1 Kilometro en la Ciudad!

Investigation and Art Practice in the Context of One Kilometre in Guatemala City!
A Report on the Programming the Public tutorial at UvA, with Dr. Jeroen Boomgaard / MA Artistic Research; Renato Osoy!
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! The artwork is the people to come and it is a
monument to its expectation, a monument to its
absence. [] Human beings are tied together
by a certain sensory fabric, a distribution of the
sensible, which defines their way of being
together [].!

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Jacques Rancire, Aesthetic Separation, Aesthetic Community!

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Framework!
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The Initial motivation to take part on the tutorial Programming the Public, was related to the
desire to acquire more knowledge in notions like: Public, Public Space, The Public(s), What is
Public? Site, Monument and Event. Ideally, I wanted to explore and make sense in the use of
knowledges that operate within these concerns. So, besides explaining the nature of my project
and its motivations, I am also eager to manifest my concern with the characteristics of developing
a framework or a method to base my project and proposal on, that is because I find that
somehow they are both growing in a parallel manner producing a sort of mirroring effect
conversation. It seems that perhaps, I am making an attempt to develop a sort of organic method
of methods, a working mode and an attitude for myself, rather than just having a particular method
to operate on. In order to achieve this, and still be somewhat coherent, I am approaching matters
both rationally and intuitively as I navigate and steer my way across the chaos of informations.!
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For this case, I will like to start building my discursive position based on some of Badiou's
meditations on the notions of event. Ideas which bring expansive projections to my mind while I try
to conceive the notion of event as an articulation of matters, rather than a machinistic and
controlled operation that is produced for a single effect or a particular change. The idea I think, is to
first think of the event as a situation of formation where one is many, where one becomes many,
where being and becoming are a constant motion of bringing things to existence into multiplicitiy,
Situations are nothing more, in their being, than pure indifferent multiplicities. Or later he states
The multiple from which ontology makes up its situation is composed solely of multiplicities. There
is no one. In other words, every multiple is a multiple of multiples.1 As I reflect on this thoughts, I

expand my understanding on the topic, it also brings me to awareness and possibilities in my own
artistic production, thinking of the event as a more organic occurrence where the apparition of
unpredictability(ies) can play a bigger role as plastic agents in the transformation of things and

1Being And Event, The One and the Multiple, Alain Badiou, translated by Oliver Feltham. Continuum Editions,
Originally published in French as L'etre et I'I!venement Editions du Seuil, 1988. This English language translation
Continuum 2005.!
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processes. The event in this case becomes a proposition of processes and becomings, an
invitation to potentialitizations and encounters. !
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While the philosophical propositions of Badiou give me a sort of rational structure to conceptualise
on, Rancire and his thoughts discussed in the politics of aesthetics, send me in a complete
unexpected direction while I materialise my understandings on the matter. For this case, I will like
to bring the attention to a single thought that is not perhaps one of Rancires theoretical
landmarks, but nevertheless a thought which I feel incites my imagination in a very abstract way, a
thought which I think I understand, but I do not feel that I yet grasp. As Rancire puts it, So, being
together apart appears to be more than a form of poetic sophistication. Constructing a place for
solitude, an aesthetic place, appears to be a task for committed art.2 Although Rancire brings

multiple analogies to this thought throughout the text, I still find my self in a monumental
segregation as I try to make sense of this words, not with my reason but through affects. I really try
to imagine the feeling of togetherness-apartness happening at a monumental scale, a bunch of
people gathered together in an event experiencing the feeling of a harmonious unison while being
in the totality of their isolation. This togetherness-apartness reverberates again and again as it
encounters thoughts like, Human beings are tied together by a certain sensory fabric, a
distribution of the sensible, which defines their way of being together.3 How does one conceive an

