Gonzalo Vicci

Mediating Wool: A Small-scale Collective Conversation

Gonzalo Vicci – University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay

& Karen de los Santos, Yohnattan Mignot, Fernando Miranda, Guadalupe Pérez

Abstract:

A public action is presented from the R&D project Site-specific: production of collaborative interventions and public mediation from arts-based research, focused on exploring contemporary artistic practices through public mediation. Although the concepts of site-specific actions (Kwoun, 2002; Expósito, 1998) and mediation (Alonso and Miranda, 2021; Fontdevila, 2018; Sánchez de Serdio, 2009) are familiar in the field of visual arts, our aim is to update them as contemporary alternatives of artistic creation with pedagogical implications. To this end, we rely on arts-based research, with the aim of orienting ourselves towards forms of knowledge specific to the arts in general, recognising a notable methodological affinity in the qualitative approach. We understand that research in the arts offers a necessary and sensitive perspective for both academia and society in general, by promoting alternative and diverse modes of production and relationship with knowledge and the world. This workshop arises from a practice situated in the rural context of the department of Canelones (Uruguay), in which we address the relationship of rural women weavers with wool and with the territory, exploring the intertwining of the human and the non-human, the material and the narrative. We do this through performative practices in situ, the collection of sensitive data and conversations with those who make up the local community. Collaborating with a collective of rural women, whose skill in working with wool and weaving represents an economic opportunity and social cohesion, we have embarked on a learning process that will take us from shearing to the creation of handcrafted pieces and to situated public mediation actions that reflect this process.