When you approach the intruding precarious wall of Comunitas (Wall/Harp) you become aware

of its temporariness, built and designed with functionally as its DNA . This prosthetic structure
contains within its liminal space, a small harp is snugly secured in a cut out, acting as a
transitory border between either sides of the wall. The architecture of the arrangement prohibits
willing players to cradle the harp into their body, denying them the ability to place both hands on
either side of the strings. Here Guillerme E. Rodriguez Rivera stages a rather cruel trick on the
visitor. The dumbness of this pre-empted relationship, existing between the anticipation of the
visitor and the potential of the situation, only appears after the sensuality of the presence of the
instrument has taken its effect on its subjectlike a siren calling sailors to a rocky cove.
This is a radical form of hospitality staged by Rodrigeuz, who invites you to consider an unusual
way of belonging together. The work suggests that two people play a duet from either side of the
wall. Without the ability to see each other, the only sensory call and response between the

players comes from the sound of the instrument. Will frustration and defeat ensue if we are to
choose this optimistic but naive position when approaching the equation of community and
collaboration? Despite this, inherent in the work is the cynics core position; optimism for the
small probability of good to emerge in the world. Rodriguez proposes this provocative scenario
by ultimately seeing some prospect for certain players to find harmony within this obtuse
triangulation.
Ludic, a term used by Rodriguez to describe his work, comes from the writer and philosopher
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which is used to define games and play as scenarios in order to
consider chance as one of the central guiding forces of our universe. Chance is central to most
of our own lives and their winding turns. The unforeseen affects us by asking us to alter course
and to adapt in relation to it. Or, in a negative sense of the position, to censor what we do, so
that we behave in a way to know our outcomes, marking us as fearful of the irregular. Rodriguez
harnesses these intuitive impulses as a guiding force, hacking the already made and redefining
their intended uses to produce varying results of success and failure from a user generated
perspective.
Reminiscent of modern arts leaders, such as Giaciomettis board game On Ne Joue Plus
(1932), Duchamps chess match versus Cage (1968) or Hackes MOMA Poll (1970), the
potentiality of chance is exploited as the works central force, taking both a submissive but also
freeing position towards risk. Also introducing the act of joy, liveliness and performance into the
gallery space, Rodriguez references a geographically closer canon of artists such as Oiticias
Eden (1969), Clarks Sensory Masks (1971) or Papes Ttia Cuadrada (1976), who also invited
the participation of the visitor in the work, allowing for a reactivation of the gallerys neutral
space.
Jesse McKee