Noticias
With Fonca’s support
Visual artist Niña Yhared presented her proposal Via Baltic at the ArtVilnius 18 Art Fair in Lithuania
July 31, 2018The proposal integrated large format photography, video made with drones and a live performance with Lithuanian actresses and actors to represent a poetic evocation that seeks to cross borders.
With a large-format photography exhibition, video recorded with drones and a live performance featuring Lithuanian actresses and actors, Mexican visual artist Niña Yhared presented Via Baltic at the ArtVilnius '18 Art Fair.
Held as part of the centenary of the Baltic countries - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – from June 7-10, in Lithuania, the fair, which brought together 55 galleries and 250 artists from 20 nations, was the ideal space for Niña Yhered to show her proposal.
Via Baltic is a project produced jointly with Okapi Gallery and directed by the artist Temuri Hvingija, representing his artistic work, whose photographs were taken in the frozen forests of Estonia.
"The exhibition included a performance that makes it very interactive so that it can be experimented with visually and in different ways. It's about combining artistic languages”, said the artist.
"The photographs are the documentation of the performance that was taken in the forest of Viru Raba, Estonia. The aerial views of the photos can also be seen in a movie or video. It is a movie that was made from the performance that was very evocative, because the forests and their lakes are frozen giving a very spectacular view of Estonia’s nature”.
"All this, together with the body, becomes a strong metaphor of migration, of borders, of personal, historical, poetic geographies, in addition to these borders that cross our worlds, that cross different perspectives of humanity, even”.
“The exhibition's curatorship at the contemporary art fair weaves poetic maps that overlap views and stories of Estonia and the Baltic in interconnection with Mexico. The interaction between the two nations is based on my body, my poetic gaze and my gaze as a Mexican artist”, she said.
"I am very interested in talking about the problems and the violence towards the female body. I am also very interested in talking about female migration. I was interested in making a poetic map that could offer another look and broaden our perspectives, our emotions of the stories that cross migrant women around the world”.
"Estonia is a nation that has a very strong history of freedom, where autonomy has been fought for, these points connected very well with our historical context”.
The artist, who has a long history of developing transdisciplinary proposals, explained that making this connection "through travel, through a poetic gaze. When you watch Via Baltic you can transport yourself by air, by metaphorical way to different places. Where there are even no borders. There are no limits. This is what is evocative of the installation and the project".
The performance was described as "a live piece", where she worked with artists from the Lithuanian VDU School of Theatre Art: Lina Žemaitytė, Justina Mitkutė and Margarita Bareikyt.
"The connection was special, through sugar, a representative element of poetry: bitter, sweet, strong, which is physically transformed when used with the body. Another element is the balloons that represent a possible freedom, a possible look at something that can change”.
The proposal sought to interconnect lines and metaphors that make the female migrant body, the geographical borders and walls that obstruct freedom from other angles, look at them in order to offer alternative ways to the socio-political contexts that choose to limit human freedom.
"It is a project that I have been working on, thanks to Okapi Gallery, which has sponsored the recent work of the also visual arts doctor by FAD-UNAM. The stay at the art fair was a product of the Special Support for Artistic Mobility granted by the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (Fonca)”, she said
Niña Yhared is one of Mexico's most internationally renowned artists for her active presence in the Baltic region, and who has attracted attention for her project focused on migration, borders and freedom.
Via Baltic is inspired by the Baltic Road and the historic human chain of 1989 in which 2.5 million people from the three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - came together to proclaim freedom.
In this context she has made her own reading of this historical event, presenting it through a display composed of an exhibition of photographic sounds and images and a live performance.
Niña Yhared has performed more than 200 shows in 17 countries in America, Europe and Asia. She holds a PhD in visual arts, with an Honourable Mention from the Faculty of Arts and Design, National Autonomous University of Mexico (2013-2017) for her research entitled Female Migrations. Journey through the performance creation of women artists in transit on the global scene of the 21st century.
She completed a master's degree in visual arts (FAD, UNAM, 2010-2012), where she graduated with honors for her research entitled Bitácora Mujer, intervenciones públicas, Performance de mujeres artistas en el siglo XXI.
In 2017, Niña Yhared performed at Pärnu Liinaagalerii, Pärnu, Estonia and Okapi Gallery at Tallinn Music Week in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2016, she participated in Last Frontier, New York, Moment, Åland Mariehamn Finland, Tallinn Art Week and Diverse Universe Festival in Riga, Latvia, with the international group Non Grata. In 2018 she presented Via Baltic, an individual exhibition of photography, video and performance at the Contemporary Art Fair ArtVilnius´.
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