Enrique Ruiz Acosta, Mexico

Residency Period: 1 November 2014 - 31 October 2015


Bio

Mexican artist Enrique Ruiz Acosta studied at the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Artes Visuales from 1979 to 1985 in Monterrey Mexico after which he spent time in Germany and Europe for two years, where he was exposed to various mainstream cultural movements. He then returned to Mexico and began his career as an artist while teaching at his University. He was part of a generation of artists who enjoyed a local prestige in Monterrey. In 2008 he began his PHD which has gradually brought him to this hiatus.

URL: enriqueruix.tumblr.com


On-hiatus Proposal Summary

Having worked and well-recognized as an artist in his community, in 2012, various factors in his personal and professional existence led to a re-evaluation of the way he had been conducting his life and career as an artist to this point. He gave up his teaching position at the university and began new pursuits such as meditation, random conversations, poetry workshops etc., as ways to assess where and who he is and where he would like to be. Enrique has reached a hyper-awareness of middle age and the corresponding time remaining for productivity and how exactly he should use it -- a mixture of thoughts and concerns about what to do just before he becomes too old or even perhaps senile. He plans to use his hiatus residency at RFAOH to make the best decisions for his remaining life.


Final Report

And now for something completely different
- Monty Python Flying Circus

No hay mucho que agregar a lo que ya he escrito durante un año. La residencia ha sido una estimulante oportunidad para resolver algunos aspectos de mi crisis, mientras que otros aspectos han permanecido aún a la deriva o irresueltos. Pero sobre todo encontré esta afortunada coincidencia (si es que existen las coincidencias) con un plan al que ahora me estoy impulsando para realizar a partir del 2016, algo que ya he comentado en estos últimos dos meses de residencia. Ha pasado un año y mi percepeción es que casi todo el tiempo de la residencia me sentí motivado a participar. Me hice preguntas necesarias y traté de responderlas. Escribí en español y traduje al inglés. A este complicado ejercicio se agregó el diálogo con los colegas (algunos de ellos, no todos) lo cual fue esencial para clarificar y para ubicar / desubicar las diferentes posiciones que tenemos frente al mundo del arte. Ha sido difícil al mismo tiempo que un poco extraño y otro poco cómico. Creo que las diferencias interculturales a veces dejaron huecos en las conversaciones imposibles de resolver.

There isn't much to add to what I already have written in one year. The residence has been an exciting opportunity to solve some aspects of my crisis, while other aspects have still remained unresolved or still drifting. But above all I found this lucky coincidence (if coincidences exist) with a plan that I'm pushing for, and that will start in 2016, something I have mentioned in the last two months of the residence. A year is gone, and my perception is that almost every moment I felt motivated to participate in this peculiar residence. I asked necessary questions and tried to answer them. I wrote in Spanish and translated it into English. In this complicated exercise, the dialogue with colleagues (some of them, not all of them) was essential to clarify and to locate/dislocate some of the different positions we have concerning the world of art. It was difficult but at the same time a little odd, and a little funny sometimes. I think cultural differences sometimes leave gaps behind impossible to solve.


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recent comments


3

 

 

 

en el futuro, una de las posibles salidas a mi no-actividad (mi hiatus) podría ser la escritura

he tratado de escribir poesía o narrativa pero estoy mas cerca de la prosa poética, que es una escritura que mezcla ideas, ficción, estados del ser y figuras poéticas; este ejercicio de arriba sirve como ejemplo, fue mi entrega final en un taller de poesía que tomé con katia ibarra que finalizó en octubre de 2014

además de la prosa poética, me interesa hacer una fusión entre palabras e imágenes

esto se debe a mis vínculos con las artes visuales pero también a que me siento desbordado por el frenesí de las imágenes que circulan en los massmedia y el internet; es algo que no me intimida, ni me atropella, sólo me sobrepasa; la información me parece inagotable, sorprendente, pero también distractiva

tengo guardados cientos de fragmentos de textos que he escrito y miles de imágenes que he bajado de internet, pero que aún no les he dado forma ni orden; es como una memoria incansable, inequívoca, de lo que me atrae y me interesa, son bocetos de ideas que quiero desarrollar; estos archivos de textos e imágenes en mi computadora están a la espera de encontrar su camino… quizá aquel ejercicio final del taller de poesía me permitió imaginar una posible salida

aqui pueden bajar mi ejercicio final si lo desean; está en formato pdf; se imprime por ambas caras en una hoja tamaño carta, y se dobla a la mitad, como un zine (en español solamente, lo siento):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/omj4v3c0oonwsvo/3.%20num2.pdf?dl=0

 

• • • • •

 

in the future, one of the possible solutions to my non-activity (my hiatus) could be writing

I tried to write poetry or fiction but I’m closer to the poetic prose, which is a type of writing that mixes ideas, fiction, states of the being and poetic figures; this exercise above serves as an example, it was my final delivery at a poetry workshop that I took with katia ibarra, that ended in october 2014

in addition to poetic prose, i’m interested in a link-up between words and images

this is due to my training in the visual arts but also because I feel overwhelmed by the raving of the images that circulate in the mass media and the internet; it’s something that doesn’t intimidate me, but i feel they go beyond me; information seems inexhaustible, surprising but also distracting for everyone

I have saved hundreds of fragments of texts I have written, and thousands of images I have downloaded from the internet, but I haven’t yet given them form or order; it is like a tireless unequivocal memory of what attracts me and interests me; they are like sketches of ideas that I want to develop; these texts and images files on my computer are waiting to find their way … maybe that final exercise of poetry workshop allowed me to imagine a way out

here you can download that final delivery if you wish; is a pdf format; you may print it on both sides on a letter size paper, and fold it in half, like a zine (in spanish only, sorry):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/omj4v3c0oonwsvo/3.%20num2.pdf?dl=0

