The creative process in art = creative process in life

The healing potential of a creative process

Performance and Workshop

by Elvira Santamaria Torres

University of Atypical

Performance: 2pm-2.45pm

Workshop: 3pm-6pm

Ledger Studio, 109-113 Royal Avenue, Belfast

contact

amy@univerityofatipycal.org

Elvira’s performance is the result of a long journey of work on vulnerability, death and grief. Elvira has reached a stage in her life and art career in which, looking back, she can recognise elements of her creative process as healing factors from loss, a tragic one in particular, an always-present disability and the adverse effects of a hospitable modernity in which we all live. This performance refers to the ability of human beings to process experiences of this type and return to their most authentic process of life.

Elvira's aim is to pay tribute, through this work, to the entire artistic community, which includes facilitators, administrators and art organisers, for their resilience, their arduous battles and the courage invested against the onslaught of an overwhelming reality. in which the vast majority of us live. " Santamaria tell us: " Artist's communities have arisen precisely from unfavourable conditions in the face of the normative values of our societies, and in most other civilisations throughout history. They have also vindicated the immense effort and dignity of living their particular living conditions, demonstrating that the most valuable existence to live is the one that goes beyond its limits".

Through this performance artwork and an introductory workshop, Elvira wants to pass on some of her latest findings and artistic elaborations, hoping that they will resonate with the viewer's experiences.

To register contact ledgerstudio@universityofatypical.org

Artist Bio:

Elvira Santamaría-Torres was born in 1967 in Mexico City. She completed a Masters's degree in Visual Arts at the University of Ulster in Belfast. Her work focuses on public actions, process art, installation and performance. She is currently based in both Northern Ireland and Mexico.

In 1994, Santamaría-Torres obtained the First award of the 3rd X-Teresa, The Month of Performance Art and was invited to participate in the Rencontre Internationale d'art performance de Québec in the same year. Since then, she has presented her work in festivals, art centres, galleries, museums and public spaces in Mexico, Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. Her most recent public projects include Parábolas de Desalojo y Procesos de Regeneración, 2013-2016 ( Mexico and various Latin American countries); Salt Cartographies in, MACO, Oaxaca, Mexico 2015, Sur Gallery, Toronto 2018; and Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast 2022.

In 2013, Santamaría-Torres was postulated to the Artraker, Awarding Creativity in Art and Conflict in London and was part of the juror for the 2014 award. She is a member of Black Market International, a performance art group. She has organised several events such as the annual International Performance Art Encounter in Yucatán, 2002-2006; InterSER0 I |& II, International Action Art Encounter at the Carrillo Gil Art Museum, 2009, and Humanism in Process: Female Performance Artist at Work 1 & 2, 2019.

Santamaría-Torres conducts workshops and conferences in art centres, universities and museums in Mexico and abroad. She is an actual Member of the National System of Art Creators FONCA-Secretaria de Cultura and Flax Art Studios in Belfast.