I am interested in the poetic research, finding and wonderment of other worlds. I find the keeping and tending of imaginary spaces fascinating. These spaces are playful moments of time or matter, which exist mainly in children’s play as marvelous secrets hidden from adults. We might be able to tap on them if we keep that wonderment key given to us as kids and so easily lost as we grow up. These spaces of otherness are full of fantastic creatures, absurd stories and disparate times. Fantastic worlds exist and are possibilities of our minds and bodies. It is my intention to tend to them and play with them. I have created various installations with my drawings exploring alternate worlds, and it seems as a natural expansion of its research to be made into animation. The project seems to be relevant now since it is an extension of the room installations, a compliment and a push towards a more sophisticated language in my artistic practice.
I would like to use this grant to produce an animation film in collaboration with animation director Catherine Margerin. We have worked in various projects together for a long time, and I feel the time has come to propose a story I have wanted to develop in collaboration with her. The story has as main characters the "Marmangios" imaginary beings I have invented, who live heterotopic lives among us. The Marmanjos are creatures that explore the interstitial space between telecommunication lines, sewer systems, streets and bridges, human beings and animals. This is the space where these characters which I have created live: the Marmangio, the Xexelenta, the Cocozinho and the Pandorgas. They all conform a very strange troupe that inhabits our moments of loss, of sadness or happiness as parasites of the small, as molecules of wasted life or naked carriages of entanglement.
They all have their own stories and families, they all breathe our same air and notice our longings. Whenever we lose our keys they might be at fault. These creatures love dogs and dogs are capable of seeing them, smelling them, as they are able to capture the essence of the Marmanjos at once. The stories of the Marmanjos are unique and wonderful; they all intertwine creating a fantastic world. The animation would give live to them giving them the substance they need to become alive. I will create all the drawings, the psychedelic sets, and the cutouts. Catherine will, film and edit. This will be a short film, which will have a length of 5-7 minutes.
We want to present the film at the Bollywood Café in San Francisco, as well as Enso, in Half Moon Bay, community centers, schools and other venues and festivals in the Bay Area. We would like to present the film in schools in order develop fantasy and imagination with school age children. We would like to set up workshops to show the film and then create stories with different cutout characters.
We will begin in January 2011 writing the stories, creating and expanding the scope of the characters, their lives and days. Then we will begin painting them and cutting them out, as well as the very intricate sets in which the stories take place. Once that is done, Catherine will begin filming, then editing, and then recording sound and adding to film.
When showing the film we would like to do artists presentations and talks with the audience in order to sense how the film influenced and appealed to them. When doing workshops with school age students, the exploration of dream and fantasy will go further creating drawings and stories to go with.
We are planning to reach as broad an audience as possible, from young adults trough kids and older adults. Since I am an educator I have already certain relationship with elementary school audiences, which I know, will be delighted with the film and the proposed workshops. We would reach these audiences by direct invitation to schools, and community groups through venues such as the Bollywood, Enso, Galeria de la Raza, Women's Building, and Neighborhood centers throughout the Bay Area.
Marmangios, their story.
There exist in the streets between cities, electric lines and sewage; phone cords, and water systems unimaginable beings that feed on our tears and waste. They live of our forgotten feelings and resentment, of our sadness and envy, of unreciprocated love and hidden joys. They inhabit these in-between worlds and exist even if we don´ t see them. Sometimes we perceive them, in the seam of a skirt, in the sigh of a child, in the voice of those gone. Cities are full of these beings that feed and laugh and cry just like we do. Reality as we know it, is not just one or plain, it is multidimensional, perceptible if we let it be. There are other worlds here and now ready to be enjoyed if we open our senses. These beings are in order of importance the “Marmangio” slobbery and bored, sad and grudged, lazy by nature, red and hairy. He loves going out with “Xexelenta”, gray and stinky, a one breasted beast, with no reproductive system and hence unable to conceive, whiny and prone to yelling. Their adopted son is a pink teddy bear, “Cocozinho” forgotten by a child at an early age. They love dogs and drink a lot of coffee and sometimes they like to go hunting for a hen at early ours of the morning. Then they blame the dogs or wolfs for it. They usually love to play with people hiding their keys or setting up the temperature of the oven high while a fine lady is overlooking, so her cake will be browned. There are certain Marmangios that love the psychedelic dwellings of the summer of love, so they have painted their boroughs with a fabulous concoction of flowers and diamond shapes flying on the walls. Most of them are neither sad nor happy but they mirror our concerns and philosophical worries and live exhaustingly to the end of their lives, which may amount to 200 years.
