WorkShope online: María Luisa Sanín Peña (WHW Akademija)
28.4.–20.4.2020.
Certainly you remember the “Animal Empire” chocolates that contained pictures of animals that we, as kids, diligently collected. María Luisa Sanín Peña, in her work proposal, brings us back to our childhood and reminds us that we are all collectors in a way, and collections are intended for everyone.
Virtually we present artwork proposal ‘Collectible’, 2020
People in their intimacy have a variety of small collections, like museums of their own. I was very interested in these everyday acts of collecting, and was reminded of a Colombian chocolate bar called Jet. In the inside of each chocolate bar, they would have a small piece of paper (we called them ‘monas’) that had on one side a photo of an animal, and on the other side some information about this animal. Children would collect these and put them all together in an album. I wanted to create something similar with photos from the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art collection instead of animal images, in a way to make the collection more accessible to the public. For this artwork I was going to design a publication, an ‘album’ with around 600 images from the collection, as well as the corresponding chocolate bars with their wrappers and their corresponding sticker. It was ideal to me that this publication could exist as a multiple, so a number of people would be able to gather the images, trade the repeated ones, and ‘collect’ the collection.
Though the album was a long-term project, for the museum setup there would be a PVC wall sticker with gaps for the stickers. The chocolates would be placed for free taking on a cardboard stand, and the wrappers would mimic the PVC sticker on the wall.
María Luisa Sanín Peña
María Luisa Sanín Peña has obtained her foundation degree in Art & Design at Central Saint Martin’s and a BA in Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Art & Design in London. After the degree she participated in several independent educational programs (ArtBo Tutor, Video-art Laboratory Puerto Contemporáneo, Uncertain School) as well as at The Fountainhead Residency, Miami, USA as part of International Residency Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia. Sanín Peña has participated in several queer exhibitions in the UK and has exhibited her work in group shows in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, the UK, and the USA. María Luisa Sanín Peña is presently a participant of the WHW Akademija, Zagreb.