Yunni Cho & Bernardo Sandoval
Yunni Cho, artefacto collective – Week 1 – Introduction
Jun 9, 2023
Ciao! I am Yunni Cho, and it’s a pleasure to introduce myself and share my experiences with you. Currently, I am pursuing a PhD at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). I have an interdisciplinary background in architecture, urban studies, and cognitive neuroscience. And my research focuses on the profound impact of daylight in buildings, exploring how it not only illuminates spaces but also provides invaluable psychological benefits for the occupants.
Beyond my academic pursuits, art holds a special place in my heart as a powerful medium of communication. Through my artistic endeavors, I express my diverse interests and enthusiasm, driven by a profound appreciation for our inherent connection to nature and the intricate biological systems that surround us. My ultimate goal is to capture the aesthetic and systematic beauty of these subjects, showcasing the essence of co-living, the interconnectedness of living beings, and the harmonious interplay of light and space that unites them all.
Together with Bernardo, I co-founded the ‘artefacto’ collective. Our collective advocates for peaceful coexistence with nature and promotes the use of vernacular techniques to counterbalance the excessive digital consumption prevalent in contemporary culture. This year’s open call at Sasso, themed “creating a myth,” resonates perfectly with our shared passions and interests. I eagerly anticipate delving into the myth we have initiated, centered around enchanting encounters with nature, set against the captivating and historically rich backdrop of Casa Sasso.
My residency began with a week of immersive drawing, a process that allows me to observe and document my surroundings. Through art, I quickly familiarized myself with the historical charm permeating Sasso, appreciating the inherent beauty that resonates within this place. The focus of my attention during this week was the materiality of the house, particularly the prevalence of stones – a striking feature reflected in the very name “Sasso,” meaning stones in Italian. This fascination led me to imagine the story of these stones, their journey to this place, and their role in constructing the structural supports of the house. Subsequently, my exploration expanded to researching the history of stone construction techniques and the symbolic significance associated with stones throughout history.
Concluding the week with a more tactile engagement, I crafted a sculpture that encapsulates my current interests, utilizing found wood, stones from the house, and workshop equipment. I named this sculpture the philosopher’s stone, an ancient myth that continues to resonate to this day.
This transformative week of immersive exploration has sparked countless ideas and inspirations for continuing my film practice. I am thrilled to collaborate with Bernardo and further develop this narrative as part of our collective artistic journey.
Yunni
Bernardo Job Sandoval, artefacto collective – Week 1 – Introduction
Jun 11, 2023
Hi! My name is Bernardo and I would like to introduce myself by talking about my personal work and what I do together with Yunni Cho within the ‘artefacto’ collective. I am a political scientist, curator and artist devoted to research and artistic production. During my BA studies in Mexico I concentrated in political theory by studying Greek classic texts and contemporary political writers.
Throughout my academic production I directed my research towards aesthetics and the role of technologies of cultural production within society. I had a particular interest in the speed of human activity and how we have progressively accelerated our collective rhythm by introducing faster means of transportation to make mobility more efficient. I have noticed that our social behavior undergoes constant changes due to the influence of technology, causing us to forget how we once lived and interacted with others. Moreover, this hyperactivity is leading us to consume an ever-increasing amount of energy to meet human needs. I have also found that the further we transit this hyper-technologic road, the harder it seems to recover from a frenetic pace. As we internalize this imperative of production, we lose the possibility of pausing and find autonomous means to fulfill basic needs. For this reason, I focused my attention in the study of vernacular techniques and the artistic object as an artifact that can make visible our current prosthetic condition. I also find the artistic object as a means to create collective memories within an incessant collective movement. Within my daily routine, meditation holds significant importance as it enables me to attentively observe, cultivate serenity and clarity, and attentively appreciate subtle nuances in various situations.
