URI, 2022. Carbonized trunk, mold of a stone / casting in bronze. 4,70 x 0,60 x 0,70 mt.
URI, 2022 - 2024. Rubber boots with vegetation (endogenous trees of Chile/Quillay). of Chile /Quillay). Variable dimensions.
URI, 2022. Compacted earth, bone mold / casting in bronze. 0,90 x 0,45 x 0,45 mt.
Uri. 2022. Posada del Corregidor, Santiago de Chile.
I read a book with one of my daughters some time ago, it was one of those school reading assignments. We read together as a way of me sharing and accompanying her in her homework, what I did not expect was that during that reading, issues emerged with which I had related to some 25 years ago.
I realized my university bachelor’s degree project between 1998 and 2000, that memory of researching and the exhibition work was named Ser Lugar and was shown at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Chiloé (MAM) between 1999 and 2000.
The idea behind Ser Lugar is related to human beings and territory and with how that link builds a systemic relation that defines a notion of place which I called socio-geography in my degree project at the time as a way of being able to place that relation in one word or definition, despite that always having seemed an insufficient word in order to be able to contain the relations implied in constituting as a Place and a Being.
A quite intriguing idea appeared in that book, Uri, one of the personage who, beyond participating in the storyline, supposed a notable dilemma between the idea of being a human being or being a tree, without a clear resolution of if that transit was from tree to human being or vice versa…
A hole is not enough - to hold back the wind---
yet - the horizon - is transformed into a vertical---
the desert is an ocean---
the wind no longer blows-------- a bird crawls
It falls.
And falls again-
Imagine that I imagine--- the life of a tree---
There is no place---no eyes and no flesh-
Time - plummets ---
A little tree grows on my fingernail---slowly---
The word no longer speaks---the wind envelops it.
The blood hardens, - the senses crack---
The memory - becomes disoriented
My feet fall asleep--the ribbing of my tympani -shudders--.
I drink water - and disappear...
Text: Cristián Salineros F.
Photo credits: Álvaro Mardones