image of the sensory fabric of humanity if it is is not through poetry and imagination? !
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So, on the hand I have Badious expansive thoughts and on the other I have Rancieres
conceptually poetic suggestion, but I must add, that besides thinking and contemplating the
amazing conceptual potential of the philosophers before mentioned, I also found that perhaps
some illegitimate sources could also inspire me and aid my research, while helping me to develop
a different coherence for the matters that concern me, as I try to expand and multiply my
understandings on the notions of event and situation. For this matter, it comes to my attention, that
it seems that there is something intellectually ludic in randomising ones personal epistemological
concerns while researching. For example, when one is becoming tired or perhaps distracted of
navigating the web, one goes adrift and starts to find in the whole stream of unnecessary junk,
random inspiring images on it, images that might relate to disparate matters, but that somehow,
spontaneously also produce associations to those things that one is concerned with. So, as I try to
bring coherence to my thoughts, and explain how I have formed the core of my sources and the
construction of my frame, Ill elaborate a bit further on them as I give a few examples.!
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Surely that as an artist and as a researcher, and although not in total agreement, I have always felt
quite drawn and intrigued by the different artistic practises from the late 1900s till today. For
example, the interventions and actions carried by emblematic movements like Surrealism,
Situationism, Fluxus, and more recent contemporary art projects and artists collectives, in the likes
of Claire Fontaine or Hans Ulrich-Obrist Laboratorium for example. But in a nut shell, it appears to
me that the common thread on some of these artistic practices that interests me, is that they all
somehow, propose concepts and artistic practices, which deal with the idea of twitching
established conceptions of what is, or what could be, in the domain of the public, in the
intervention of the site, or in the consummation of the event and in its possible
contextualization(s). !
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For example the following proposed definitions from the Situationist International movement and
their artistic-practical applications, led me to rethinking how through the metaphorization of simple
actions and gestures, applied or intervened into the public, the event and the site, form new
relations to space and time:!
! constructed situation A moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by
the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events.!

2 The Emancipated Spectator, Aesthetic Separation, Aesthetic Community, Jaques Rancire. Verso edition 2011

3 Ibid.
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 situationist Relating to the theory or practical activity of constructing situations.
One who engages in the construction of situations. A member of the Situationist
International.!

situationism A meaningless term improperly derived from the above. There is no

such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine for interpreting existing
conditions. The notion of situationism is obviously devised by antisituationists.!

drive A mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a

technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. The term also designates a
specific uninterrupted period of driving.!

culture The reflection and prefiguration of the possibilities of organization of

everyday life in a given historical moment; a complex of aesthetics, feelings and
moves through which a collectivity reacts on the life that is objectively determined
by its economy. (We are defining this term only in the perspective of creating
values, not in that of teaching them.)4!

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Although as I mentioned before, I did not find the need to adhere myself to one specific theory,
project or artwork in order to aid me directly towards the construction of a curatorial proposal. I did
in fact used a variety of the images, notions and concepts discussed and proposed in the above
mentioned sources, in order to construct a simple and coherent conceptual framework that aids me
in approaching the matters that concern my research topics. For example, thinking of concepts as
detonators. After following the symposium The Event organised by the University of Amsterdam
this past year, I began to concern myself in ways on how I could apply and expand theoretical
concepts to my practices and use them as detonators:!
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SITE AS SITE!
SITE SPECIFIC!
SITE SITUATION!
SITE DISCURSIVE!
SITE SPECIFICITY!
SITE RESPONSIVE!
SITE EVENT, EVENT SITE!
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After reading my notes I felt quite fascinated by this conceptual constellation I had put together, but
at the same time I had no idea what to do with it or how to apply it to anything. Later as I
accidentally placed this random image I found on the internet (shown below), of a monumental
gathering at Pyongyang central square, next to my notes. I felt unexpectedly inspired, and decided
to intervene the conceptual core of the text and the image, by applying the automatic writing
technic proposed by the Surrealists on both of this sources. Perhaps I thought, automatic writing
can work to release imaginations and unexpected forms of knowledges from the unconscious, but
it might also prove counterproductive outside of the frame of its own incoherent coherence as one
tries to make a point with it.!
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AN EVENT, A PLEDGE TO THE SITE

