Event was supposed to start at 7:00 pm. Just a few minutes before the room was not filled even to a third of it´s capacity. We were freaking out.
Ambitious, filled with energy and our eagerness to create, we took upon the mission to do it and have it all… we slid in a Group show and open studios the very same week end as Slidefest. ICP supported our enthusiasm and granted us our wishes, the deal was, that rigor was still the name of the game.
Papers and presentations were due to date, class was starting sharp with work hung on the walls, critique was still on. We juggled all our balls, and for the most part every one of my piers did it with incredible resource and creativity. It was the conclusion of 8 intense months of growth and discussion, and reflectivity. In a week we got it together.
The only missing link to our total enjoyment and full success, was that we forgot to take into consideration the incredibly hectic over the top busy Schedule that all new Yorkers have.
Our loved families and friends, colleagues and just big shots of the art World in general, had to choose to which of the events to attend, and we sort of slacked in promoting our Friday gala.
However, the room filled almost to it´s max. It brought in for the most part in-house guests. It created an atmosphere of complete relaxation. We were at home, with family.
So, it was easy for me to stand there and ask the audience to stand up, and follow a couple of instructions to be able to relax for a moment. Most people joined me, and enjoyed a few seconds of calm. Not all. I’m interested in the idea of instructions and relaying on people’s will to follow them and perform certain actions for me, to produce my work. It is quite challenging since, despite the fact that often people want to genuinely help, nobody really likes to be told what to do, so often is, that I come across with resistance.
Than I showed a FAILED video of my family, in which I asked them to take turns and by size, lay one by one on top of me creating a mountain layered by the Shkurovich.
We all did it, and it was fun. A bit chaotic. I was nervous, I knew I ha done shot to go, since I was interrupting all the important choirs of being on vacation. When we finished and I looked at the camera, most of the action had taken place outside my frame.
Failure… what it means to fail? How do I understand that concept? What is my relationship with failure?
Often in any artist one comes across with non-successful results.
We often tend to define failure as the opposite of success. Yet, I believe, that failure is closer to success than that, Isee it as an approximation, as a facilitator towards success. Is just part of the process.
There is a saying in my country, which I am sure you have here: “hechando a perder se aprende”… one learns by messing it up.
Failing to eventually getting it right, is just very human… think about how a little child learns to walk… by falling over and over and trying it again until one day it happens.
EYE TO EYE 