So, at home I'm involved in a group called FOKUS(Fighting Obstacles Knowing Ultimate Success)In a nutshell, FOKUS is an arts-advocacy group that believes everyone is an artist and that art is one of the best ways to bring people of different kinds of backgrounds,races, genders, religions, politics...together.
There's the phrase "Art is...what unites us" and before I came to BA, me and another FOKUS member developed a project centered around the phrase "art is..." using postcards.
Why is this important? When I knew I was going to study abroad, I knew I wanted to do a spin on the postcard project and take it to the streets, literally. After a few weeks of adjusting to being in Buenos Aires, I finally got organized enough to move forward on my idea. So yesterday I bought a chunk of different colored construction paper and two big colored markers, writing out "Arte es..." in big letters on each piece of paper. I also wrote out (s/o to the superior Spanish skills of Suhaly Bautista)a short paragraph of information about why we were doing this project and what we were asking people to do.
There are a lot of different ferias (street fairs/markets) in Buenos Aires but one of the biggest and most well-known is in San Telmo every Sunday. I wanted to go to San Telmo and ask different street artists if they would complete the phrase and let us take their photo with what they wrote.
I proposed the idea to my friend Chelsea who has a knack for photography and a much more sophisticated camera than I do. I wanted her to come with me and take the photos and thankfully she dug the idea and said yes.
So, this afternoon we went to San Telmo and started at the beginning of the feria, which runs along one of the main roads in the barrio. I'm not the type of person who naturally approaches people I don't know so asking different street artists if they'd participate was stepping outside of my comfort zone. Being comfortable with what the project was and the reasons behind it made approaching people much easier.
The first person we approached was a man in his mid-twenties who was doing caricature portraits. He said yes but asked several times for a moment to think of a good answer. I assured him that there was no "right" answer and to take his time. While he was pondering a worthy answer, a huge argument/borderline fight broke out behind him. Apparently there had been a theft. This slowed down his thinking process but eventually, he put marker to paper and wrote a very eloquent response. Chelsea took his photo and we moved on.
The second person we asked, an old man playing a guitar, said no. He was very nice and out of everyone we asked, was the only person to decline. Moving slowly through the cobblestone street, we looked for people whose work was their own, especially those working on the same items they were selling. A man who worked with wire and metal agreed and let us take his photo. Another woman, sitting in the shade behind her table knitting a hat(she was selling knitted scarves and hats)was almost zen-like in her agreement to participate.
We approached a couple, sitting on the curb behind their work of decorated and patterned sneakers and hightops. The woman seemed a bit shy but they agreed and their friend, whose table was right next to theirs, asked what we were doing and if he could also complete the phrase. He proudly posed with what he wrote and then told us that he was from Colombia. Each time a person said yes and wrote down what art meant in their lives, I felt a surge of excitement, a tiny victory.
Something that I noticed was how different people's actual reactions to my asking them to participate were in comparison to what I thought they would be. I didn't expect the caricature drawer to be so thoughtful and almost painfully slow in his response nor did I expect the rougher looking man who worked with the wire and metal to be so forthcoming and nice. Some people responded to the phrase very quickly while others paused and I wondered how often, if ever, had someone asked what their art meant to them.
Everyone we asked was very friendly and had varying degrees of curiosity about the project, who we were and where we were from. At times stumbling over my explanation of the project, I was always able to successfully deliver my point.
As we neared the end of the street, I was happy with how the afternoon had gone. We had ten responses out of the eleven people we asked and all but two of them had agreed to pose with their completed phrase.
Stepping outside my comfort zone paid off and I can't wait to go to other ferias and ask more artists and performers what "arte es..." for them.
Art truly is what unites us. Today was absolute proof.
www.fokus.org
-j
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