Cigarrillo 43

With this work I invite the viewer to a trip to my past, with a game from my childhood typical of all the recesses during my time in primary school, Cigarette 43. This game takes place in the corner of the gymnasium of the school where I spent kindergarten, primary and secondary school, a place that was the default place to play Cigarette 43 or hide and seek. In this way I show a place that became nostalgic for me and takes me back to the days where I saw my closest friends every day without fail. In the game I find myself present going towards my girl self from the past, and once I reach her following the rules of the game, the bell rings and the recess ends. Thus I access a kind of museum of moments from the past that in some way I feel present in me and that I feel that in a certain way form my essence.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

“Filliou, whose motto was «permanent creation», saw in creation a process of evolution in which everyone could participate. For this he offered us the indispensable tools, «imagination» and «innocence» […]” Fricke, New Media.

In my work I return to my center, to my past, and I go to my inner child. I return to it to exercise again that childish gift of creativity. Before, we were able to create a game in minutes for each recess, we naturally used the fundamental tools to create, imagination and innocence, as Filliou said. This is why every time I create, my inner child “appears” and allows me to see new ideas in an innocent and unprejudiced way, giving me more creative capacity. “It appears” in quotes because it is always there, present in me, in my way of being, and it always will be, the past cannot be erased and will always be alive in us in the same way that I will always be alive in my future self.

In semiotics we saw a phrase that I did not understand from the teacher who was the author, but the phrase said like this “I am still the child that I am no longer and I continue to be and I am being the old man that I am not yet and I am already being.” Personally, I find a lot of truth in this phrase since how I was and how I am will always mark my essence. All my versions of the past coexist within me and form me as I am today, everything that happened to me and everything that happens to me defines me and my way of creating, and I will always be in constant evolution, but I will never lose my past.

“Poussin’s painting, in its exquisite workmanship, in its museum-like timelessness, is the document, written in code, of a history of experience, nostalgia […]” Aira, On contemporary art.

According to the RAE, nostalgia is defined as sadness felt by being far from loved people or places, or by the memory of something lost.

My past will always be present in me because I did not let it die, perhaps I am a nostalgic person who lives in moments of the past missing very important people for me who are too far away for my liking, but it is the past that helps me evolve since with each experience I learn and grow, and those people who are part of my past are also an important part of me and luckily a large part continue to be part of my present and continue to help me develop as a person.

Literature

FRICKE, Christiane. (1999). Nuevos Medios. AIRA, César. (2013). Sobre el arte contemporáneo. Real Academia Española, definición de “nostalgia”.