Victor Artiga Rodriguez
Ejercicios Poeticos del Libre Ser
“Poetic exercises of Free Being”
Performance - room installation Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris - 2024
Various found objects, Spatula, Id Photos, Mirrors, Poems, Microphone, Avocado Seed
Roughly translatable to “Poetic exercises of free being” is an experiment into improvisational narration exercises, that utilize delicate object assemblages, which are then activated during a performative narration. The work brings together the personal experiences and hardships during the process of migrating to Europe, with special focus on the relevance and connections different rivers can have in this journey. The starting point of the poetic exploration is a reference to the short story “Le Horla” from Guy de Maupassant, where inner and outer experiences manifest as an emotional turmoil, in close connection to the river Seine and the word play of “Horla”, inner and outer.
The room installation is activated through reading a poem about rivers, migrations, ecocide and displacement is read in an absurd manner. I created an object assemblage, where a poetry sketch book is entangled with a backpack, the object is worn and two volunteers from the audience hold to mirrors. I try to read the poem via the reflection in the mirror. Through a relaxed, playful coordination we sometimes manage to read part of the poem, it turns out to be a performative metaphor of what one carries in the body, such as memories of rivers in Central America, grief and also joy.
Copyright @Victor Artiga Rodriguez 2025