essencies

"Taksu of Bali" (Shared ritus)

The project was turning into "Taksu of Bali"during the second AIR on July 2010 at ARMA Museum Foundation. I'd been thinking and working about the taksu concept on the last year. I learnt that "taksu" has diferent connotations, like "charisma", "spiritual", "soul", "intervention of Gods"...it depends of the sphere that it works. Anyway is a word deeply rooted in the balinese live. We can traslate it like "tener duende"(1) in the arts field, something difficult for catching, though it acts like a facilitator at the same time. There are two meaningful paintings: "Ibu Pertiwi Kesuburan" and "Meletakkan Akar". The first one was painted in the hall of the museu. It was a big effort by myself because the light often changed and the people was always around me, particulary small dancers who were performing at the lobby. I could say that this painting was result of many interventions, everyone said their opinion, from the famous painter to the lowest employee. Painting was no longer a "sacred act" to become a "shared ritus". And for that reason my live at the Museum changed. I was no longer "the catalan painter" to become " a worker of ARMA", I started to share something else than talks at the lunch time in the dinning room. Moreover, we can begin to glimpe the roots of Balinese culture in this paint. Perhaps the reason is my new interest in walking around the outkirts of Ubud, attending all kind of events and celebrations such as cremations, art openings, dance performance, school festivals... "Put down roots" was my last work in ARMA and really significant of my process there. I not only had strengthened my relationship with Balinese people, but also with the internacional community living in Ubud, so I began to ask to myself about the meaning of "to belong to".It was clear that the foreign, but they did not belong to that land, not even legally they couldn't buy land or house in which they lived. This painting with its intricates roots, which hardly seem to belong to the tree, iluistrates my experience of balinese culture better than anything. This culture is apparently simple but profoundly marked in the day by day for the ritual, the "rite" as "to belong to the community". I could almost say that being a balinese as such doesn't exist unless you belong to a balinese community. Hence, "Taksu" is shaping as "Taksu of Bali". Hence, too, this time the exhibition of the paintings is in the spot where the work is done, turning the "art object" in an element of nature, as "belonging" at that place."Taksu" yes, but *"Taksu of Bali"* not elsewhere. (1) I'm sorry, I can't traslate it. It's a spanish term of Flamenco dance. MORE ARTWORK OF PROJECT	Kesuburan Ibu Pertiwi (Fertility of the Earth Mother) oil/ canvas 70 x 100		Bersama ritus (Shared ritus) oil/ canvas 80 x 65
			Meletakkan akar (Put down roots) oil/ canvas 70 x 60
	Tiga penari (Three dancers) oil/ canvas 65x 81		Perayaan (Celebration) oil/ canvas 60 x 73
	Waktu tidak berjalannya (Time doesn't go by) oil/ canvas 60 x 60	Dalam sorotan (In the spotlight) oil/ canvas 64 x 80		Lotus of Lacan oil/ canvas 98 x 60

	Exhibition"In situ". ARMA Museu's Gardens, July 2010