Interview By Madeleine Spencer
Taking Action Project: Building A Symbol Unity Through Art “The Man of Corn Sculpture & Procession”
This exhibit is the artist’s vision of a unity project. The main piece, from which the exhibit derives its name, is a human scale sculpture of a man made of corn. It is a piece that has received widespread acceptance in the Mexico City where the original production occurred in 2014.
The “Taking Action Project” is an art production and exhibition piece to be performed in collaboration with Santa Ana’s artists, merchants and community. This creative production is being enacted in Santa Ana, CA. by the visiting Mexican artist Alfadir Luna, currently hosted by Grand Central Arts Center who will be an artist-in-residence for a series of site visit to the city. His first site visit was from March 28 – April 18. Once the final sculpture is completed, the produced sculpture will continue to tour in different cities in the United States after which it will come home again. ().
The inception of this project occurred when Luna was approached by a Los Angeles art Exhibition who asked Luna to tour the piece after witnessing the procession in 2014 in Mexico City. Luna’s first reaction was that merely touring the piece would not properly share the art works full intention. The work first had to be actively produced within the States since making the art is seen by Luna as an important part of the total process and is a process to be done collaboratively in community. The work itself of creating the work, the process that takes place is the action, not the object. Therefore, it was proposed to perform the action and build the sculpture “A Man of Corn” in Santa Ana, appealing to the city of Santa Ana as a historical, social and commercial center in Orange County that is in close relation with different towns in Mexico. The collective production of the art piece will, once completed, be transported to sites in Arizona, Queens, Chicago and San Francisco, after which the sculpture will finally return to the city of Santa Ana .
The artist stated that the productions acceptance and the request began with an invitation from a Los Angeles Art exhibition that made him realize that it was necessary to “fly out” and reach other people outside Mexico and since Santa Ana, CA is closely tied to Mexico with the largest number of Ex-Patriated Mexican population in the world outside of the Country, this was the logical place for this production to occur.
Alfadir Luna Lives and works in Mexico City as an Artist and teacher. He studied visual arts at the National School of Plastic Arts (now Faculty of Arts and Design), UNAM. At the momento Alfadir has his Masters in Art and Environment from the same university. Among others, he is also accomplished in the studies in Aesthetics, Art and Violence in the School of Knowledge. His work has been shown in different public and private platforms, both in Mexico and abroad. He is currently a professor at the Arts and Crafts Factory of Orient, a unit of the Ministry of Culture of Mexico City. In the company, Teatro Línea de Sombra he is director of the Ruta Migrante project, and is an adviser and teacher in its educational program.