Antonio Jose Guzman

Antonio Jose Guzman is a Dutch Panamanian visual artist, communication designer and lecturer. He lives and works in Amsterdam, Panama City and Dakar.

Antonio Jose Guzman
Guzman lecturing at Rush Arts New York (Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation)
Born (1971-08-02) 2 August 1971
Panama City, Panama
NationalityNetherlands
EducationGerrit Rietveld Academie, The Netherlands
Known forVideo art
Photography
Installation art
Documentaries
New Media Art
Communication Design
Notable workThe State of L3 (2009),The Day We Surrender to the Air (2009),Piertopolis (2011)
Websitewww.aguzman.com

Early life and career

Guzman was born in Panama City, Panama in 1971. Guzman began studying photography and video, and became interested in Polaroids at early age. In the early 1990s he worked in Panama for the advertising giant Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) Draftfcb as a staff photographer. In the same years he did a series of photo projects for Greenpeace Latin America and was freelance photographer for France Press International. In 1994 he graduated from the Isthmus University. He wrote a thesis on the psychological effects of advertising photography.

In 1997 he moved to Europe and started working as an editorial photographer and art director of different magazines in Barcelona, London and Amsterdam. In 2003 he produced and directed his first documentary, "Representando".[1][2][3][4]

Inspired by various exhibitions of Bill Viola in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and by the Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany. Guzman started studies in 2004 on audiovisual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie of Amsterdam. At the Rietveld he began to work with gravitational issues, migration and the life of one of his heroes, the late Dutch California based artist Bas Jan Ader. Guzman's examination project "Gravitational Experiences",[5] was a series of multiple channel installations and the documentary "The Miracle".[6]

Besides his individual art practice, Guzman is a lecturer and the founder of The State of L3 Contemporary Arts and Film Collective, the Communication Design studio Noisy Networks, and the visual arts atelier GF Workstation Amsterdam.[7][8]

Work

Guzman works on research projects inspired by DNA, scientific research, migration, gravity and architectonic utopias. Guzman's oeuvre features installations, photography, sculptures, interventions, documentaries, films, sounds, single- and multichannel videos and publications. His projects allow us to cross different time zones, unexplored worlds and realms; bringing us into what Guzman calls time travel perceptions.

Chain Diary

Between 2007 and 2010 he took part in the nomadic exhibition Multiple M, in which he participated with his international interactive multimedia project Chain Diary.[9]

The State of L3

After the success of Chain Diary he developed the project State of L3 where he asks artists in Brazil, The Netherlands and Senegal to upload their work onto a database so that their partners and later on other visitors can access, watch and react with their own ideas to what they see. In this way the database will create an ever-growing and expanding online community based on either personal histories or just interest in Africa and all its cultural and social expansions over the entire globe.

The project brings together their thoughts, ideas, experiences, dialogues and virtual exchange in the L3 virtual database. The State of L3 explores with multimedia installations as a medium for a documentary on transatlantic networks and the artists reflections on the Black Atlantic African world, the symbiosis that exist between people of African descent and their position in the contemporary society as well as the historic perspective and the colonial past of the countries of origin of the artists. The project was supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, the VSB Foundation, the Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) and Erfgoed Nederland.

The Day We Surrender to the Air

The State of L3 was developed at the same time that Guzman started the documentary trilogy The Day We Surrender to the Air, a documentary based on the results of Guzman's DNA test. This DNA test, executed by the National Geographic Genographic Project and African Ancestry, shows Guzman's mixed background. In the documentary, Guzman travels to the places of his ancestry and brings to the front various questions considering ethnic identity, migration and Diaspora. The trilogy was supported by The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB). The documentary had its premiere at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA),[10] before going on international tour in 2010. The Day We Surrender to the Air, Episode Two was firstly shown at The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2010 in Greece and the Africa in the Picture film festival, Amsterdam.

Piertopolis

Guzman's research for multiple connections worldwide has defined and shaped his vision and artistic iconography, after an extensive family ancestry and DNA research Guzman jump into a bigger boat, that will define sociologically the whole humanity in his following projects Piertopolis, D.A.T.E.D Paris[11] and Psychogeographic Mapping Project.

Piertopolis is inspired by New Babylon of COBRA artist Constant, Piertopolis features an architectural design for an installation of a life-size landscape made out of piers and walking bridges. The project is supported by the Amsterdam Foundation for the Arts. AFK and by the Mondriaan Fonds.

