Rodrigo Ghattas-Pérez

‘small’–gestures | Rodrigo Ghattas-Pérez

latino-arab artist & ‘slow-down’ activist

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©2020 illustration Miranda Orrego

LATEST & UPCOMING
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• Jul-Sep 2021: Artist in residence – f.eks., Denmark
• Jun. 2021: Kritikersamtaler – VISP, Norway
• May. 2021: Matchmaking for mangfold i kultursektoren – Verdensrommet, Kulturrådet, Norway
• Apr. 2021: Dirt Exchanges V.1 – self-publishing
• Apr. 2021: Newsletter #2
• Mar. 2021 – 2022: Deputy board member UKS (Young Artists’ Society), Norway
• Dec. 2020: Guest Community Conversation – Culture for Solidarity – European Cultural Foundation
• Dec. 2020 – Jun. 2021: Project & Podcast Care Day, Culture Lab Europe – European Cultural Foundation
• Oct. 2020: Guest Ep. 20 Aspirant – Tenthaus Radio, Norway
• Oct. 2020: Newsletter #1
• Oct. 2020-2021: Project, Echo-swing | Prelude [volunteer-run art networks in rural Norway], collaboration with the Glasslåven Venneforening and Randsfjordmuseet, Norway
• Oct. 2020: Participant (The Union), CCSC Urban Exploration – Trans Europe Halles, Romania (postponed)
• Oct. 2020: Editor, Dysfunctional Deconstructions – Bobrikova&deCarmen, Norway
• Sep. 2020: Participant, DKS Testlab – Kunsthall Trondheim, Norway
• Sep. 2020: Guest, Podcast w. Lina Issa – Radio Commons, France
• Sep. 2020: Artist in residence, Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem, Palestine (postponed)
• Aug. 2020: Participant, IECES / anti-symposium, Sweden (postponed)
• Jul. 2020: Guest, Podcast Ep.66 identidad vs colonización cultural desde el arte urbano –Colectivo Iniciativa Ciudadana – Diálogo Ciudadano, Peru
• May-Dec 2020: Artist in residence – Glasslåven Kunstsenter, Norway
• Apr. 2020: Participant, Culture Lab Europe – Spaces for Solidarity / European Cultural Foundation, Croatia
• Mar. 2020: Co-initiator Verdensrommet | mutual support network for immigrant artists, Norway
• Mar. 2020: Author, Resource document on non-EU artists’ immigration, Covid-19 & professional life – UKS (Young Artists’ Society), Norway
• Mar. 2020: Co-founder, Machaqmara Civic Art House, Peru
• Feb. 2020: Co-founder, The Union (artist-led mediation platform), Norway
• Oct. 2019: Event, The Institute of the Unexpected [Ambulante event] in collaboration w. Kitchen Dialogues, Norway
• Apr-Oct 2019: Project, The Institute of the Unexpected, in collaboration with Karnevalet and the Interkulturelt Museum, Norway

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WHAT IM CURRENTLY LISTENING TO

True Currency: About Feminist Economics Podcast · True Currency – Trailer

the role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.

—Toni Cade Bambara

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Content

(K)HE NOS QUEDA?

Publicado: 2021-04-18Rodrigo Ghattas “(K)he nos queda”? Para empezar, quizás una autocrítica sobre nuestro envolvimiento en la participación ciudadana y política del país. Qué hemos hecho más allá de las predeterminadas expectativas del actual sistema hypercapitalista (paga impuestos, haz más plata, auto-explótate, se conchudo, se egoísta, etc.)? Hemos acaso, si quiera, tratado de entrenar nuestro pensamiento

ECHO-SWING | talk series

Gatherings with/by/for Granavollen’s women-run volunteer art network Over the course of 22 gatherings in 2021, a group of six women volunteers, a handful of collaborators, and an artist will gather biweekly to reflect on the core issues of the history and influence of women-run volunteer art networks in rural Norway. We initiate informal discussions on

ECHO-SWING | prelude

Echo-swing | Prelude encompasses the first stage of a two-year artistic research project; a series of talks/gatherings in 2021 and a group of three swing-sculptures in Granavollen public spaces. The swings are preceded by efforts on research, community engagement, community design workshops, and a series of academic events—on the history and influence of women-run volunteer

LISTEN | audial self-di·ag·no·ses [self-dahy-uhg-noh-seez]

I don’t have access to social well-being assistance, so every now and then, I talk to myself and self-diagnose. rocofella · audio diagnosis #1 rocofella · self-diagnosis #2 I always wonder how a “socialism reggaetoniano” would sound like, so I made these homemade samples mixing few Latin American socialist speeches from the ’70s and ’80s

