Self’s proposal seeks that spirituality and art converge

More than art, a ritual; More than artist, a collective being; More than creation, an act of surrendering and healing. Such are the premises of the unclassifiable work of Self, who is back in the country to present his proposal today as part of the Annual Program of the Base Design Agency in Art Week in Mexico City.

The artist will perform in Agustín Melgar 39C, Colonia Condesa, the performance and installation A return to being: an authentic place of me, in which combines elements of meditation, music and energy activation of the body through acupuncture and tattoo.

The experience or sanctuaryAs she calls her, she will begin at 10 am and is scheduled to last 10 hours, or more, during which the creator, after entering a state of deep meditation or trance, uses a modified tattoo machine that vibrates to the rhythm of music that integrates instruments from India and the West played live, songs in Sanskrit and synthesized electronic music, capturing his work in the skin of a person who has given his previous consent and who made a retirement of one year in Nepal for that purpose.

The piece is completely generated at the time, without previous design or anticipated visualization, from intuition, and presents the intersection between spirituality and art, as illustrated by the most significant influence of Self: spiritual practice.

My practice is born from the questioning of understanding being and not being. I am convinced that there is an experience beyond the physical being, which is what I call not being or consciousness, the energy body, the soul or as everyone wants to decipher itExplain in an interview.

“It is a dialogue between those two universes. How can we use being or the physical body to access the not being or consciousness, the most ephemeral part of us? Therefore, it is not necessarily a performance per se; It is more a ritual that gives us access to that link through spiritual practices of different roots: Buddhist, Taoist, Vedics, which help us to enter the body more and start creating that detachment of the mind or ego. The intention is to connect with others on a more energetic level, not just physical. ”

In self, art or artistic work transcends the borders of the aesthetic to become an instrument of healing of being and spirit, both individual and collective.

Hence the importance of meditation for his work, he explains, as a way of separating as much as possible in order for his actions not to come from his ego, but from his essence and feeling the other person, and thus power Communicate in its body what you perceive your energy.

For me it is very important to demonstrate that not all art comes from the ego. The line between the ego and art is increasingly blurred and ends up being more a market. I do not say that it is right or wrong, but in my case creating art is to be the vulnerable self and let others see me for who I am. That is, for me, being an artist is to open the observer as much as possible and let it see me in my truth, at my point of vulnerability, not hide behind the work or make it only have the parts of me that I want to teach . In my practice, what I have to leave comes out, and I accept ithe explains.

A very interesting part of my work is that it has a place in other disciplines, such as psychology, psychiatry and philosophy. But showing it on creative platforms, as now in this art week, allows you to open it to other possibilities.

The training of Self includes a degree in Fashion Design, a Master in Contemporary Arts of the Real College of the Arts and, in parallel, an extensive training in yoga and acupuncture in India, after having Risen of an overdose, 10 years ago.

To have a closer idea of ​​their practice or work, this is a kind of permanent acupuncture about an individual’s body, attending through ink or tattoos in the skin those energy points that need to be healed, from a process of energy or spiritual communication among participants.

My work is to understand and break down where the person needs those strokes in the skin and why. I don’t want to fill the body with tattoos, I have no need for that; If I wanted something like that, I better make a mural on the street. The body must be respected and understand its limits, know how to capture these strokes in the most appropriate way to help the personemphasize.

The artist clarifies that she determined to shed her real name, Natalia Esteve Kolk, to use Self, word in English that in Spanish means to beas a way to set aside its ego: By saying self, the self is lost and implies that we are all. I don’t want my name to take over my work.