No es ni un campo, ni un parque. No esta vacio, ni ocupado. No es de nadie, pero es de todos. Es un terreno que poco a poco fue tomando forma, y que con el tiempo invitó a que se use. Inicialmente este espacio no tenia un uso destinado, por lo que pasaba vacio. Sin embargo, las situaciones y el tiempo llevaron a que las personas que antes lo recorrian por los lados, empezaran a recorrer sus tierras. Hoy en dia, este es el lugar de reencuentro entre familias y amigos, es donde se hacen los jueves de ron y parillas domingueras. Es el lugar que se convierte en canchas provicionales para jugar algun deporte, y campos libres para disfrutar de noches estrelladas. Este es el lugar que nos conecta a todos los que habitamos en esta urbanización a través de la participación de un huerto comunal. Es el lugar más bonito que hay.  

All my memories, all the souveniers of my roots, places I have visited, friends gifts stay together in this shrine that makes me fell I'm closer to the people and places I love 

Winner of the fourth prize of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your experiences of domestic places" 2022

Fotografía digital toma directa. EDDMC (El Desorden De Mi Cama) 

Eligo la cama porque lo considero un espacio dentro del espacio. Su forma rectangular me remite a perímetro delineado donde circula mi existencia de manera cotidiana y recurrente. La cama como territorio íntimo que da cuenta de una existencia pasajera.  

‘’She was looking at me almost every single day of the last 1,5 years. Well... She was not really looking at me. I was inside her gaze but she was actually looking at the sky, the sun, the trees, the branches, the pine cones, the houses and the cars passing through. A very little amount of cars passing through. Once I noticed she counted the trees outside. She doubted what she counted. She was not sure if some trees were hiding behind others. 'I don’t believe in numbers' she thought. She counted them again the next day. '16. Weird. They really look less.' 

I was here the whole time, I saw her making coffee, sitting on that couch, eating breakfast, closing her eyes, listening to the birds, reading, watching movies, having sex, laughing, crying, spilling coffee, looking outside, staring at the sky… She almost never looked at me, but I knew that she knew I was here. Me and the ashtray that always sits on me. Of course she knew. She looked at me every day. Well, I was inside her gaze every day. 

One time I heard her crying. I heard her say 'I miss simple things. Simple. Very simple things. The things that we do every day without thinking about them. Going out, meeting friends, sitting on a bench in a sunny day. I feel like I lost myself. I cannot produce. I am not able to do anything. I feel like a failure, I feel like I failed.' At that moment she was looking at me. I heard the man saying 'don’t be unfair to yourself. The whole world has stopped.' As she turned her face from him, I can swear that we came eye to eye. With her red, tearful eyes, she sniffed and she pointed at me saying ‘I feel like that chair’.

Today she took a photo of me. Well… I was inside the gaze of the camera so I think I was inside the frame. Then she counted the cigarettes in the ashtray. 125. She thought 'that’s a lot of numbers for an ashtray’.''

Winner of the fourth prize of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your experiences of domestic places" 2022

I live in a small house with limited rooms, and therefore, I never had the chance to create a personal workspace,  so I  had to divide my bedroom into two small areas: a sculpting corner, and some space  for my bed. The first thing that I see when I wake up is my workspace, and it is also the last thing I see when I go to sleep. Due to the limited space of my bedroom, my artworks became, overtime, one huge pile that limits my movement around my room, yet I still enjoy spending and investing a lot of time doing what I love the most. I have always dreamt of extending our house so I can turn it into an open space for cabinet of curiosity, where everyone can come to see my creations. In Tunisia, the number of galleries is limited, as well as artisric opportunitinies, but more than that, the concept of cabinet of curiosity does not exist! which becomes the reason why I am aiming to create my own public cabinet of curiosity.

Domestic Gestures is a part of The New Normal series which is a personal documentary project, accumulative, poetical, and a longful one, in a time of physical distancing and social solidarity, police curfews, and restrictions. It exists as a way of making sense of and record the passing of time.
 

Aquest lloc és molt transitat per alumnes i pares de família que pertanyen a aquesta comunitat, però pensem que és una cosa avorrida, de manera que voldríem donar-li més vida i poder col·locar alguna cosa que sigui un punt de referència.

Em  triat aquest espai perquè pensem que és un espai desaprofitat i és un bon lloc on parar-se per pensar o asseure's a mirar la ciutat.

The marsh of Monastir (in Tunisia) is a favorable environment for a delegation of migratory birds such as "flamingos", as well as many other types of birds such as ducks and various types of gulls. Despite the construction of the airport and the metro line that crosses the marsh, the birds have remained attached to this ecological station and have not abandoned it. One of the characteristics of this bird is that it forms incubators, as some husbands stay to guard the chicks, while the others start bringing food from nearby slums and distant places to return to their seat to feed their young at sunset. This place is then associated with birth, fertility and life.

Due to the sewage being poured into this lake, the number of birds gradually decreased and the birds' nests became empty.

This problem inspired me to create my project. According to different cultures, the egg is considered a symbol of life, fertility and the victory of the love of life over the darkness of death. According to Finnish legend, the egg is the beginning of the universe or the beginning in which the universe was born.

The legend says that the goddess "Luonnotar" spent her life alone in the vast emptiness of space.  Then she fell from the sky to the earth. Then the seagull came from the distant horizon, and on her lap she built her nest. Then the goddess felt a heat flowing through her body, as if her knee was burning and her veins were melting, the bird laid her eggs on her knee, which trembled, then the eggs rolled on the water and were broken. From the lower part of the eggs was formed the earth, mother of all beings; from their upper part, the sublime sky; from their yellow parts, the radiant sky; from their white part, the bright moon; their speckled debris became stars; their black debris the clouds of the air. "Luonnotar" continued the process of creation, creating the seas, bays and shores, and the depths of the oceans.

From this legend I began my project . I made a sculpture in the shape blue phoenix with two large wings protruding from its head, The phoenix bird symbolizes immortality, resurrection and life after death but this time the bird is weak and his heart is bleeding , I chose the blue to be in harmony with the blue of the sky and the marshes, and to contrast with the color of the ground. Then I distributed a group of gypsum eggs among the marsh grass, indicating that this place is the source of life, fertility and birth so we should protect it and stop polluting it . I colored the eggs blue, referring to male birth, pink to female birth, and purple gradient, which is the mix between pink and blue for other sexual orientations. Then I took photographs of the installation to document it, as the final work will be in the form of photographs, as I have no desire to leave the installation in the marsh or to make the marsh an open exhibition space where I wish to preserve the purity and tranquility of the place and its vitality without leaving a trace, as I am ultimately interested in the images that perpetuate the trace.

  A place is where you live.

Space in space

Patrimoni Vilanova i la Geltrú

Autor: ôscar Estruga i Andreu (2007)

Material: bronze