Painting and Community, Workshop by Sebastián Riffo

PAINTING AND COMMUNITY, WORKSHOP BY SEBASTIÁN RIFFO

The second event of this educational program was the workshop Painting and Community, carried out by the artist in residence of the art&archeology program, Sebastián Riffo Valdebenito. The backyard of La Tintorera, a residence for artists and therapists managed by Verónica Moreno in the Ayllu Solcor of San Pedro de Atacama, hosted the activity on the afternoon of June 5.

José Ardiles, a musician from Atacama, friend of Verónica, played while Sebastián gave instructions. The purpose of this activity was to generate a community dialog about the Lickan-Antay culture through painting. Painting was considered a free, sincere, and spontaneous language, directly related to the emotional and collaborative commitment of the participants, assuming that the results would not be evaluated or questioned. On the contrary, they would be the dialog and conversation openers in a cross-cutting and non-hierarchical manner.

Each painting, considered as flags, depicted different features of the town.

To break the ice, the attendants were encouraged to paint with their less skilled hand so they could experience the activity with the same conditions. They were asked to mix a base color that could be linked to the daily life of San Pedro, covering the entire canvas they had been assigned. It had to be done evenly, from edge to edge and without any tonal jumps, which turned out to be an exercise of concentration and motor skills. Then, they had to take a second piece of cloth and, now, with their skillful hand, depict in the center something particular and figurative also related to San Pedro. This last painting, after drying, was sewn by Sebastian into the center of the first piece of cloth, to give it the formal qualities of a flag.

The results were remarkable, because of their diversity as well as their quality and delicacy. Each painting, considered as flags, depicted different features of the town, such as the prominence and majesty of the Licancabur volcano, the magnificent sun as a protagonist of the Atacama Desert, a wide diversity of silent and eternal rocks, endemic cactus, corn cultivation as an ancestral community practice, wild animals and urban iconographies.