VERDENSROMMET | history

Verdensrommet is an artist-led grassroots and mutual support network for non-EU and international artists and cultural workers based in Norway. We do art and political activism, guidance, advocacy, creative networks, and provide tools to strengthen interdiasporic art practices. Addressing critical migratory, economic, and labor concerns of this arts community. The network was established in March

CARE DAY | Ecology of Care

Care Day is a continuation of an intimate practice-based research started as a part of Culture for Solidarity in June 2020 by Ecology of Care (Sofia Cartuccia, Djuro Grdinic, Lina Issa and myself). Back then, we built a collective methodology that now serves as a ground for further exploration on current social urgencies such as

CIVIL IMPOTENCE & ART | on Peru’s new political turmoil

written by Rodrigo Ghattas-Pérez I must start this writing by acknowledging, and helplessly admitting a cynical and adventurous blend [for the purpose of this writing] of the political views of five of my must-read authors: Peruvian intellectual, essayist and poet Sebastián Salazar Bondy; Canadian writer and activist AK Thompson; French novelist, pro-revolt, and political activist

TRACING YELLOW | The Swing & The Bench

The Swing & The Bench is an art intervention, more precisely, a documentation event. A final experiential setting to revisit, one-on-one, three projects (the Tracing Yellow series) previously developed in the city of Oslo. The audience attending the MFA Grad Show at KHiO (Oslo National Academy of the Arts) in 2018, had the opportunity to

COLECTIVO INICIATIVA CIUDADANA – DIÁLOGO CIUDADANO | ep.66 identidad vs colonización cultural desde el arte urbano

Coach Renzo Cárdenas entrevista a Rodrigo Ghattas, máster en gestión del arte y espacio urbano, artista visual independiente, organizador de artes comunitarias, con raíces peruano-palestinas. Quien desde Noruega, en su practica artística, explora la inteligencia colectiva comunitaria, la escultura relacional, y las prácticas de cuidado-mutuo y atención multidireccional en el espacio público. Además, es co-fundador

RESOURCE DOCUMENT | on non-EU artists’ immigration, covid-19 & professional life

written by Rodrigo Ghattascommissioned by UKS (Unge Kunstneres Samfund) The economic implications by the Coronavirus outbreak has severely hit the already precarious situation of many artists in Norway, in particular non-European artists. Most exhibitions, projects, art residencies, and other artistic and cultural events have been cancelled. Leaving the artists with no source of income. For

MACHAQMARA | Civic Art House

We are working hard to ensure that Peruvian artists continue to thrive and work in the aftermath of a world’s pandemic that has placed us all in a crossroad. Machaqmara’s Civic Art House proposes the first social housing project for artists in the country, located in Punta Negra district in Lima. Artists, like everyone else,

THE UNION | open call

The Union is offering an artist-in-residence program “Hjemmefra/low-residency” for Norway-based visual artists working or wanting to stop working in various creative fields to stay at home and to engage in non-creation, non-production, non-thematic and non-research residency activities. The residency will offer an intimate space for reflection at the intersection of art and life practices. The online initiative

READING TIME | here we come and we don´t care mucho

Here we come and we don´t care mucho. It seems to be a good phrase to describe the internal force that drives the society in which we live nowadays; every time I get on the bus, walking the streets or a good song jumps into my ears from my Spotify playlist, I forced myself to

READING TIME | in conversation with Svein Bjørkås

If I recall correctly, I was sitting in the dining room of the Clarion Hotel The Edge during the second day of the KORO conference Offentlig kunst og byutvikling in Tromsø. I remember I was feeling heavy, I couldn´t manage to revive my body at any point that morning. I put some fish and salad

VERDENSROMMET : SIGN THE PETITION | support non-eu artists in Norway

We, artists, art students, and cultural workers from non-EU/EEA countries, currently living and working in Norway, ask for your support as we demand that the Norwegian government ensures our safety and survival through the COVID-19 pandemic. We are specialized workers with temporary residence permits, from jobseeker visas to research and self-employment visas. While COVID-19 has

READING TIME | inaction? thinking the world theoretically

Based on Chantal Mouffe book “Agonistics, Thinking the World Politically”, 2013 Left or right, neo-liberal, liberal, democrat, capitalist, totalitarian, etc.; we seem to carry a bag full of concepts and definitions to refer to the different political and economic models in a society. We spend a lot of time of our lives talking to our

READING TIME | is private space disappearing?

