Anna Lee Mraz Bartra. Peninsula 360 Press / P360P
“It’s just art,” I hear a mother say to her son as they look out the window of the art installation kiosk in Redwood City’s main square, where Fernando Escartiz’s latest piece stands out and sparks conversation.
Since artist Escartiz began installing his new installation, “Stardust,” on November 1, some people in the community have already been asking themselves: “Is that art?”, referring to the meteorite embedded in the roof of the Redwood City art kiosk in collaboration with Fung Collaboratives.
With the care that can only characterize Escartiz's work, in this installation the artist reproduced the kiosk's façade, the roof, and pieces of the floor only to break it all up again. A drop of fluorescent liquid falls from the meteorite, feeding a plant that has grown from the rubble left by the destruction.
“For me, a giant meteorite crashing on us can represent the misfortunes that the planet is facing now, it is the perfect metaphor to understand that from suffering and catastrophe -albeit of enormous dimensions- we can obtain what is necessary to re-emerge with strength towards something spiritually superior,” Escartiz tells us in an interview for Península 360 Press.
The conversation flows in Redwood City around Escartiz’s piece, around the kiosk, on social media… “I don’t understand this art, what’s on top?” asks one person on social media, “art suggests, one imagines,” answers another.
In this sense, art has an important social function in our societies, since it has the characteristic of generating questions in people, possibly transforming them, from those who use it as a means of expression, to those who see it and perceive it as a spectator.
It is a production of knowledge, a transmitter of knowledge, it is a revealer of what has been unnoticed, overlooked, and which becomes central in the work of art.
We must consider the arts as an integral part of our lives, as it can once again become a fundamental support mechanism for the process of justice and equity.
The Day of the Dead in Redwood City was a massive event organized by Casa Círculo Cultural where the tireless work of Escartiz Studio was recognized in this celebration that, year after year, supports them in the construction of the stage art and the arches that welcome attendees.
They also thanked Fernando Escartiz for installing the Redwood City art kiosk, because for CCC his work, “Stardust,” reminds us that we come from dust and to dust we will return. And every adversity is an opportunity to be reborn. As with the beginning of life, the restart of our lives after the pandemic.
Escartiz's installation is much more than reconstructing a façade and breaking it again. It goes beyond imagining the arrival of a meteorite to Earth and destroying the kiosk dedicated to the diffusion of art in Redwood City. It is provocation, it is generating questions, it is imagining... That is art.
And Escartiz, once again, was a hit.
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