on/off. ON!

project of cultural development

in rural communities

TERRITORY
OF THE MEMORY:
Supporting artistic creation/research/exchange
for the social and cultural development
in the Ecuadorian Rural Areas.

This program started as an artistic research

project. We focused the investigation into
contemporary problems that affects to rural
communities and how the modern life has been
taking advance over the natural development
of the cultural heritage and the traditions of
native citizens who live in these communities.

The area which we think is the best choice for the project is the Province of Santa
Elena, located in the Ecuadorian coast to the Pacific Ocean. In this territory are
located such communities as Valdivia, that is known as the geographic point
where ceramics and other cultural stuff began the high development of the art
and culture of America before the irruption of the Spanish conquers.
At walking round in several communities of this province, we really understand
that the government administration is, nowadays, obsolete. We understand
that the government offers an impression of things are running good through
massive propaganda, but this really is a fantasy perception. We have shared
with this people and they are not being attended as they must/need, BUT, ALSO,
they dont have clear strategies for their own development. They need to stop
dependency of the system; they need to start their own future, from their own
TERRITORY, using their collective strong and MEMORY, through CULTURAL
DEMOCRACY.
In this project we have the vision of experimentation with research: we share
some activities with the people. We dont order them to make a kind of visual
production, but we start to guide them to use some creative stuff. We start these
activities, at first, listening to them. We think this purpose have to INCLUDE
THEM in the cultural movement, not saying them what to do, but sharing with
them some stuff, guiding them to make the things they need and want to do.
That is understood by us as CULTURAL DEMOCRACY: to appropriate of our
own (natural/cultural) resources to make things we really need/want, not for
doing things that other people repeat us to do (as the actual advertisment order
us to do: TO BUY WITHOUT THINKING) when we dont know if we really
need or want to do. CULTURAL DEMOCRACY: to act by our own, to stop
dependency, to start our own freedom, in the possible it is.

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The project as an opportunity for social development

through intercultural exchange
On/off.ON! offers a valuable opportunity for intercultural exchange joining with
other projects. At first, we are organizing it as a cultural platform for contemporary
art and design creation/research. We intend to launch this platform through
internet in the first semester of this year (The second semester as late if the
funds take the time to arrive).
As a program for intercultural exchange, we expect to make it an important
project for cultural residency. This Cultural/Artistic Residencies Project has to
be offered to people involved into social and cultural topics: art (traditional and
new media), design (graphics, product, industrial, fashion, ceramics,concept),
gastronomy, architecture, anthropology, sociology, curatorial conception ()
The Activities of the CARPs has to include the participation of the community
where these are happening. As a sample, the participants can prepare workshops
of 2 or 3 days with the people who live in these communities.

A SAMPLE REVIEW as a SHORT-RESUME of a

Residency Project
Participants: 20 or 25
(graphic designers, anthropologists, visual artists, performers, photographers,
sociologist, etc)
The intercultural exchange begins in Guayaquil city where participants involve
in 3 days with different activities to meet each other, to share the culture of their

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countries. During these days participants have to meet each other so in the
third day before rural residency they separate in about 4 or 5 teams. They will
need their own stuff (laptops, photocameras, videocameras, etc) for the work.
The fourth day we move to the rural area (about 2 or 3 hours of traveling by
land, depending of the location is finally chosen) and in one or 2 days we start
to involve with the people.
Each team have to prepare (before coming to Ecuador, and as a pre-requisite
asked in the call for submissions) a project of workshop for sharing with the
people of the community (the topics can be displayed in the brief of the call for
submissions).
For example: a team offers a workshop of 5 days for preparing bread or other
meals, using the resources of the community and mixing with turkish technique.
The participants share this activity, and the team have to organize by themselves:
to guide the community in the activities, to study the human behavior at its very
important details, to identify social conflicts or motivations, to identify traditions
that people still recall but they dont use it anymore and it is possible to rescue
for using them again (as it helps for their social and cultural development), to
make a photographic registry of the activities, etc Other samples: workshops
of design with textile, visual design to promote familiar business (with posters,
etc), and other activities that the applicants could offer for being considerated
to participate.
We intend with this kind of residencies to promote intercultural exchange by
sharing some knowledge to the people who live in the rural areas, and the
participants can make, by this activities, a lecture of the actual situation of the
people into their relations with their cultural heritage.

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All the activities, workshops, community parties (and other activities which take
part in the the rural area) could be completed in 10 days. The last day could
finish with a party in the community, and then to return to Guayaquil.
When all the participants are in Guayaquil, after the workshops intervention,
they will have about 3 or 5 days to prepare an inform of the activities, with slides
and photos, to exhibit the results, but they can take advance of this work also
while they are in the rural areas, so, they can make a better final presentation
of the memory of their interventions. The last meeting is to show the process,
the photos, a brief intervention of the experience (etc) with a party at the end,
with the participants.
This project will need participants who speak Spanish at least in an intermediate
level, so they can involve better with the people (even English is in the current
curriculum of the academic preparation in Ecuador, it is not a pretty popular
language to speak in here, they are some people who speak English but this
dont happen with everyone, so it could be better for the participants to get
involved with the people speaking Spanish)
This project is cultural oriented, so the participants who attend the call for
submissions need to have experience or to be university/college students of
art, design, anthropology, sociology, and other related careers, even if it is
youth-oriented.
The project will have a team of directing supporters, as: an international
coordinator, a national coordinator, a curator (from the authors of on/off. ON!),
an artistic director (from the authors of on/off. ON!). We inttend to prepare a
little conference/forum about the project, and also a show of the results IN THE
COMMUNITY and in Guayaquil.

