'What is there, IS there' (past entry)

(Thursday, 5 March 2009)

Today's class was out of the ordinary. We were given 2 tasks: redesigning Roberto's class, and do a sculpture with some props provided by him. Both of them sounded easy to me.. but they were not.

The whole group had to work together ro redesign Robert0's class. First, we had to plan the layout od the room. Then, explain to Roberto whar our plan was, and finally, do it. We wanted to create some kind of 'theatre': we moved the chairs so they were located in rows; we used some lockers and black cubes to create a backstage, and we moved the desk to the end of the room. After that, we explained what our purpose with those changes was. We realized we had made some mistakes. For example, the doors of the locker that we used to create the backstage couldn't be openeda nd putting the chairs in rows meant that people in the back woundn't enjoy the play as well as the people in the front. Roberto taught us that the audience is the most important thing. We have to look after them. One of my favorite quoted from this class was 'What is there, is there'. Roberto explained to us that we cannot except the audience to suppose some things that are in the stage are not there. Everything we put on the stage should have a meaning or a purpose. I believe that if we are given another exercise like this, we should plan and think more carefully where and why are we putting the things where we are putting them.

For our second assignment, Roberto gave us: 1 bench, 2 black cubes and 4 chairs. The class was divided in two. I worked with Valentina, Rodrigo and Sebastian. We first started to do the sculpure and then the idea of what it could mean came to us. We decided that it would represent the way civilazaion is taking over nature. I don't think everyone in the class understood our sculpture. The other group had a whole story for their work and they really criticized ours while we tried to understand theirs. I think athat our problem was that we should have planned what we wanted to represent and the adapt the materials to our idea, not the other way around. However, I really liked our sculpture; I think it was original in a very modern style. I now understand that the artist may know what his/her work is telling, but the audience won't if the work is not clear.

Why is it so difficult to understand a piece of art not done by yourself?