CLAUDIA SANDOVAL ROMERO
“As I write,
I become the
narrator
and writer
of
my own reality
(...)
I become the absolute opposition
of what the colonial project has
predetermined”
Grada Kilomba
#ARTS-BASED RESEARCH #COMMONS #FABULATION #INSTALLATION #GENDER #NEO-COLONIAL
BIO.
I am claudia sandoval romero*, an Austrian-Colombian journalist and artist in search of her* collective identity.
My artistic position has developed through the use of media such as photography, text and video, combining sociological methods with collective creation.
The core of my proposal is a reflection on institutional critique, feminism* and diaspora, from a decolonial perspective.
My approach to art is nurtured by the driving force of creating of pedagogical spaces where horizontal exchange can take place, as well as contributing to debates about loss, mourning and restitution of women* having been denied a position in the art field.
I am currently writing my dissertation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, supported by a DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Photos: © Claudia Sandoval Romero
Strategies of Visibilization (2021)
Installation
“Strategies of Visibilization” is a spatial installation that consists of the complete listing of artists who participated in exhibitions at the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien-mumok between 1998 and 2018.
The analysis carried out compares proportions of participation by gender and geopolitical origin.
Alain Quemin(2006) describes the center of the art field as compound by the United States and Europe, or more precisely by a few western European countries with Germany at the core, followed by UK, France and Italy and sometimes Switzerland; countries that are among the world’s richest nations.
The proposal aims to participate in the discussion of positioning, privilege, power relations and representation in the museological context.
In words of Hito Steyerl(2011): “why shouldn’t the cultural institution be at least as representative as parliamentary democracy? Why shouldn’t it include, for example, women in its canon, if women were at least in theory accepted in parliament?” This installation adds, "Why should the cultural institution not include women from the 'global south' in its canon?
Images: © Claudia Sandoval Romero
Motherhood in the Art World (2015)
Video / Book
"Motherhood in the Art World" consists of a two-part exercise: on the one hand, the book deals with pioneering positions on motherhood that emerged between 1960 and 1970, from the perspective of mother artists.
Through the presentation of works of around 30 artists, the subject of “Motherhood in the Art World” is connected to the politics of representation, voicing and the gaze, as well as migration and capitalism.
The investigation addresses the role of mother artists in art history, reflecting on both the contemporary positions of migrant artists and particular aesthetics that emerged from these perspectives.
On the other hand, the video consists of interviews with artists and a curator who discuss precarious living conditions of the art world, and the complexity of finding a balance between life and work in the art field.
The artists interviewed are Renate Bertlmann, Regina José Galindo, Christine Hohenbüchler, Stephanie Misa, Tanja Ostojic and Signe Rose, as well as the curator and art historian Vanessa Joan-Müller.
Photos: © Claudia Sandoval Romero
Intervention to Vienna (2021)
Installation/Print
In “Intervention to Vienna” large-format prints of landscapes from Colombia and Brazil are placed as temporary additions to the site.
The graphic result reinscribes the landscape in the context of creating intimate fictions. It also seeks to draw attention to the diasporic component in the exercise of identity building.
The gaze and forced migration are addressed here, aiming to create a dialog with Fernando Pessoa’s poem “O Guardador de Rebanhos”, “The Herd Keeper”:
“(…)What a pity I feel for him. He was a peasant
Who was a prisoner in liberty in the city.
But the way he looked at the houses,
And the way he looked at the streets,
And the way he was interested in things,
Is that of one who looks at the trees
And of one who lowers his eyes down the street where he goes
And walks observing the flowers that are in the fields”