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in rural communities

THE FIRST EXPERIENCE of workshops of the project

We started the intervention in Juan Montalvo, a rural community of Provincia
de Santa Elena. The first intervention was with 2 workshops: a workshop of
Art-Therapy, directed by Mara de los ngeles Custoja (curator of the project)
and the second day with a workshop of visual creation with Mauro Rojas in the
direction (author of the project)
The activities were coordinated by Alfredo Moreira (executive coordinator of the
project), and these first 2 workshops did take part in August 2th and 3th.
The participants were children from 7 to 13 years old.
These are a little collection of images about the activities and visual results:

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The second intervention did take part in August, from 23th to 26th. It was a
workshop of Creation of Mask, and the participants were people from 55 to 85
years old (17 participants). This workshop was directed by Mauro Rojas and
Alfredo Moreira was the general coordinator. We lived in Juan Montalvo those
4 days. Each day of the workshop was divided in 2 sessions of 1 hour and half,
each one. While we were off the workshop sessions, we made different lectures
talking with the people of the community, making photos, etc.
These are a little collection of images about the activities and visual results:

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Juan Montalvo, Santa Elena, Ecuador

During the workshop intervention we took a time to register the experience to
make a documentary book with photographs of the life in Juan Montalvo. We
show a brief of the photo-documentary with this little collection of images:

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What is happening actually with the first results of the

project?;
and... What comes next?
We have the vision of making a long-term platform of cultural creation, promotion,
research and interchange. The objective of the workshop interventions is to
promote the intercultural exchange, with local people and foreign people, but
we dont want of this to make an interchange only for the participants, we want
to include the people of the rural communities in the cultural movement, we
want them to learn contemporary estrategies to ensure their own social and
cultural development. Our plans is to design a program of cultural and artistic
residencies, forums and conferences, art creation to promote them in galleries
inside Ecuador and also for abroad, to prepare documentary stuff (books, etc)
Nowadays, we are preparing a collection of artworks using the results of the
research, the documentary photographs, and we are including also the artworks
made by the people from Juan Montalvo who participate in the workshops. This
artistic production is actually in process, and curated by Mara de los ngeles.

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A handmade hat, made with traditional technique by Ricardina, a woman of 80 years old who
lives in Juan Montalvo and did participate in the workshop of Creation of Masks. Ricardina refers
that in Juan Montalvo, till the 1980s, it was very popular the production of these hats (made
of paja toquilla) as a way of own business of families in Juan Montalvo and other communities
around. Sadly, this actually doesnt happen anymore. She is one of the last producers of this
hats in the area (center-south of the province). We want to focus our activities on to rescue this
traditional practice and others as traditional cooking, handmade fashion, etc.

At the right side: Alfredo Moreira and Mara de los ngeles Custoja, during the activities of the
Art-Therapy whorshop with about 42 children of Juan Montalvo.

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UP: The 17 participants (from 55 to 85 years old) in the beginning of the activities of the
workshop of Creation of Masks, with Mauro Rojas.
DOWN: At the end of the last day, other people from Juan Montalvo joined to appreciate the
final works and to talk about the activities the participants were involved in.

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UP: Mara de los ngeles Custoja with the children who did participate in the workshop of Arttherapy, in the begining instructions.
DOWN: The participants with Mara de los ngeles getting ready with the stuff.

We want to make of this a colaborative platform of intercultural exchange,

professional research, and artistic creation, and to make a circuit of activities
with other people from around the world who are interested to take part of this
project, who are interested in the cultural heritage promotion.

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This dossier is a brief presentation of the interests of the authors to expande

the possibilities of the project. We hope to make new collaborative friends who
would like to get involved. We share the concept of the project with people who
are interested in taking part into our intentions of expanding the project with
other related activities. The concept can be mixed with other considerations
of other projects while the main intention is not affected: we want to promote
the cultural heritage of the people who live in rural areas, we want this people
to learn strategies so they can plan their own development, using their own
resources, and sharing their culture with peoples of other parts in the world.

STAFF
curators
Mara de los ngeles Custoja
Alfredo Moreira
executive production
Alfredo Moreira
author of the project / art direction and art production
Mauro Rojas
CONTACT
+ 593 8 3010 306 / alfrem50@hotmail.com
Alfredo Moreira
+ 593 8 7982 981 / mauro-rojas@hotmail.com
Mauro Rojas
www.facebook.com/onoffon.plataformacultural
(this is a site of the project which is actually in process of uploading information)

Guayaquil, Ecuador
2011 - 2012

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Sponsor
We want to thank to NEXINDIO for their valuable support in the foundation
of this project. We expect to make new networks for collaborative activities in
this project and other related projects, with NEXINDIO and other enthusiastic
collaborators.

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