Based on Slavoj Žižek´s book “Event : A Philosophical Journey Through a Concept”, 2014 Then, by direct consequence, my individuality is also disappearing. Thus, if that happens it means that public space will become a private space. The privatization of public space would mark the start of a gargoyle relationship between humans. That is just

READING TIME | between the black box and the white cube

Based on Andrew V. Uroskie’s book ”Between the Black Box and the White Cube”, 2014 Introduction – From Medium to SiteThe expanded cinema is an outlet, a vertex of infinite possibilities that allowed the artist to shed the unilateral relationship between what was shown on the screen and the passive experience of the audience. Shedding

KUNSTHALL TRONDHEIM | DKS testlab

Kunsthall Trondheim, Kulturtanken and Den Kulturelle Skolesekken in Trondheim invite artists to create an art project for children and young people, developed over a specific period of time at Kunsthall Trondheim. The Cultural Schoolbag ensures that children and young people throughout the country get to experience art. Here, visual art is underrepresented and this is important

READING TIME | what could be more invisible?

Sometimes I walk through the city, usually in a rather indiscreet and somewhat clumsy way. Sometimes I just walk and my memory stops working. Other days, other days I appreciate that Oslo does not have as many historical monuments as all the ones I can find in Lima, in every single square of the city.

READING TIME | void and volume, from the studio to the social

Back in 2007, ten years have passed and still can´t believe how fast time is, I joined the artacademy in Lima, Peru. I was young, only 17 years old, but full of energy, aspirations, and dreams. “This is what I´m going to do for the rest of my life,” I told myself. I couldn’t be

READING TIME | playing with Jacob and Foucault

READING TIME | future gravity

a half-sketched drawing about to fall off the wall, gravity always wins a Swede with airs of grandeur hangs flags of all the countries where he has lived he tells me to pee in the woods and I only see fake plastic trees surrounding his Japanesestyle house many books, lots of mind, lots of karma

READING TIME | tracing yellow

Sometimes I like to be in motion, to be transported, to walk, to listen –most of the time to my own steps- but what I like most is to lose myself in the city and into my thoughts. It is a way to be aware of myself in my everyday life. It shows me that

READING TIME | affairs of the self

“The pursuit of natural knowledge, the investigation of the world – mental and material – in which we live, is not a dull and spiritless affair: rather is it a voyage of adventure of the human mind, a holiday for reckless and imaginative souls” – Archibald Hill. We all have a very peculiar and personal

READING TIME | in conversation with Camilla Eeg-Tvebakk

These words are transcribed from a 49-minute recorded conversation with Camilla Eeg-Tvebakk, in a coffee shop in the city of Oslo on Friday the 2nd of February 2018. This conversation has been edited for use on this website.[…](Starting with Stephen Wright’s notion of “usership”) C.E-T: Is that concept talking to you somehow?R.G: Spectatorship —as opposed

READING TIME | letter to ‘Imaginary Leaps into a Decanonized Future’ organizers (OCA)

Dear you (OCA team), A few days have passed since last time we saw each other; dear Nik, thank you for synchronizing your well-formed vertical laying for hours, so I could surf a tsunami of knowledge from the comfiness of my seat. Dear Katya, thank you, your heated words dried the coldness of the morning

READING TIME | on metahuman-like wanders

A few days ago, my mind was trying to split the worriedness in three – like that’s even possible, – about my loved ones and ‘other’ bodies I care for in places that I’d call home(s); Lima, Bethlehem, and Oslo. Without a real chance to escape, I then involuntarily embarked on a metahuman-like wander, a

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE | curating the social: meet me at the empty centre

PRAKSIS’s eighth residency, Curating the social: Meet me at the empty centre, has been developed with curator and writer Natasha Marie Llorens and Norsk Kuratorforening (The Norwegian Association of Curators). Eight participants will explore examine the curator’s role in facilitating social practice in contemporary art, foregrounding the ethical questions of their involvement. Meet and learn about

KJERRINGØY BIENNALE 2017 | i dette ingenmannslandet

“i dette ingenmannslandet” (“this no-man’s-land”) is a four-day ritualized journey, a repetitive intent in which the artist wanders around Kjerringøy trying to find the “right place”, his place in this remote Norwegian countryside. Based on Knut Hamsun’s novel “Markens Grøde” (“Growth of the Soil”) (1917) and its protagonist Isak, Ghattas stops here and there to

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNEXPECTED | something might happen

#1: “Something might happen“—Maria Sundby Friday 26th April, 16:00 – 19:00What if we were to design new ways of interacting and expressing ourselves in public space? Something might happen is an interactive performance designed by The Institute of the Unexpected’ first guest artist Maria Sundby. The performance invites you to dive into close observation of

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNEXPECTED | we play

#2: “We-Play“— Angela Halvorsen Bogo Sunday 12th May, 12:00 – 15:00The Institute of the Unexpected is happy to host We-Play in Oslo as the #2 workshop in the series. After events in Amsterdam, Berlin, Ghent, and Copenhagen, We-Play will allow you to experience the city in a new and fresh way. Through play and mindfulness,