I am interested in the poetic research, finding and wonderment of other worlds. I find the keeping and tending of imaginary spaces fascinating. These spaces are playful moments of time or matter, which exist mainly in children’s play as marvelous secrets hidden from adults. We might be able to tap on them if we keep that wonderment key given to us as kids and so easily lost as we grow up. These spaces of otherness are full of fantastic creatures, absurd stories and disparate times. Fantastic worlds exist and are possibilities of our minds and bodies. It is my intention to tend to them and play with them. I have created various installations with my drawings exploring alternate worlds, and it seems as a natural expansion of its research to be made into animation. The project seems to be relevant now since it is an extension of the room installations, a compliment and a push towards a more sophisticated language in my artistic practice.
I would like to use this grant to produce an animation film in collaboration with animation director Catherine Margerin. We have worked in various projects together for a long time, and I feel the time has come to propose a story I have wanted to develop in collaboration with her. The story has as main characters the "Marmangios" imaginary beings I have invented, who live heterotopic lives among us. The Marmanjos are creatures that explore the interstitial space between telecommunication lines, sewer systems, streets and bridges, human beings and animals. This is the space where these characters which I have created live: the Marmangio, the Xexelenta, the Cocozinho and the Pandorgas. They all conform a very strange troupe that inhabits our moments of loss, of sadness or happiness as parasites of the small, as molecules of wasted life or naked carriages of entanglement.
They all have their own stories and families, they all breathe our same air and notice our longings. Whenever we lose our keys they might be at fault. These creatures love dogs and dogs are capable of seeing them, smelling them, as they are able to capture the essence of the Marmanjos at once. The stories of the Marmanjos are unique and wonderful; they all intertwine creating a fantastic world. The animation would give live to them giving them the substance they need to become alive. I will create all the drawings, the psychedelic sets, and the cutouts. Catherine will, film and edit. This will be a short film, which will have a length of 5-7 minutes.
We want to present the film at the Bollywood Café in San Francisco, as well as Enso, in Half Moon Bay, community centers, schools and other venues and festivals in the Bay Area. We would like to present the film in schools in order develop fantasy and imagination with school age children. We would like to set up workshops to show the film and then create stories with different cutout characters.
We will begin in January 2011 writing the stories, creating and expanding the scope of the characters, their lives and days. Then we will begin painting them and cutting them out, as well as the very intricate sets in which the stories take place. Once that is done, Catherine will begin filming, then editing, and then recording sound and adding to film.
When showing the film we would like to do artists presentations and talks with the audience in order to sense how the film influenced and appealed to them. When doing workshops with school age students, the exploration of dream and fantasy will go further creating drawings and stories to go with.
We are planning to reach as broad an audience as possible, from young adults trough kids and older adults. Since I am an educator I have already certain relationship with elementary school audiences, which I know, will be delighted with the film and the proposed workshops. We would reach these audiences by direct invitation to schools, and community groups through venues such as the Bollywood, Enso, Galeria de la Raza, Women's Building, and Neighborhood centers throughout the Bay Area.
Marmangios, their story.
There exist in the streets between cities, electric lines and sewage; phone cords, and water systems unimaginable beings that feed on our tears and waste. They live of our forgotten feelings and resentment, of our sadness and envy, of unreciprocated love and hidden joys. They inhabit these in-between worlds and exist even if we don´ t see them. Sometimes we perceive them, in the seam of a skirt, in the sigh of a child, in the voice of those gone. Cities are full of these beings that feed and laugh and cry just like we do. Reality as we know it, is not just one or plain, it is multidimensional, perceptible if we let it be. There are other worlds here and now ready to be enjoyed if we open our senses. These beings are in order of importance the “Marmangio” slobbery and bored, sad and grudged, lazy by nature, red and hairy. He loves going out with “Xexelenta”, gray and stinky, a one breasted beast, with no reproductive system and hence unable to conceive, whiny and prone to yelling. Their adopted son is a pink teddy bear, “Cocozinho” forgotten by a child at an early age. They love dogs and drink a lot of coffee and sometimes they like to go hunting for a hen at early ours of the morning. Then they blame the dogs or wolfs for it. They usually love to play with people hiding their keys or setting up the temperature of the oven high while a fine lady is overlooking, so her cake will be browned. There are certain Marmangios that love the psychedelic dwellings of the summer of love, so they have painted their boroughs with a fabulous concoction of flowers and diamond shapes flying on the walls. Most of them are neither sad nor happy but they mirror our concerns and philosophical worries and live exhaustingly to the end of their lives, which may amount to 200 years.