The concept of the prototypical polymath has disappeared into the folds of the 16th century, with science, math and art racing on a course far beyond the capacity of most. This doesn’t mean, however, that artists cannot attempt to recreate a sense of what it means to embrace scientific mechanics in holy matrimony with the artistic community.
The Rotor project – presented this week at the Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) – is the brainchild of Vahida Ramujkic, CIC’s fresh resident artist from three weeks. Hailing originally from Belgrade, Vahida has lived in Barcelona since 1999. Since the Rotor project kicked off, it has gradually transformed into a live organism of communal artistic activity.
Perhaps a more apt metaphor, however, would be one that corresponds to the meaning of ‘rotor’ itself.
“The rigid rotor is a simple model of a rotating diatomic molecule. We consider the diatomic to consist of two point masses at a fixed internuclear distance. We then reduce the model to a one-dimensional system by considering the rigid motor to have on mass fixed at the origin, which is then orbited by the reduced mass at a distance r.
Sounds all a bit technical, doesn’t it? But analogy to rotor is more than a flash of inspiration. The project is a reaction to the urban transformation of Barcelona employed during the 1992 Olympic Games.
However, it was with the launch of the “cultural forum, a corporate development scheme in the guise of good will – entrance to its launch would cost ?20 and its environs would be the site of a luxury plot – in which the project was conceived.
Vahida and her comrade in arms, Laia, took their bikes and explored the construction site in the suburbs on Barcelona. “Getting a feel of the site intimately was a vital step in the progression of Rotor, as a basic of the project is tracing “how things work from different angles: from air, earth and water.
Cartography, as part of understanding and absorbing one’s environment, was also a driving force of the project. For every step, Vahida and her fellow artists mapped out the site using different legends, transforming it as a conceptual space. At one time, it was a safari park, with artists placing printing animals on half built walls. At another instance, the site metamorphosed into a heart, with blue and red blood vessels.
Entitled “Poble Now, the maps traced how, despite the fact that the plot was being developed in the name of “cultural diversity and immigration, it was gypsies who were finding homes in the construction sites, to be cut out once the homes and malls were completed. They also traced the destruction of intricate architectural legacy of the once thriving textile industry in the area.
The Rotor initiative is as much a call to the idea of community as is a purely an artistic venture. As the project advanced, so did its fame, and participation by artists and ordinary people alike.
The group’s next focus was on “raft making, in an ironic attack on the development in the name of immigration. The group put together a raft in the same style Sub Saharan immigrants construct make-shift rafts, to try and take the dangerous trip to Mediterranean-European countries. The project “Rumbo Balsero (raft construction in the urban environment) eventually created waves in Barcelona after protesters launched rafts to express their anger at the cultural forum.
The group put together a “Manuel Navigatio, which ironically suggests ways of constructing rafts made out of randomly found materials in an urban environment.
Having completed exploration by sea and land, the group moved on to air.
The map this time was of the intricate play of roof gardens over Barcelona. Vahida noted that roof gardens are traditionally a communal space, but newer builds keep them private.
The project continued further afield, building up a community and launching into the realms of Paris, underground Istanbul and even New York, building up contacts and collecting disciples on route. To have Rotor come to Cairo would be a challenge, opening up the boundaries of what is acceptable and wrenching up social norms of “letting go.
Uniting science, activism, mechanics and art is something Rotor takes in its stride, reviving the spirit of communal pioneering towards a more exciting horizon.
