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- TOPIC NO. 1:
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- LA BISAGRA (THE HINGE)
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- The image of a hinge suggests its basic function of connecting
two elements.
- The hinge connects a door or a window,to perhaps a fixed frame
that allows one element to move from one environment into another.
The hinge connects two worlds and thanks to the linkup it creates,
contact and circulation become possible between them. Cultures
today are like living tissues that interface, they have points
of convergence among themselves, and artistic creation is both
the basic cell of cultural expression and cohesion, and the
vehicle that carries oxygen, life-giving stimulus, between the
individual fields of art forms and the individual cultures,
separate yet coexistent, autonomous yet enriched by contact
and encounter.
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- Culture encompasses a huge scope of human creative expression
and it's pretty ambitious to try to reflect that vastness in
La Bisagra. On the other hand, there are many established cultural
venues where artists may exhibit their work, but what happens
to those whose work, for one reason or another, doesn't fit
neatly into the images and categories of "art" that such institutions
are willing to sponsor and promote?
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- This is all I can say in a more-or-less refined and coherent
way. I'm afraid I can only sputter the rest of my thoughts in
fits and starts, in statements that can scarcely claim to be
erudite and intellectual. La Bisagra's future will probably
follow a similar pattern.
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- The infamous word "creativity" that is so readily spoken of
by those who least possess it, is a phenomenon of this nature
that isn't very fond of expressing itself in the world in the
organized way that many would like because the expressions of
the soul do not obey any specific order, and I intuit that La
Bisagra will soon reveal definite leanings toward disorderly
eclecticism and cheerful anarchy.
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- Which will be interesting, because I'd like LB to be an environment
where soulful chaos will find a channel of expression. I am
interested in the personal stamp that each individual can contribute.
I am interested in learning about the delving within that we
carry out to discover what it is that makes us do what we do,
say what we say, feel what we feel.
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- Too many things have already been said about the importance
of what isn't important, about how things should be done, and
especially, many words have been used to define "culture" and
to decide what is not "cultural." Here in LB we don't have a
clue as to its correct definition and I believe that it is not
even important to really know. Within each one of us there is
a Force, a strength that attempts to express itself in the world
we live in.
- This is a chaotic world, repressively organized, inhibiting,
dehumanized and appallingly deceitful. Nevertheless, it is the
world we must live in transform and love. We can at least love
the better parts of it.
- It would be stupid to try to make this Hinge into something
that it isn't, so I'd like to state it clearly from the beginning.
The Hinge is nothing but a simple expression of Force in the
world where we are obliged to exist. It is the sadness of what
we have lost, the joy of what we've found, our tears, laughter,
our personal and collective tragedies, and our hopes for a brighter
future. It is everything that makes us human beings, aspiring
daily for something different, something better than the previous
stages already passed. It is the effort to overcome difficulties
and, in the process, a creating of new forms of communication,
of bridges toward others as well as bridges toward ourselves.
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- In this space everything is diverse; the uniformity that is
so addictive for the system we live in is not a value. Rather,
the most important element at least it is for me -- is the fact
that we are not interested in offering any answers; instead,
we want to set down the conditions for significant creation,
that in turn will generate an essential questioning that can
give real nourishment to a society enfeebled by its diet of
prefabricated answers and flattened horizons.
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- And finally -- to cut to the chase -- please note that La
Bisagra is not meant to be an electronic magazine. It is a channel
of expression and development for people with the desire to
contribute to the construction of a new society. To correctly
understand the meaning of "new," I suggest we reflect on the
fact that the only thing we have that is truly "new" are our
intentions -- intentions that magically recreate reality, day
after day.
- The same intentions that have the power to make us plummet
down to the blackest depths, and rise buoyantly to breath-taking
heights.
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- Let's hope our highest intentions will guide this process.
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- Fernando
- October 30, 1999
(Translated by LIZ MEDINA)
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