Captive portal is pleased to present the project of the Colombian artist David Sebastian Lopez Restrepo, “Another Utopian Society”.
About the exhibition “Another Utopian Society” is a space for discussion around the relation between the work of artists, migration and the precarization of the labour market. Captive portal will function as an axis for dynamizing conversations about equalitarian societies imagined by the audience and the artist. During the opening, the audience will have the opportunity of interacting with a series of objects used by migrants in their everyday life work in Denmark (used clothes and old tools). In the subsequent encounters, the artist will propose different actions through scores (written instructions) to transform the materials together with the audience, as a way of triggering conversations. At the end of these two weeks, Captive portal will be transformed in a patchwork of perspectives through the manipulated objects and discussions, with the aim of materializing a collective view of how a utopian society would be.
Program: Vernissage: Monday 3rd of April 18:00 – 21:00
Daily encounters from 18:00 - 20:00: 4th of April - Anecdotal Stories Let’s talk about our stories of work, how was our first experience out in the labour market, I am a migrant for example, and my memory of working is pretty much attached to that. The fact of being a foreigner, trying to make a living and produce art at the same time. Of course, I also remember my first job in my hometown, it was in a bar and my father hated it. But why don’t you come with your stories and share them at Captive portal, over a cup of coffee? 5th of April – Objects of Memory Every object we have, every tool, every piece of cloth, every single thing we own, is charged with our stories, by sharing those stories, we can build a new narrative. This day we can bring meaningful objects that are somehow attached with our experiences at work, and we are going to create together, collages, maybe new useless tools. 6th of April – Food and hard work In my country, and I assume in many other places, construction workers bring their food in colourful Tupperwares, I remember when we build our house with my parents, the guyt we hired to help us with that, had a very special 4 levels tupper: he told me his wife prepared the food for him and his kids every day, first level the rise or pasta, second level potatoes, third level the salad and last level the protein. Sometimes when I work outside, I prepare sandwiches, sometimes I bring a small tupper with rise and chickpeas with minced meat. Bring a container with your favourite working food and let’s share a meal together. 7th of April - Imaginary Cartographies The perception of territory is very subjective, we all experience space in different ways, let’s find together the intersection between cartography and topology, a qualitative perspective of our relations with the space. Bring maps to create a collective imagined cartography. 10th of April – The musical language in the narratives of union Why do nations have anthems? what is in the music that makes it a powerful part of the identity? does music bring us together? If we are building a utopia, which would be the sound that bring us together? Join us and let’s find that out. 11th of April – Flags and other symbols When I was a young kid, I used tom play with friends to build forts and we created flags or banners that defined the characteristics of our group, like totemic societies, we identified ourselves with animals sometimes, or with the threes we had close to our fortifications. In our utopian society we could create a series of symbols from all the elements we have been collecting. 12th of April – Free time As part of our utopian society, we started from which conditions of work we want or we imagine, from there we built a series of dynamics that sets us apart from other groups or projects. But what also what we do with our free time plays a big part as a society. Join me at the gallery to have some free time and do nothing. 13th of April - Reconstruction of a collective experience This last meeting will be a space for reflexion about our last two weeks of work, a day to prepare how do we want to show for one day our utopian society. Let´s have some drinks and organize the finissage of our collective project, our Utopian Society.
Finissage: Friday 14th of April 18:00 – 21:00 About the artist:
Born in Medellín, Colombia, David Sebastian Lopez Restrepo holds a Bachelor in Fine and Visual Arts from the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (U.P.T.C.), where he experimented with installation, video art and performance while working as a teacher at the preschool and pedagogic research center, “Rayuela. There he experimented with different forms of pedagogy and developed a project with children producing short films. Later on Sebastian travelled to Argentina where he carried a Master in Combined Artistic Languages at Universidad Nacional de las Artes (U.N.A.). His art works have been presented in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Aaland, Svalbard and in the Faroe Islands. His work is part of the Colombian Embassy’s Program “Artists abroad bank”. Currently, the artist lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he is the director of Performance køkkenet, an organization of contemporary arts, organizing the International performance art festival Body Landscapes from 2017 to 2021, with the support of the Danish Arts Foundation (StatensKunstFond). He is also working with video art, collage, installation, mail art and artist’s book. Website: http://davidslrestrepo.wixsite.com/davidlopezartista Email: davidslrestrepo@gmail.com� Instagram: @davidlopezrestrepo