Driveruptions (Erupulsões)

2022

“Erupulsões” (“Driveruptions) is a video constructed by many layers of action and meaning, ranging from the materiality of sculpture and painting to the digital image circulating on the internet. The video presents a simulation of a “live” on the artist’s “Youtube” channel, in which an action is shown accompanied by comments in the “chat”. Little by little, the images reveal a reflective narrative about contemporary social, political and cultural conditions, thought from an individual perspective. The work proposes a formal experimentation with modes of narrative creation and self-writing, based on the most popular means of communication today. The process that culminated in this work was awakened by childhood memories resurrected in the first year of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, a tragic atmosphere is added to an ambiguous feeling of “distant proximity”, caused both by the fact that we are experiencing a problem that is both local and global, and by the massive use of virtual networks as the only means of communication. Another element that inspired the production of this work was the eruption of the “Cumbre Vieja” volcano, in Spain, which lasted more than three months. During this period, we were able to follow a flood of high-quality images, produced by cameras, satellites, drones, and broadcast in the media, including several “selfies” of tourists, as well as unusual discussions such as ownership of the “new territory” formed by lava . This situation highlighted an unprecedented type of “live coverage” of potentially catastrophic events, as well as exposing a new facet of human attraction to the aestheticization of dangers.