations and representations of the loss. Grief is a timeless inner process, which belongs to the unconscious, spiritual or religious domains, and much to art. The signs of a good grief process are the reinvigoration of our interest in the world, the renewal of desire and productive life on everyone's terms. It is the best tribute to loved ones who have passed away and the best way to cultivate a new dimension of our lives that includes them. It is a tribute to ourselves and rewards us with the invaluable of our existence.

A person with a disability, including mental suffering, to some extent, may experience a kind of lack, which can be a constant discomfort unless such a condition is creatively elaborated into her/his strength and is integrated into social life. Since creativity is a mental faculty of every human being without exception, the worst disability would be not exercising it and not taking care of creating an existence like a work of art. And it’d be a crime to prevent someone from it.

Balancing love and loos. Image Amy

Grif, art process and desire in the artist's creation

by

Elvira Santamaria Torres

I’d want to present a performance in the Ledger Studio of the University of Atypical, which is the result of a long journey of work on vulnerability, death and grief. I have reached a stage in my life and my art career in which, looking back, I can recognise elements of my creative process as healing factors from loss, a tragic one in particular, an always-present disability and the adverse effects of a hospitable modernity in which we all live. This performance refers to the ability of human beings to process experiences of this type and return to their most authentic process of life.

Through this work, I would like to pay tribute to the entire artistic community, which includes facilitators, administrators and art organisers, for their resilience, arduous battles and the courage invested against the onslaught of an overwhelming reality. in which the vast majority of us live. Our artist's communities have arisen precisely from unfavourable conditions in the face of the normative values of our societies, and in most other civilisations throughout history. They have also vindicated the immense effort and dignity of living their particular living conditions, demonstrating that the most valuable existence to live is the one that goes beyond its limits.

The Ledger Studio of the Atypical University is a propitious place to address these topics and make this tribute. Through this performance artwork and an introductory workshop, I want to pass on some of my latest findings and artistic elaborations in this regard, hoping that they will resonate with the viewer's experiences and that my work will contribute something to make humanity more committed to human and all living beings suffering today.

Information for Publicity for Performance and workshop

Grif is fertile soil awaiting a creative and resignifying elaboration. The loss of a loved one, love, a familiar or stable situation, enjoyment, and others, ether they are elaborated by relying on all our available human faculties and creative resources and our most authentic desires in pursuit of well-being, or one gets and remains stuck in old sadness and regrets that usually lead to the detriment of life. Since creativity is a mental faculty of every human being without exception, the worst disability is not exercising it and not taking care of creating an existence as a work of art, and a crime to prevent someone from it.

Art is not a prosthesis for living; it is the singular existence of the artist, a conceptual character*.

*Michel Onfray, La sculpture de soi ( Selfsculpture)

Performance Art Diary

It is a series of video clips: small glimpses into an exploration I did in a forest in Madremanya. This allows me to think about visual poetry based on spontaneous actions, gestures and contemplations during a long creative process in solitude and, sometimes with company. I don't see them as a result of anything but as a part of a creative process which hasn't yet ended. For now, I only wanted to play with this visual material, as seriously as children does.

Process art During an Art Residency in Madremanya, Catalonia, Spain, April-May 2023

From Heaven to Earth, verse 1

Automatic performance filming poetry