#Artistresidency Cristina Ferrández at Centre d’art Le LAIT
The artistic project Cristina Ferrández (Asturias, 1974) ran at Centre d’Art Le LAIT (Albi) is Prospective. This title responds to a titanic endeavour: the prospective of the new challenges faced by the humanity. Cristina’s approach implies that Art and Culture can take part into this process as well.
Her starting point are the lichen, as metaphor of symbiotic consortia, and their scientific, artistic and aesthetic possibilities as conceptual as material. Lichens represent a living example of Universal Symbiogeneis.
The project revolves around three main concepts:
1. Lichens as a metaphor of a possible relationship and coexistence between humans and the biosphere
Likens are symbiotic consortia of ascomycetes (the fungal part) with green algae or cyanobacteria in a mutually beneficial relationship. They are bioindicators or air quality and bioacumalotors.
2. The concept of symbiogenesis; its theoretical and philosophical implications
Symbiogenesis is an evolutive theory promoted by the scientist Lynn Margulis. She opposed competition-oriented views of evolution, stressing the importance of symbiotic or cooperative relationships between species.
Symbiogenesis can be universalized and can include hybridization, and extra-biological phenomena such as culture and language evolution and even certain cosmological processes (also symbiotic stars, galactic cannibalism or black holes can be understood as forms of symbiogenesis). In a visionary way, a new concept of progress and development, where humanity evolves by living with the biosphere in harmony, replacing the notion of domain.
3. Relationship between map and territory. Cartography as a method of depicting reality
For example: diverse aspects of reality in relation to natural resources, as scientific and big data are turned into artistic concepts and eventually incorporated into the discourse.
Cristina Ferrández has resorted to cartography associated with big data of the common goods, such as water, forest growth/loss, to deppict reality under different parameters.
She uses the cartography of the city associated with a growth, on a specific ground , trying to create the simile of the growth of the liken on a matter and its neutral relation with it.
The big data of the IAP, Air Purity Index from 2017 in Albi it is used as an indicator of liken growth, air is again a common good that have to be cared.
In terms of time and future, all of this leads directly to the science of Foresight or Future Studies.
As conclusion, I think during a research project in a specific place, the research itself it´s so important as highlighting the experiences encountered and the meetings with people. All of this has transform Cristina’s time/space in Albi into some kind of permeable membrane where a bidirectional transmission has taken part, by deriving or contributing to the evolution of ideas and thoughts.
She feel It is a symbiotic process. All the experiences and diverse knowledge, are being united by some kind of symbiogenesis of knowledge and thought.