Dear site, you are our site, we love you site, we are here to be with you. We could be at any other site
but we are here, we decided to join this site because we find ourselves linked to this site, it means
something to us, yes it does! At this moment we could be at any other site, for example we could be
laying in the sun in the Bahamas, in a nice sunny beach, with soft white sand, playing ball and zipping
pia coladas, we could be there dancing lambada, chasing each other, having a blast, we could be there
frolicking about, like mad, like there was no tomorrow, we could be there going all loco on each other,
we could be there starting a massive orgy with food and booze for everyone, we could be there
spending money like people in rap videos, yes all that money we spend on nukes we could just spend it

4 Situationist International Online, Situationist International Archive http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/index.html

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 there, yes! we could be throwing
the house out of the roof, we
could be doing that, like there
was no tomorrow. Instead, we
are here, we are here with you
site, we are here specifically for
you, with all the specificity that
you demand, we respond! We are
here site, we are here to listen to
your discourses, we are here at
this site for this situation, for this
event, we respond to you site,
yes we do! We say: ask us for
more site! We say: give us all your
demands! We say: be as specific,
as discursive, as eventful and as
responsive as you want. We will be there, we will be there, we will be there, we will be there, that we
promise and pledge to. We will be there, even if we have to stop doing whatever we are doing, just howl
for us site and we will be there! We will be there even if we are about to go somewhere else, really, we
will! We will be there even if we are tired, moody, cranky, sad or depressed, whatever! You are the site,
our site, for that we pledge!

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In this sense, I would like to bring forth the notion of building a framework, because although I feel
that this step of the process is immensely necessary, I also beginning to believe that, as I put the
project together and as it evolves, I note that it is not only through the building of a rigid structure
that things come together, but also through the interventions of the unexpected that matters
become expanded and enriched. Hence, I am drawn to believe that this can only be achieved by
allowing the presence of flexibility as an operative condition of the framework, if it is that
imagination and unexpected encounters are to be part of the value scale in developing a method of
methods, and consequently expansions in the production of knowledges.!
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Essentially, I will like to establish that my approach is not necessarily to build a theory, or a
method, or to draw conclusions or define a single question. Rather, the attempt of this project, is
not one but many, it is about methods, rather than method, it is also about bringing forth
knowledges, images, affections, thoughts and reflections on bodily and spatiotemporal notions
through different means and devices that come about throughout processes and interactions. I am
talking about things and interrelations assembled together, through the articulation of a collective
curatorial proposal that induces simultaneous participation of artists and theoreticians, to work
within the confines of an elastic frame on a specific topic. The topic in this case becomes porous
inevitably, but still, we will be able to produce coherent outputs and products in the form of
artworks, texts, exhibitions, conversations and archives. !
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The Project!
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For this specific project 1 Kilometro En La Ciudad, I have decided to base it and operate it
(g)locally in Guatemala, more precisely, in Guatemala City. By using the term (g)locally here, I am
referring to the notion proposed by sociologist Roland Robertson, which refers to a concept that
describes an individual, group, organization, product or service that reflects not only a global
standard but also local one. Possibly meaning in this case, that the conceptual core of the project
and its operational structures could be implemented in a variety of contextual propositions, and not
necessarily only in the local.!
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This past summer(August 2013), I shortlisted a group of fourteen established professionals in
Guatemala, this list included, artists, theoreticians and writers, which I invited to collaborate in the

