The manifestation of various social behaviors has always been a topic of interest for creators and artists through History. Companies have many virtues as flaws and to notice this, it’s only necessary to take a look around objectively, with no religious beliefs, political militancy, nationalism or regionalism which often only become self-pleasing.
Here in Campeche, as in many other places of our country and the whole world, situations that result in discrimination, intolerance, identity confusion, and environmental and psychological pollution are presented. “The price of the modern age” says the fatalistic; while for others, it’s the logical price to pay for allowing “others” come and “just take” places they just don’t own, bringing, supposedly, negative behaviors that didn’t exist in the past and blaming the media and the government.
Placing the blame is always easy, even when those who do it often don’t do anything to help this situation, making a huge and always critiziced mistake.
With “Ah-Kim-Pech”, I make a social scanning from a very visual perspective, paying atention, also, to those situations that most of the people prefer to ignore. It’s necessary, then (if we want to put on pictures those aspects that must be shown), to build concepts by images whose meaning may be re-interpretated by any single viewer, adding, until a certain social point, some semiotic suggestions.
To achieve a successful outcome, is necessary to build an image so the message can be delivered: Communicating ideas or feelings, which in this project would be inherently linked to an aesthetic, visual aspect.
When my project “Ah-Kim-Pech” was accepted as a beneficiary of the “Programa de Estímulo a la Creación y Desarrollo Asrtístico” (Incentive Program for Creation and Artistic Development), I already knew what I wanted to show. I achieved a different result at the end, but still inside of most of the guidelines I wanted to follow since the beginning, and most of all, I wanted to show what doesn’t what to be seen by many people.
This project was born in Campeche, and it’s aimed at the people of Campeche, but it can also be appreciated from a wider point of view. People who’ve lived or been in Campeche or in any other similar city may find huge coincidences.
And that was not the only problem. As a creator, I realized that projects like this must be done as quick as possible. Otherwise, the passion for this project just fades away, and it’s quickly replaced by another project, a new idea; a different passion.
From my perspective, delays in the payment of the Incentive and any other circumstances are not excuse for not finishing a project like this, even when it’s understandable, since some other projects really need this monetary support for their complexity.
The true artist must make use of the tools and instruments at its disposal to do what he has to do.
With “Ah-Kim-Pech” I can say, somehow, I closed a cycle. At this point in my personal life and professional career, I’m not intrested on saying what’s been said before nauseum, and likewise, has been in and out of the ears of a mass and those who govern.
Gradually, it has been forgotten that art is something that also leads us to reflect on various human and natural issues, not only a wealth of images that pass before us a screen or prints. Art is more than that, or at least should be.
Juan Pablo Delgado Berman