júlia mazzoni

The opening talk of the Research Festival at the APT Gallery was a meaningful approach to other forms of communication and to generate conversations. "We always create narratives, histories that live in our heads", David Cotterrel mentioned. To be immersed in a new experience, to look from a different point of view - as it was the method of his work in Afghanistan -, opens space to change the narratives created solely by ourselves, being able to result in direct impacts in the collectiveness. I believe that this is something I aim to do with my practice whilst focusing on the details of the everyday and the possibilities of intimacy.

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The most meaningful part of the event, for me, was the method of making questions that Renee Odjidja presented. During the Q&A session at the end of the talk, the audience was given a ball of wool that was supposed to be thrown around the room to each person who was talking. It resulted in not only a real web of connections, but also in a symbolic and powerful one. To record the journey of questions and answers, of comments and ideas, of human exchange and interaction, was beautiful. It resulted in an object full of knots, parallel lines, crossing lines - physically and metaphorically. To see this aspect of real life (conversations that happen in the everyday) materialized in a textile object was captivating, especially as a visual artist. It was, somehow, a way to materialize ephemerality.