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“My body, pitiful place.”
“My body, pitiful place.”
Michel Foucault, Utopian Body, 1966
Michel Foucault, Utopian Body, 1966
Foucault wrote about the body. He treated it as the opposite of a utopia, always present, always here: the body that embodies us and forces us to exist in all its density, in a single place. In Urea, Overgrown, Ernesto Salazar's work constructs a body-mechanism that does not seek to escape this perpetual condition in the present, but rather to inhabit it, translating illness into an affective-material ecosystem where pain does not disappear, but is transformed into a sustained act of self-care.
Foucault wrote about the body. He treated it as the opposite of a utopia, always present, always here: the body that embodies us and forces us to exist in all its density, in a single place. In Urea, Overgrown, Ernesto Salazar's work constructs a body-mechanism that does not seek to escape this perpetual condition in the present, but rather to inhabit it, translating illness into an affective-material ecosystem where pain does not disappear, but is transformed into a sustained act of self-care.
I have known Ernesto for many years, through honest friendship, from an intimate and familiar place, and it is in this privileged space that I have been able to observe his artistic practice in constant maturation and development, as he seeks ethereal answers to the experience of illness.
I have known Ernesto for many years, through honest friendship, from an intimate and familiar place, and it is in this privileged space that I have been able to observe his artistic practice in constant maturation and development, as he seeks ethereal answers to the experience of illness.
By recording the peristaltic movements of the artist's body, an irrigation system is adapted, accelerating or decelerating to respond to the slow and extended temporality of plants, distinct from human biological time. Therefore, in this art installation, composed of material elements, sound, and unconventional biometric data, a network of relationships is articulated between human physiology, technology, and plant life. We are witnessing their coexistence with other living bodies, respecting their rhythms and materialities, in an affective-plant mutualism.
By recording the peristaltic movements of the artist's body, an irrigation system is adapted, accelerating or decelerating to respond to the slow and extended temporality of plants, distinct from human biological time. Therefore, in this art installation, composed of material elements, sound, and unconventional biometric data, a network of relationships is articulated between human physiology, technology, and plant life. We are witnessing their coexistence with other living bodies, respecting their rhythms and materialities, in an affective-plant mutualism.
The plant inhabiting this installation responds to various practices of relief from chronic ailments: medical, homeopathic, from non-Western traditions, and even symbolic. In the human body, urea settles and mineralizes due to organ dysfunction, forming crystals in the urinary system and causing pain. In plant life, this same substance acts as a fertilizer; thus, what is disease in the body becomes fertile soil for the plant, producing a paradox between pain and the possibility of life.
The plant inhabiting this installation responds to various practices of relief from chronic ailments: medical, homeopathic, from non-Western traditions, and even symbolic. In the human body, urea settles and mineralizes due to organ dysfunction, forming crystals in the urinary system and causing pain. In plant life, this same substance acts as a fertilizer; thus, what is disease in the body becomes fertile soil for the plant, producing a paradox between pain and the possibility of life.
This text does not arise from curatorial decisions or formal choices regarding the work, but rather from close collaboration, built upon the intimate and prolonged conversations I had with Ernesto during the process of creating Urea, Overgrown from scratch. Now, the work shared with the public is ambitious without being grandiose. It invites reflection on the bodily and biological process, remaining grounded in the precarious and functional. Error, limitation, and the body's minimal changes as a system prone to failure, stagnation, and the accumulation and abjection of intestinal movements, sediments, odors, and stagnant excesses evoke a carnal and living experience, where these residues are active agents that overflow and become visible in order to heal.
This text does not arise from curatorial decisions or formal choices regarding the work, but rather from close collaboration, built upon the intimate and prolonged conversations I had with Ernesto during the process of creating Urea, Overgrown from scratch. Now, the work shared with the public is ambitious without being grandiose. It invites reflection on the bodily and biological process, remaining grounded in the precarious and functional. Error, limitation, and the body's minimal changes as a system prone to failure, stagnation, and the accumulation and abjection of intestinal movements, sediments, odors, and stagnant excesses evoke a carnal and living experience, where these residues are active agents that overflow and become visible in order to heal.
Finally, I invite you to closely observe the materials and supports used; none are neutral. The artist uses them from the perspective of the body's processes and its extensions. Glass, ceramics, and wood support the technological, constructing a sensory experience, a shared temporality between the body, plant life, and technology.
Finally, I invite you to closely observe the materials and supports used; none are neutral. The artist uses them from the perspective of the body's processes and its extensions. Glass, ceramics, and wood support the technological, constructing a sensory experience, a shared temporality between the body, plant life, and technology.
Brenda Vega
Brenda Vega
Curator
Curator
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