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creation of an art/research project, based through the means of an electronic content platform, via
a website, which would eventually, lead to production of a symposium and an exhibition. !
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After contacting them, I met them individually in pseudo informal fashion and invited each one,
personally, to partake on the project. In my informal verbal-presential presentation I explain to them
that the project was an art practice and research venue, primarily concerned in producing
singularities by the means of placing a concept in an specific context. For the case of this project,
the concept was about the relationships between the bodily and the spatiotemporal, and that the
context was to be the city of Guatemala in its total particularity, while simultaneously thinking of
the city as if it was any other city in the world. Following, I manifested that they had to personally
choose and locate one kilometre in the city from their own preference, and that it was also crucial
that they would develop a personal set of relations to the notion body-space-time. !
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Ill specify here. At first, I stated why I had individually chosen him or her as a contributor. Secondly,
I explained that the project was about looking and engaging into an exploration on bodily and
spatiotemporal matters within the frame of Art & Research, in which the output was to be the
production of a document that could manifest either the fabrication of a form of text, or the
materialisation of an artistic product. Thirdly, I gave a general point of view to justify the concept in
the proposition, in which I briefly and somehow carelessly talked about the awareness of ones
own body in different contexts (riding the bus, being in a shopping centre, walking a particular
street, entering an institution, etc.) and how those different interactions produce different forms of
relations and behaviours, and ways of thinking about oneself and the others, in bodily and
spatiotemporal relations. !
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Lastly, I noted that as I continued my explanation, I was in most cases, prompted by the
participants to suggest them literature or other forms of reference. To these obvious requests I
systematically and consequently responded quite obliquely, and replied by accentuating the fact
that by no means they had to feel an obligation to link specifically to my discourse, which in any
case I never did truly reveal. Rather, I suggested that the idea behind the project was that each
participant should find their own path and produce their own singularity, so once all the materials
were collected, we could actually construct somewhat of a disparate constellation in which the
different outputs could produce unexpected associations and dissociations between them. !
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A couple of days following the meeting with each contributor, I send them the following information
via a personalised email, so they could keep something basic in a written form, as a type of
reference, while their idea will develop in concept and form: !
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Dear (Collaborator): !
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In this email I am including you a official map of Guatemala City for you to
locate your very own kilometre, and also I am including some technical
aspects of the project which include formats and deadlines. Although ever
contributor is free to produce whatever he or she wants, and besides
naming these practical technicalities, I am also adding a basic reference to
what has to be clearly readable in the final output of your contribution for
the project to be considered and included:!
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-Concept: Body and Space, or the body in a space, or the effect of space
on and in the body, or a body traversing space. Thinking of the body, my
body, a body, your body, many bodies. A space, your space. Thinking of
other variations on relations that orbit around possible constellations related
to this concept. !
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-Context: Every author chooses one kilometre, one kilometre within the
confines and perimeters of Guatemala City. The distance does not have to

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be millimetrically chosen and outlined, but it should be closely related to the
measurement of a kilometre. !
Thanks again for your help and participation, I will keep you updated and
notified once the platform is set-up at the following address: http://www.
1kilometroenlaciudad.com!
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After setting-up this process in motion I left Guatemala and came back to the Netherlands where I
have been communicating and collecting the data from the different contributors in the last months.
Although communicational devices today allow one, to be anywhere connected to anyone, it also
has proven quite the opposite, as I realise that distance, does indeed fade the immediacy of
interactions and engagements. !
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Let me add that besides a couple of set-backs that have emerged and delayed the project, it has
not been totally counterproductive, rather, the actual slowing down of it all, has brought and build
unexpected layers of intricacy in the project. For example, I note that as I have also began to
discuss the project among peers, those conversations and the ideas that have emerged from
them, have led me to re-think on alternatives or possible ways in which the magnitud of this project
could be enhanced for its impact, or in any case how it could be expanded to break through other
spheres. !
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Progress / Evolution!
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Currently, between myself and one of the main collaborators we are designing the architecture and
the structure of the website in which the 1 Kilometro En La Ciudad project will be based. One of
our main considerations has been to pay special attention to the fact that while indeed, we are
building an archive, we certainly do not want that the authors contributions to just become another
bulk of data. In conceptualising the space of display for this site, we want to incorporate the notion
of an eventful experience for each visit. We are orbiting around the following concepts while we
develop the site: Public Event, Public Site. From a Public Web-Site, to a Public Physical-Site. !

