2024
Enrique Ramírez
- Music & sound
- Photography
- Sculpture
- Video
- Visual arts
My time, your time, other times
Enrique Ramírez was born in 1979 in Santiago (Chile). He lives and works in Paris and Santiago. He studied popular music and cinema in Chile before joining the Studio National des Arts Contemporains-Le Fresnoy (Tourcoing, France) in 2007. Combining photography, video, music and installations, his art is political and poetic, questioning the meaning of the image and its power. His work is haunted by the sea, which he traveled widely with his father, manufacturer of sails for boats during the Pinochet dictatorship.
Enrique Ramírez
Project
On April 6, 1922, in Paris, the physicist Albert Einstein and the philosopher Henri Bergson publicly debate the concept of time.
The sea has no time, that is to say, we don’t see its time in the aging of the landscape, but in its depths and in what the waters contain. We can look at the sea exactly as it was described in the old books of explorers who traveled the world. But we know that beneath the surface of the sea, animals and vegetation are suffering. The passage of time is hidden…
« My time, your time, other times » is a film and sound sculpture project that uses Einstein and Bergson’s discussion as a metaphor. It’s a starting point to work on two different ideas: the flow of pollutions at sea and the migration of human beings, with emphasis on “time”.
When plastics migrate, how far they travel, in how much time ? Where do they come from, how do they move ? What’s left in the sea as plastics disintegrate? Can our body become a migrating body because of the plastic we carry in our blood? What is the lifespan of plastic? How long does plastic live in our bodies once we eat the fish that have themselves ingested plastic and the chemical pollutants it carries? Can parallels be drawn between certain maritime, tourist or migratory flows and plastics found in the sea?
The sculpture will imitate the sound of the sea thanks to the collection of plastic materials incorporated inside the drum, and the movement will be inspired by that of the schooner Tara.
I would like to work on scientific research conducted on-board Tara in relation to the different political positions around the Mediterranean, which is a place of conflict and perhaps the largest cemetery in the world… Why talk about human migration and the migration of plastics ? Because the schooner Tara is making a journey in a sea that is becoming the largest cemetery in the world because of migratory flows, and also one of the most polluted seas due to plastics. Tara travels studying the chemical compositions of plastic and pollutants, and this plastic is found in a sea filled with political history from which we cannot abstract ourselves.
Discover some of his work inspired by life aboard Tara:
Coming soon
Preliminary project
His works
View of the exhibition Jusque-là, Le Fresnoy. Studio national des arts contemporains and Pinault Collection. Photo: Dmitri Makhomet Courtesy of the artist and Michel Rein, Paris/Brussels.
Ocean 33°02’47”S / 51°04’00”N, 2013. Exhibition view Tu dois changer ta vie! Tripostal, Lille, France, 2015. Collection MoMA, NYC, USA / FRAC PACA, Marseille, France Courtesy of the artist and Michel Rein, Paris/Brussels.
Cruces n°2, 2014-2022. Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris Courtesy of the artist and Michel Rein, Paris/Brussels.Cruces n°2, 2014-2022. Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris Courtesy of the artist and Michel Rein, Paris/Brussels.