Rafael Duarte-Uriza (colombia)

Bio

Colombian transdisciplinary artist and researcher.

Through performances, installations, and sculptures he explores how to expand perception strategies and how it is possible to deal with the tension between everyday life and scientific knowledge.

His artistic practice is nourished by the awareness of breathing in Vipassana meditation and Contact Dance. Through these practices, he sculpts his body to scrutinise how and where relationships are sustained on Earth.

He got his diploma in Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia. He was part of the Cologne Academy of Arts and Media (KHM) in Germany and was one of the guides for the “Sacred Art Experience” at Gorzanów Castle, Poland 2024. Currently, he is studying Geobiology and Biohabitability at GEA, Spanish Geobiological Studies Association.

For the last two years he has been carrying out the the research “Breathe deeply, dwell slowly, walk silently | Georelations and Respiration” with the support of Full Grant Artists Can Serrat El Bruc, Catalunya, Spain; CROSS Award – COLLATERALE Fondazione CROSS Ameno, Italia and Organizmo Foundation, Tenjo, Colombia.

Project

The Earth’s magnetic field extends far beyond the globe, unfolding “invisibly” before our eyes but not before the senses of some beings. When I became aware of the Earth’s magnetic field, the dialogue I had been establishing with places to create an art installation or performance changed completely. Since then I have explored through my art practice how to recover, reconstruct, or reinvent these strategies of perception as a way of incorporating radical interdependence, coexistence, and regeneration into our daily lives.

The article “Inventing Sacred Places: Wooden Sculptures And Placemaking Of Contemporary Landscape” by Mare Kõiva (Estonian Literary Museum) has allowed me to learn about the existence of the wooden pillar in Otepää, southern Estonia, and the one in the Tuhala karst area near Tallinn. Both are wooden sculptures – energy pillars created in the 1990s and located in public spaces.

Through the Residency, I would like to explore how both wooden pillars show a relationship between the manifestations of the Earth and the visitors.