The Piertopolis exhibition at Gemak in January 2012 converted the entire museum into a Buckminster Fuller / New Babylon (Constant Nieuwenhuys) idealistic Utopian architectonic landscape for a future society.[12][13] His film the 'Legend of Billy Maclean' premièred in the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, India's premier cultural institution and his project DATED performed at the Divan Du Monde and Petit Ban in Paris (invited by Dimanche Rouge). For DATED Guzman made live assemblages of his documentaries 'The Day We Surrender to The Air' and 'The Legend of Billy Maclean', to the singing and voice of American artist Aurora Adams. DATED is inspired by the novel Rayuela, from the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar.

Los Angeles Mapping Project

Los Angeles Mapping Project is a Psychogeographic Research of the population demographics and transit of different district and neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The Project explore the Psychogeography idea of the city using new social networks. Inspired by Guy Debord "unitary urbanism", the information from the research was transform into data visualization maps, that generate an idea on how the district and neighborhoods of Los Angeles are forming itself towards the future, the maps demonstrate areas of Transculturalism or homogeneous cultures, incomes and preferences.

Articles on Los Angeles Mapping Project (Psychogeographic Mapping) by Dutch Art Events, Void Gallery Amsterdam, The Windward School, Los Angeles and art critic Rob Perrée[14][15][16][17]

Exhibitions

Guzman's work has been included in group exhibitions in the MHKA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; Gemak de Vrije Academie, The Hague; Smart Project Space, Amsterdam; Gallery Image, Arhus, Denmark; Knipsu Art Space, Bergen, Norway; Moretti and Moretti, Paris; and in the Corridor Gallery, New York City. He participated in the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates 2011, Panama Biennial and in the Dakar Biennale, Senegal, 2010.

Guzman has been given lectures at The New School New York; the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem; the DAI Artez Master School program, Tent Rotterdam; IDFA The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam; Windward School Los Angeles and Det Jyske Kunstakademi, Aarhus, Denmark.

  • Guzman at The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA)
    Guzman at The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA)
  • Projection of Guzman's short film The Miracle. Tower of hour, Echtenstein Ateliers
    Projection of Guzman's short film The Miracle. Tower of hour, Echtenstein Ateliers
  • Guzman at Smart Project Space
    Guzman at Smart Project Space
  • Guzman Project Piertopolis Museum Kromhout Amsterdam
    Guzman Project Piertopolis Museum Kromhout Amsterdam
  • Guzman Dakar Biennial Projections
    Guzman Dakar Biennial Projections
  • Guzman at MHKA Antwerp
    Guzman at MHKA Antwerp
  • "The Day We Surrender to the Air" Press Conference Thessaloniki Film Festival
    "The Day We Surrender to the Air" Press Conference Thessaloniki Film Festival
  • The Miracle Poster
    The Miracle Poster

References
  1. Mickael Boshuijer – LA Cine festivalkrant. "Representando: hip-hop als troost, Interview met regisseur Antonio Jose Guzman" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Plan Noticias, 13 May 2005.
  2. Equipo Roca. "Representando at the Latin American Film Festival in London", Equipo Roca A Cross Cultural Marketing Firm, 29 November 2006.
  3. ROTL Berlin. "ROTL the Rhythm of the Line Berlin Film Festival " Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, January 2006.
  4. Penultimos Dias. "Penultimos Dias" Archived 15 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, May 2007.
  5. GRAC. "Rietveld Class 2006", Gerrit Rietveld Academie, 13 May 2005.
  6. NFF. "The Miracle (El Milagroso) Regisseur Antonio Guzman", Nederlands Film Festival, 13 May 2005.
  7. "artdiscover.com Antonio Jose Guzman", Art Discover, Art Discover Database.
  8. "IDFA, Antonio Jose Guzman" Archived 4 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, IDFA, IDFA Industry Database.
  9. Kosmopolis Org. "Kosmopolis Rotterdam, Chain Diary, Antonio Guzman", Kosmopolis, Sept 2007.
  10. "The Day we Surrender to the Air" Archived 2 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine, IDFA, 3 November 2009.
  11. "D.A.T.E.D", D.A.T.E.D.
  12. "Guzman's Piertopolis in Gemak" Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Mister Montley, 3 February 2012.
  13. "Piertopolis in Gemak", Gemak, January 2012.
  14. "Antonio Jose Guzman is artist in-residence at the Windward School, Los Angeles, CA", Dutch Art Events, 6 February 2013 by Robert Kloos.
  15. "Mapping Los Angeles at Void Gallery a project by Antonio Jose Guzman", Srananart's Blog, 28 May 2013 by Rob Perrée .
  16. "Mapping Los Angeles at Void Gallery a project by Antonio Jose Guzman", Void Gallery Blog, May 2013 .
  17. "Mapping Los Angeles at Windward School a project by Antonio Jose Guzman", Windward School, February 2013.

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