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNEXPECTED | feeling the city

#3: “feeling the city“— Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad (BodyCartography Project) Saturday 15th June, 13:00 – 16:00 Feeling the city is the third workshop in the series of The Institute of the Unexpected. In this workshop, Olive and Otto invite participants to enter their animal-like appetites and childlike curiosities for physical investigation through engagement with

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNEXPECTED | belong to the city

#4: “Belong to the city“— Franzisca Siegrist Thursday 4th July, 12:30 – 15:30What happens when we move to a new city; a new environment or start a new daily routine? We try to find our place, we adapt, to the point that we perhaps willingly modify our own routines, habits, rituals, and social behavior as

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNPEXTED | monument to offense

#5: “Monument to Offense”— Shi Pratt Sunday 25th August, 13:00 – 15:30 In this workshop, we explore how we can reshape the spaces we engage in by using the acts of observation and attentive usership. Through physical tasks and playful structures, we will occupy a space which is in continuous change in order to create

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNPECTED | let’s get lost

#6: “LET’S GET LOST”— Naja Lee Jensen Friday 06th September, 17:00 – 20:00For the final workshop of The Institute of the Unexpected, we will explore how to get lost – in thought, in an intention, and in the city. With Rebecca Solnit’s book “A field guide to getting lost” as a starting point we’ll return

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNEXPECTED | ambulante event

Come and celebrate with us the end of the pop-up art project The Institute of the Unexpected with a communal dining and open forum experience at Grønland Torg, Oslo. The event is a collaboration between The Institute of the Unexpected and Kitchen dialogues, an art project by the artist duo Martinka Bobrikova & Oscar de Carmen. We will offer

THE INSTITUTE OF THE UNEXPECTED

Citizens, passersby, and Oslo-dwellers! Mark your calendars for free monthly workshop-events at The Institute of the Unexpected!Take a deep dive into the themes of the project, exploring ways that non-artists and artists have reimagined the relationship between body, movement, public space, everyday life, and citizenship. About_The Institute of the Unexpected is an art project as

TRAUST | MFA degree exhibition 2018 / Oslo National Academy of the Arts

This year’s degree exhibition presents work by 24 graduating students from eleven countries. Five graduating students are from the MFA program Art and Public Space and 19 graduating students are from the MFA program Medium and Material Based Art. Their exhibition is titled Traust and its main venue is the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. There

TRACING YELLOW | sunflower wisp

​Sunflower Wisp – public life in motion Artist Book | Tracing Yellow Series #3

TRACING YELLOW | 21 days in public

​21 Days in Public – the social gesture Artist Book | Tracing Yellow Series #2

DISCONTINUOS MANY-FESTOS\\from an unrepentant&dissident artist\\to a continuos apathetic field of art

\\space\\rhythms\\habiter\\living has its own grammar\\inhabiting as an art\\modes of dwelling\\place of imagination in the everyday\\referential and the fictional\\interactive elements\\you have misperceived my work until you get to know me\\experiential reality\\alternative to Stalinism\\Guy Debord\\popular culture\\traverses, the interdisciplinary journal of the Centre Pompidou\\Ben Highmore, everyday life and cultural theory intractable matter of the everyday\\mundane social life\\being ordinary\\nomadic displacement\\spheres

DISCONTINUOS MANY-FESTOS\\from an unrepentant&dissident artist\\to a continuos apathetic field of art

\\space\\rhythms\\habiter\\living has its own grammar\\inhabiting as an art\\modes of dwelling\\place of imagination in the everyday\\referential and the fictional\\interactive elements\\you have misperceived my work until you get to know me\\experiential reality\\alternative to Stalinism\\Guy Debord\\popular culture\\traverses, the interdisciplinary journal of the Centre Pompidou\\Ben Highmore, everyday life and cultural theory intractable matter of the everyday\\mundane social life\\being ordinary\\nomadic displacement\\spheres

TRACING YELLOW | the spectrum of togetherness

​“Tracing yellow” is a series of three experimental, small-scale and participatory art projects developed in the city of Oslo. The projects attempt to chase and explore the color «yellow» as a symbolic sphere of togetherness from a perspective of cultural-specificity. I am especially interested in how we use our bodies to interact with strangers across

TRACING YELLOW | i believe in the click

I Believe in the Click – a diary of daily encounters Artist Book | Tracing Yellow Series #1related: https://khio.no/en/about/news/rodrigo-ghattas-i-believe-in-the-click

ARCHIVE (2007 – 2016)

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