Individual residencies / Olot
MARIANO VESPA
From Monday, 20 September 2021 to Monday, 27 September 2021
Bio
Mariano Vespa was born in 1988, in Tres Arroyos, Argentina. He is a culture journalist and writer. He has an undergraduate degree in Social Communication from the University of Buenos Aires. Additional studies include the post-graduate Film Program for artists at the Di Tella University and extension courses in documentary auto- fiction at the Havana Film School.
He contributes regularly to various newspapers and digital magazines such as Perfil and La Agenda. In 2020 Mariano won the First Prize for a Novel, María Elena Walsh Foundation. The novel Al final del abismo is forthcoming from press (Tren en movimiento ediciones). Is one of the selected artists for the Federal Laboratory, Sivori Museum, Buenos Aires.
Project
During my stay at the residence, my goal is to work in my second book, differents autobiographical essays about blindness.
BITÁCORA: I saw myself among the lights
"How can one not dream of museums, when one is oneself a kind of museum," Uruguayan writer Mario Levrero once wrote. With this drifting idea, I imagined not only a gallery of artist references - makers, works, museums, objects - but also a range that could include the intangible: connections, phrases, omissions, jokes.
As a result of a biographical drift, which has to do with the loss of vision, I focused on bringing together matters related to the colour white, a shade that has infinite (and contradictory) meanings. Thinking in colours implies pausing in the everything and also in the nothingness, in that which vanishes.
I am increasingly moving away from the idea that conceives literary exercise as a solitary work. Paths crossing, dialogue, helps us to think, stimulates creation.
The highest point of my experience at Faberllull relates to that: sharing a physical and symbolic space with artists from different backgrounds, disciplines and, in some cases, with a different view of the artistic work and, why not, of the world.
It was undoubtedly the most rewarding experience, not only in relation to the daily dynamics but also by virtue of the personal reflection on the potentialities that I assume as an artistic creator.
It was a bumpy ride, but I knew this beforehand: taking the risk is also part of confronting oneself. After countless swabs(the colour white pursues me),I was able to arrive in Olot with tonnes of enthusiasm and that was a driving force that I hope will not leave me.