Together with Yunni Cho, I have been working in specific research to translate philosophical knowledge into a collective practice based on an organic and post-growth rhythm. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we aim to share not only a product of our work but the creative process as well. We are currently developing a short film inspired by greek mythologies and socratic texts. We dedicated this week to observe, explore, and register thoughts and impressions through script-writing, drawing, and filming the presence of light in the house and gardens. Casa Sasso is a very stimulating space because of its unique vernacular architecture. I am especially astonished by the materials that were used to built it and the emotions that I have been experiencing inside me by inhabiting here this week. I am very grateful to have the chance to collaborate with Yunni through this residency, and I am very excited to discover the depth of our reflections in the following weeks.
Bernardo
artefacto collective – Week 2 – Agon
Jun 18, 2023
This week, we continued experimenting with film making to translate our research on different materials, drawings, and writings. We were inspired by different mythologies and philosophical narratives, such as the Banquet by Plato and the Greek symbolism of various plants and fruits around Casa Sasso. We focused on the term ‘agon,’ which could be defined as the dramatic conflict between main characters, which is present in the Classical theater, literature, and religion.
In our film, the protagonist is an architect advocating a particular cause or an idea – that is, the preservation of traditional materials and construction techniques within modern architecture. The antagonist, who is in opposition to the idea from the protagonist, becomes the constant pressure to modernize and progress to build efficient structures that tend to forget the virtues of vernacular ways of living. Through this narrative, the conflict arises from the encounter of these two opposed realities, which the architect, the protagonist, has to conceal. Light is the guiding spirit in our story, and the stone symbolizes the conflict that the protagonist has been carrying. The non-material symbol of light takes a feminine human form in the film, who continuously confronts the protagonist to face the existence of the conflict.
While developing this film, we realized the importance of new ways of approaching it by breaking the linearity of the narratives and introducing a non-logical flow. We have been playing with oneiric scenarios through different installations and myths. The purpose of this is to liberate the protagonist from his conflict by a closer contact with the guiding spirit through an unlikely encounter. This event becomes a turning-point for the protagonist by giving him the opportunity for new beginnings.
Yunni and Bernardo
artefacto collective – Week 3 – Catharsis
Jun 25, 2023
In our final week, we focused on reflecting what would be the new beginning for the protagonist. The turning point of the story, an oneiric mythical encounter, led us to the idea of introducing ‘catharsis’.
We started this process by writing individually what catharsis means to us and how to portray it in our film. Throughout the whole residency, we have been inspired by how others address the idea of conflict (agon) in different films and texts. F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Crack-Up (1945) shares the moment in which one needs to isolate and find the way to connect again with oneself without the distraction from the world outside. In the Staggering Girl (2019), Guadagnino portrays the necessity of letting out through the main character after continuously suppressing all her emotions. In Memoria (2020), Weerasethakul tells the story of a person whose main conflict is how she confuses temporalities, names, places, people, and the reality itself, as her memory fades. Through a nomadism and an eclectic way of living, she cracks in a silent way.
How can we portray conflict and catharsis through a myth? What does catharsis mean to us? In our film, the protagonist suffers from a conflict that is not noticeable at first, not expressed in a usual way, and contained yet present at all times, that slowly takes liveliness away from him. His silence and isolation demand the presence of a subtle being, probably non-human and beyond a potential conflict. In Blue Hydrangea (1906), Rilke experiences rebirth by being astonished with the blueness of a tender flower. Based on this symbolism, blue becomes the bridge between the human and the divine in our film. Upon this liberating encounter, the protagonist naturally reconnects with his appetites and desires. Transcending suffering without tragedy, he conceals himself with the world in harmony.
We are sharing here some selected glimpses of our film and graphic materials from the process of research and film-making as well as a poster. We will continue to work on editing and finalizing our film. We hope to share the final film through festivals and presentations in the near future. We would love to include Sasso Residency in this process as Agon consolidates, since it is where our myth originated. We are very grateful to have this opportunity, as it gave us the space and inspiration to create a valuable work based on our artistic practice. Grazie! Danke! Merci! Thank you!
Yunni and Bernardo