SACO9 Now or never

PANDEMIC RESIDENCY | Simon Van Parys My project was selected by SACO after an international open call in which I was competing with almost 200 other artists. The good news should have been exciting, but this time, things were different. I was happy but couldn’t enjoy the moment.

It was what I would describe as an “out-of-body” experience. This description actually fits my entire project in SACO 9 : from winning the open call to the on-site development of the piece.

The entire journey was a blend of challenges and I consider the pandemic as another catalyst. I have a lot of experience working under short deadlines in big cities. Places like Hong Kong, Tehran, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, and London. A characteristic of those cities is that they thrive on material abundance, and you can get whatever you want, whenever you want. As long as you pay.

But Antofagasta is different: It’s an island in the middle of the desert. It’s heavily import-dependent and doesn’t enjoy a “network effect” of surrounding cities.

Limitations on material are the general rule. If you add to this the pandemic, you can imagine that my participation in SACO 9 was a big learning experience.

Lucky me, as I love to learn :) The entire project was a master-class in “rethinking”. As a result of the pandemic, every variable kept changing. From the project date, to the site, to the production timeline, to the resources available. It also meant that while still in Belgium, I had to plan the final production.

Due to the closed borders, I had to reach out to the Chilean embassy in Belgium for a work permit. They were not helpful. We planned the trip in a “quarantined environment”. But on the brink of my departure the rules of the government changed. I wasn’t allowed to travel to Chile. The constant unexpected changes forced us to modify the process. In my initial proposal I planned on using cheap wood and doing the entire production myself. Time constraints wouldn’t allow for this. A few days before my scheduled departure, everything changed again. As an improvisational artist, I was forced to (partially) outsource my work and became the architect of the whole process. Being a more conceptual thinker is a new skill that I acquired during this time.

The idea was for a modular system. I came up with production plans in Belgium and a video for the technicians to help them be as efficient as possible with the production, in a limited amount of time. So I was able to work on-site two days before the grand opening with what they had created for me. I just had to stage the exhibition.

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