Leave a Comment (8)

shinobu wrote on Jan 10:

Rhetoric rules. In human society. (not in the bunny world)

enrique wrote on Jan 9:

I can see that, the moving borders are in a different place in a new space-time geography, (and I feel myself misplaced, no problem…) this article that kelly shares with us approaches some ideas about it... although my words may sound as an "art world" defense, they are not; what I'm trying to point out is that all of it is just a tangible statement, fragile as all the statements may be, but still effective when you want to be in some places, like a biennial, some galleries or certain art magazines… the things I do now aren't meant to fit in the art world, and that's like a prerogative... but I agree, maybe we ought speak less from "art", or further more, vanish this word from our vocabulary (yei!), and talk more of other activities: creative or "entrepreneurial" post-industrial activities, as the article claims... but I feel that we still remain in some statement debate, (what should we call it now? are we ready to drop that concept?)... all my "artist" life was a continuous question about it, and many of my activities in the past were meant to disagree or dislocate these conditions, while some other activities were useful to procure economic resources ("practical survival" as you may say)... what I found throughout that is that the subjectivity is the most important thing a subject may own; therein you may find creativity, obedience - disobedience, changing identities, affections, emotions, expressions, (un)discipline, and so on... subjectivity is an important ingredient on the web, if not the main, for example… so i guess my question could be: what is important to take care within oneself? my opinion is that a hiatus may be always useful to provide an answer... saludos afectuosos desde algún lugar en méxico!

shinobu wrote on Jan 8:

What I mean is nowadays, at least where I am doing it, "things" (try to or need to or just do) exist in more varied and complex places than they did in the past. (this applies to those "people" making/doing it, too) I think it'll be also interesting to have Heather, another resident starting next month, who is a "self-taught conceptual artist" who'll explore the exact thing we are talking about in her own way. And, this is why we love having international participants here, to give a wider perspective to the "criteria" or "identity" that we, in this industry seem to follow or believe in, while I am clearly aware that that is a matter of practical survival. Muchas gracias por su contribución, Enrique!

Enrique wrote on Jan 7:

i guess so, shinobu... hehe, i'm not sure that i'm translating the words accurate to the ideas, sorry about that; but what do you mean that "we surely need lots of space"?...
what i mean is that there may be a specific situation in making art: the artist being, and first of all, he/she chooses if a work is something to be called art, or not... i mean that this statement is like a point of breakdown for the "things" called art... after that, the institution may confirm (or denied) if that artist's pretentiousness may have a place in the art world... of course there are a few exceptions to this, when some pieces are rescued from the trash can (Kafka's Metamorphosis for example) or from other contexts, but my point of view is that without people who call themselves "artists" (or writers, or musicians), there would not be art-things, nor art-institutions... the issue with the empowerment (and power abuses) between these parts is unequally given, but fortunately it changes all the time... i don't know how this goes in your country (and perhaps you may like to share your experience) but in méxico, art is made by artists, and everything else is not art, very tautological indeed, hehe... i also mean that the artist being (and his conscience) is aware of this potency in the first place, although he is also aware that his art conscience comes from the art-institutions that surrounds and shapes him/her as a contemporary being... very complex...
i guess you must, as owners of this eccentric residence (meaning that is out of the center), take for granted that the hiatus is not art, but also that it's in the nearby, or something like that

que el 2015 sea un buen año para todos !!

shinobu wrote on Jan 5:

Enrique - so you are saying that this "where the thing ends (up at)", physically or conceptually, may determine what the "thing" may be -- we surely need lots of space (:

Mary Kroetsch wrote on Jan 1:

When a writer experiences "Writer's Block" do they not review their notes and previous writings to get re-inspired and find a way back to putting the right words together to begin creating again?
I kind of feel this Hiatus we are all on as time to overcome "Artist's Block". While I don't intend on make any new art, I won't be able to stop myself from reviewing my past works or getting creative nudges through the diaries. I also intend to do a major studio clean out come spring and revisiting the past mistakes stored in oh so many boxes. Who knows; maybe something I deemed not so successful will prompt me to consider making it a success when I finish my Hiatus.

Enrique wrote on Dec 24:

hello shinobu!
thanks for your comment, I think it is not difficult to put a separation line... mmh, this is just an exercise, a result of a poetry workshop (and i'm not a poet), is only a "homework", hehe, and from this point i realized that there might be a way out of my hiatus, something i had not explored before, and also i realize that all the material that could be part of a permanent, customary activity is waiting on my computer.
although I've been saving them, i'm not using those texts and images now, so these material is also on hiatus, as i'm, and i just ponder about it; but either way, it is true, as the figure of King Midas, that everything an artist touches could be used in the art world as representative of something artistic; but it is also clear that the artist is, firstly, who determines where do his (or her) things end… I think that more than a rhetorical or ambiguous question, is a statement, and a positioning, first from the artist, and later from other circumstances.
felices fiestas invernales !!

shinobu wrote on Dec 23:

Hi Enrique, I find it perplexing that you separate this from your "art" activity -- where do you draw the line, that this is not your art project but something else, like, writing with a bunch of found images, or like a hiatus activity -- of course, once again, we are trapped in this rhetorical game, like "why is Milena's gardening not art?" or "why is Ryan's bartending not art?" -- but very curious about your definitions of art and not art or work and hiatus here and I'm sure I'm not the only one!