humana
text by Carlos Herrera
A second life
Our time seems to be increasingly marked by a renewed awareness of the complexity of life, both in terms of its concept and its processes.
Immersed in an era that challenges us with its countless relationships between beings, shapes and contexts, we often become bewildered.
But it is also our particular life as human beings, our life “in common” -with its ever-multiplying questions about the scenes, situations and stories that the different social sectors experience- what moves us and confuses us at the same time.
After so many years living under a power of rules and disciplines, a possible way out could be to consider ourselves as beings traversed by chaos and to make the experience of disorder a method of creation. When different realities overlap, when a new, even irrational organization takes hold of materials, a truth out of control comes to light.
Brought by two tireless artists like Jessica and Martín, members of the TROSMANCHURBA duo, large accumulations of human waste are magnetized to spawn a creature. Shapes that contract and expand, that are flattened and inflated, waste that transforms into brand new “terrible” and contemporary beauties, articulate visions that are overwhelmingly real. And there is no metaphor at all when we speak of waste: these are materials that swarm from their memory and from their "real" condition, even if they are painted the color of gold or elevated to the category of art.
Perhaps because of the attraction that generates its atavism as a fallen and genuine thing, this "garbage" became the raw material for TROSMANCHURBA's works. Mountains of debris that pile up daily in recycling centers in our city add new stories: those of the people who live by manipulating these materials and giving them a new life. They are also the ones who give a transforming boost to this creative process.
Thinking of this encounter as a convergence of interests around a treasure is an opportunity to reflect on consumption, toxicity, sustainability, and nature. It’s because a potential beauty can be glimpsed in these altered mountains. A contradictory search is torn between rejection and desire, at the same time showing mutation as a key to this era and as a safe haven.
Humana is a work that invites us to create a second life, to offer a new point of view and a new opportunity to the chaos that surrounds us. The artists encourage us to ask ourselves about our excesses and how they relate to their context.
A membrane is born from waste such as sticks, plastics, iron and textiles that are melted by experts in the field to become a campsite, to suggest a possible habitat. A sort of monumental skin constellates spaces of rest and resistance and, in its fierce accumulation, evokes the metamorphosis of being.
A planet, a territory, a cavern, a city. What are these things today? Perhaps objects of an honest change: Humana launches us into a multiple vision of transformation: the condition of life itself as a process, a work tool for social sectors, art that builds meaning and attention; in all cases, these are paths that lead us to a new and crucial reflection as a society and as a species.
October 2022