Others participants. Research workshop on artistic practice and its social projection

Rocío Pérez Armendáriz

Participant - Research Workshop on artistic practice and its social projection- Buenos Aires 2001.

The perfect parcel post

Isn't it disturbing that so many Ar-gentines want to go to live in another country? Doesn't it give plenty to think about that so many of us yearn for a double citizenship, that so many of us think that we are half-Spanish, half-Italian, half-something? Because living in another country would not be a problem if we could think of the place from which we stand.
Obtaining a double citizenship can be, if you wish, a bureaucratic formality. But thinking that we are "half" something, "half" anything, that's another story. Because we are necessarily not a "whole". In any case, we are something which is all mixed up, but half of something, that is pretty much more improbable. The problem of emigrating with this idea is that we soon realize that there are no half-Spaniards in Spain, nor any half-Italians in Italy. In short, we take what we are to wherever we go.
In my project, I don't mean to tackle all that this phenomenon can imply. However, I'm in-terested discussing some of its aspects. I parti-cularly want to pause on the things of daily life. On the small things that make a pleasure trip charming, but which in time can turn into a sad and permanent reminder that we no longer live at home. Sometimes it would seem that we are never so much here as when we are there.

Realization of the first project: "¿Te vas?"
The carrying out of the first work consists of making small paper tablecloths, like the ones used on the food trays that are served on airplanes. It would be best if they could be used on some of the international flights to Spain or Italy, for example. This space seems appro-priate so long as it reinforces the idea of a place that can be thought of as between places, here or there, or neither here nor here.
The images that I want to use for the tablecloths are, in way, symbolic of the Argentine middle class. I refer specifically to objects, food, and activities that are easily identified as "ours". For these images I'm going to use very simple photographs, almost like advertisements; for example, a picture of food on a white background. This, in turn, will be accompanied by a written list of things related to the object.
At the end of the list, or perhaps in a corner
of the paper, the phrase "¿Te vas?" (Are you leaving?) is written as the last comment.

Realization of the second project:
"The perfect parcel post"
In this case the work has two instances. The first one consists of a sort of questionnaire ask-ing people if they would go to live to another country, and, if this were the case, which things they would like to receive in a postal parcel from Argentina (food, music, photos, etc.) The survey would be carried out in university circles (university cafeterias, classrooms, etc.). This space seems interesting because it gathers a generational group that can analyze, in real terms, the idea of emigrating (versus teenagers or people who have formed a family and face greater difficulties).
The second instance would be assembling an ideal or model parcel post according to the co-llected data. I would also like to be able to show this object, together with the questionnaires, somewhere within the university so the same people who answered the questions could see the resulting object, the finished postal parcel.

Rocío Pérez Armendáriz

Others participants. Research workshop on artistic practice and its social projection