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In this regard, as one solution for example, we are working with software that is site responsive,
meaning that each time the site opens in a different screen or computer, it will first automatically
adjust the format into the specific screen, while simultaneously it will also produce a randomisation
of content as an opening page, giving highlight to different authors each time. Another feature we
are working on, is the tagging and the categorisation of content to facilitate the inner-search
modes.!
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The Expansion of the Project, an Expanded Projection.!
One of the ideas that was brought forward in the discussions of the tutorial, was related to the
possibility of expanding the project, and of finding ways to include and invite foreign participants to
contribute in the venue. Casually on my last visit to Guatemala I was invited to present a proposal
for the 2015 Guatemala City as Cultural Capital of Latinamerica event, which seems to be the
perfect place and moment to expand the potentialities of such a project and test its capacities to go
monumental. !
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For the follow-up of this proposal I am elaborating now, I have chosen the following working title:!
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The Inside In The Outside
A Constellational Project to Open Conversations and Questions
of the Inner Urban Life and Its Perception in the Public Through the
Production of Events and Interventions in a Re-Contextualization
of the Monumental Avenida de Las Americas in Guatemala City
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Although this new branch of the project appears to be pointing towards another concern as that of
the 1 Kilometro En La Ciudad project, it actually still retains the previous conceptual framework,
and in any case it just a variation, which will aid to develop a more kaleidoscopic view on the
matters of concern. In this case I will like to push more towards concepts that propose SITES as
possible points of detonation. Collaborations / Activities / Exchange. The local - The international in
opposition and complicity. Re-position the notion of the exotic GAZE / exoticizing the other / to self-
exoticize oneself for self-examinatory purposes. !
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Conceptually and technically, I will operate and develop the coming phases of the project in a
similar fashion as stated above, but in this case, since the proposal might have to go through a
series of protocolary filters, I have also decided to add some more layers of content to its frame.
For example I will add the current project and the website, and propose it as a sort of working
content base laboratory, I am inviting a group young international artists to design a proposal for
the event within the frame I have been working on which will be added. !
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On the other hand I also find it important to develop a working definition of art in order to delineate
certain parameters within the project and also to give it a certain point of reference, or point of
departure.!
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Beyond the mere creation and contemplation of cultural objects, Art can also
detonate potentialities while proposing unexpected ENCOUNTERS and
alternative forms of SEEING and FEELING that connect the peoples and their
surroundings, enabling people to re-interpret and re-appropriate contexts in the
public sphere. The CITY is for everyone, the city is everyone. The One as many,
the many as one. The site and its relation to the people as an artistic concern. !
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Since the project aims to go out in to the public with the public, the following diagram has helped
me to constitute an idea of how to incite certain energies into the evolution of the project as it
moves on.!
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! ----> An EVENT becomes public ---> the public makes an event ---> the public appropriates the
event ---> the event produces agencies ---> the temporal event becomes, recurrent, habitual,
permanent ---> a site is proposed ---> a site is erected ---> the public appropriates the public --->
from PRECARITY to PERMANENCE ---> the MONUMENT becomes ---> The Monument is at once
the confidant of the people , the instrument of its creation and its representative in their absence.!

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In Conclusion!
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Although partly unexpected and partly motivated, the proposal is evolving into a dynamic and
multifarious project, a project which will probably continue to unfold and bloom in a frame of time
relatively longer than that of the tutorial. In this sense, it will be probably difficult to asses the
totality of the project, but nevertheless, I consider that this tutorial was very helpful to conceived
some of the ideas hereto presented. During the program, I was constantly encouraged to push
myself and find my way around the ideas I presented, an activity which consequently led me to
understand the value of persuasion when it comes to developing complex projects. !
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