Community Project
Ante El Dolor De Los Demás-Untrash – Emiliano Zapata en Río Grande
Inspired by the movie “Arrival” by Denis Villenueve, German artist Johannes Büettner focuses his workshop on the otherness and the first encounters. He developed his workshop with the participation of 13th students from the high school Emiliano Zapata in Rio Grande during 3 sessions.
The main purpose of the workshop was to open the discussion with the participants about the way we phase first impressions when it comes to meeting people from other countries and different cultures, the newness about tasting new flavors, different languages, and a whole distinct landscape.
To illustrate his concerns about the otherness, the artist showed the students a series of movie clips about the way the alien archetype has been constructed and invited the participants to imagine and create a spaceship and an alien with mud with the condition that it had to be completely new and nothing like anything they have already seen on the screen or the internet. Also, they had to make up a story about the alien, imagining how they live, thought, and why they are visiting the earth. The workshop concluded with an installation of the mud figures inside the high school intervening with the landscape of the school, confronting the other students by their first encounter with the pieces. Also, Johannes Büettner, made a fanzine where it’s shown every single piece of mud along with the story and a picture of the students answering the question, “what would be the first thing you would say to someone from the outer space?”
“I titled the workshop after the movie “Arrival”, the movie poster of the film asks, “Why are they here?”. This is a question I ask myself quite often, and especially in a residency program like Casa Wabi I wonder: “Why am I here?” I guess this question comes up as well in the local communities Casa Wabi is engaging
with. I wanted to use the workshop to speak about this question and explore different understandings of “otherness” with the participants. Johannes Büettner
“I learned that we could imagine anything, fantasize that no one can tell us that our idea is wrong, and combine clay creations with the script of a historical fantasy.” Stefany
Torres Santos (15 years old ) de Río Grande.
Inspired by the movie “Arrival” by Denis Villenueve, German artist Johannes Büettner focuses his workshop on the otherness and the first encounters. He developed his workshop with the participation of 13th students from the high school Emiliano Zapata in Rio Grande during 3 sessions.
The main purpose of the workshop was to open the discussion with the participants about the way we phase first impressions when it comes to meeting people from other countries and different cultures, the newness about tasting new flavors, different languages, and a whole distinct landscape.
To illustrate his concerns about the otherness, the artist showed the students a series of movie clips about the way the alien archetype has been constructed and invited the participants to imagine and create a spaceship and an alien with mud with the condition that it had to be completely new and nothing like anything they have already seen on the screen or the internet. Also, they had to make up a story about the alien, imagining how they live, thought, and why they are visiting the earth. The workshop concluded with an installation of the mud figures inside the high school intervening with the landscape of the school, confronting the other students by their first encounter with the pieces. Also, Johannes Büettner, made a fanzine where it’s shown every single piece of mud along with the story and a picture of the students answering the question, “what would be the first thing you would say to someone from the outer space?”
“I titled the workshop after the movie “Arrival”, the movie poster of the film asks, “Why are they here?”. This is a question I ask myself quite often, and especially in a residency program like Casa Wabi I wonder: “Why am I here?” I guess this question comes up as well in the local communities Casa Wabi is engaging
with. I wanted to use the workshop to speak about this question and explore different understandings of “otherness” with the participants. Johannes Büettner
“I learned that we could imagine anything, fantasize that no one can tell us that our idea is wrong, and combine clay creations with the script of a historical fantasy.” Stefany
Torres Santos (15 years old ) de Río Grande.
