Artistic Statement and Project Proposal

My work is focus in time. Specifically: time openings in the limit between life and
death. To explain this, the poet Csar Vallejo comes to help us. He writes:
I will die in Paris with a rainstorm,
on a day I already remember [...]
1

Seeing his death, the traditional conception and linearity of time is broken and the writer
remembers the future. This break is a happening that constructs a time where future,
past and present coexist. Thus, this time is inner to us and we are inner to this time. We
construct each other. This time feels like a thought. In this way, my work is interested in
notions of time that explore non-causality, non-linearity, non-representation,
multiplicity and simultaneity. The last two theories, explored beautifully by Jorge Luis
Borges in his garden
2
, propose the bifurcation not of space, but of time -time opening.
My work explores time as a construction of these bifurcations. A net of silent thoughts.
A net conformed by an endless number of time openings.
In order to see these openings, I assume that the being has to be in a poetic mood. This
mood is induced by the silent contemplation and experience of the intrinsic relation
between life and death. As But's dancer Kazuo Ohno would say. In this context, death
is neither an entity nor an after live thing nor is bad nor is moral. Death is considered
the inevitable confrontation of the being with the total nothing. The end of the being at
all levels. A time opening happens in this impressive fold between nothing and being.
Using and altering Hamlet's words: To be or not to be simultaneously is the question.
Therefore, it is possible to propose that in a time opening, a specific time, compatible
with the forces of life and death, is manifested.
In this fold between life and death limits are erased: live-art, sacred-profane, form-
essence, object-process, the piece space - the exhibition space. Hence, I am developing
installations that try to erase some of these boundaries. The pieces, looking for the
contemplation of silence, use physical gadgets that construct, divide, align, distort or
deconstruct images. These experimentations, with simple spatial configurations, aim to
put into evidence how the montage and the image are made, in order to let a time
opening emerge from the work. These works intent to be like time: itinerant, multiple
and reproducible.
For this residency I am planning to make two installations with images of the city and
its surroundings. The objective is to see the extraordinary in the city routines. The
audiovisual images are going to be shadows, reflections, silhouettes, echoes, etc.
Mainly, these images might be considered as projections of something, but in this case
there is nothing. So they are projections of the silence, of the absent.
As a hypothetical proposal, if there is the opportunity to work with performers, one of
the installations is going to be focus in body movements. These movements would be
inspired, as well, in time openings.

1
Fragment of the poem Black Stone on a White Stone.
2
In his story The Garden of Forking Paths.
Curriculum Vitae
Jose Alejandro Lopez
Languages
Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Education
PhD student (2011-currently): in Visual Arts in the line of Poetic Languages at
the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
MSc (2003-2005) Applied Information Technology with a Specialization in Art
and Technology. Universidade Chalmers. Gotemburgo, Sweden.
BA (1996-2002) Film, TV and New Technologies, Universidad Nacional.
Bogota, Colombia.
Exhibitions and Shows
2013
Espectros Contemporneos. Sesc Nova Friburgo. Brasil.
Relugares. Centro Cultural Visconde de Mau. Visconde de Mau. Brasil.
2012
Imagem-experimento. Galeria EBA 7, UFRJ. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Video-Urbe 2012. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
2011
Time Mutations: Vertical Horizons, Nietzsche-Gedchnishalle
(Humboldstrae 38), Germany.
Arte ! Vida: Acciones por artistas de las Amricas, 1960-2000. Banco de la
Repblica, Bogot, Colmbia.
Cdigo Abierto: Arte + Accin + Sanacin. XXIX Premio Saln Nacional
de Artes Visuales. Museo Universitario de Antioquia, Colmbia.
2010
Espacio Enter Canarias 2010, Saln de Actos, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las
Artes, Spain.
JavaMuseum 2010 Celebrate! 10 Years JavaMuseum netart features
2010.
Pixxelpoint, 11
th
International New Media Art Festival, Nova Gorica,
Eslovnia.
Videofagia, Galera Hot Shot, Toronto, Canad.
VideoChannel [self] ~ imaging, Hong Kong.
Festival Internacional de la Imagen 2010, Manizales, Colmbia.
2009
Hipertrpico 3.0: Ecologas Digitales, Galeria Casa Tres Patios, Colombia.
Experimenta, LIA, Colombia.
Fifth Professors Biennale, Universidad Javeriana, Colombia.
2

2008
Alicia: Identidades Digitales, Alternate Galery Hall Santa Fe, Colombia.
7
th
Festival Internacional de la Imagen de Manizales, Colombia.
Transfera, Canal Autor (Orange TV), Spain.
2007
Art Tech Media, Casa Amrica, Madrid, Spain.
One Minute Film & Video festival, Switzerland.
Fourth Professors Biennale, Universidad Javeriana, Colombia.
Taking Action, Istanbul, Turkey.
2006
Optica, Gijon, Spain.
One Minute Film & Video festival, Switzerland.
Attitude Festival, Center for Contemporary Public Arts ELEMENTI,
Macedonia.
2005
FILE, Sesi Paulista's Cultural Space, Brazil.
Because, Rotor, Sweden.
Box,141, Sweden.
Art in Your Face, Itinerant, Sweden.
2004
Nobli, Atalante, Sweden.
www.post-videoart.com, Internet.
Publications
2012
Obras con interfaces tecnolgicas con edicin en tiempo real y seales
elctricas. In J. Lpez, A. Piedrahita, C. Cogua, & J. Arias,
Codificar/decodificar: Prcticas, espaciosy temporalidades del audiovisual
en Internet. Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. ISBN 978-958-716-
514-2.
2011
El documental de los aos sesenta como arte: consideraciones de la pelcula
Crnica de un verano. Palabra Clave. Vol. XIV, No. 2. pp. 235-246.
(Diciembre 2011). ISSN 0122-8285.
2010
La informacin de Internet como seal de video y editor. Signo y
Pensamiento. Vol. XXIX, No. 57. pp. 178-191. (Julio-diciembre de 2010).
ISSN 0120-4823.
3

Digital Art, de Christian Paul. Cuadernos de Msica, Artes Visuales y Artes
Escnicas. Vol. 5, No. 1. Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. ISSN
1794-6670.
2008
A Cycle in the Technology and the Arts. Computer Art Congress [CAC.2].
Published by Europia Productions. Monterrey. ISBN 978-2-909285-45-6.
Aproximacin al contexto desde el cual se plantea un tratamiento
audiovisual contemporneo en los documentales. Revista Puntos No. 2,
Departamento de Artes Visuales, Facultad de Artes, Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana. Bogot. ISSN 2011-2696.
2007
Religin y democracia. Revista Puntos No. 1, Departamento de Artes
Visuales, Facultad de Artes, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogot. ISSN
2011-2696.
Conferences
2009
Video, the Internet and an Editor. ISEA2009. Belfast, Northern Ireland.
2008
Sobre lo virtual. Cinemateca Distrital. Bogot, Colombia.
Algo virtual. Seminario de profesores. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
Bogot, Colombia.
A Cycle in the Technology and the Arts. Computer Art Congress [CAC.2].
Tecnolgico de Monterrey. Toluca, Mexico.
Academic Experience
Assistant professor, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia (2006-
currently). On sabbatical due to his PhD.
Teaching position, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia (2007).
Commissions and Grants
Scholarship granted by Capes (2013).
Beneficiary Colfuturo (2011).
Especial Mention Netart Category, VI Media Art Monographic Exhibition,
Festival de la Imagen, Manizales (2010).
Promotion for research by Banco de Santander (2008).