'Culture creates ways of living and surviving': Rejane Cantoni

As preparations for the first edition of the Bogotá International Biennial of Art and City, BOG25, progress, the names of some of the artists invited to this major city event are also becoming known. The aim of this event is to position Bogotá on the map of the world's major art biennials, including those in São Paulo, Venice, and Sydney. One of those names is Brazilian artist Rejane Cantoni, who was in Bogotá to fine-tune the details of the work she will bring to BOG25, titled "We a gente," an interactive intervention that will be located in Santander Park, in the center of the capital.

Cantoni is internationally recognized for creating immersive, disruptive, and interactive art projects with a strong technological component. These projects, beyond contemplation, invite the viewer to immerse themselves in a memorable experience that connects people with spaces, whether public or private.

Born in São Paulo (1959), Cantoni studied communication, semiotics, information systems visualization and kinematic interfaces both in her hometown and in Geneva, Switzerland.

Since the mid-1980s, she has been researching and developing immersive installations using devices and technology for data acquisition and analysis, both in natural and automated environments. Her recent works, installations, and exhibitions include the series 'Floras-Garden' and 'Floras-Seed,' comprised of 200 works created with generative artificial intelligence, light adaptations, and cryptoassets (NFTs) that reference the work of Impressionist painters and nature; Swing, a site-specific interactive installation (works created specifically for a location, taking into account its surroundings and characteristics) presented in Austin, United States, which allows the visitor to walk across the surface of the work, made up of modular planes that move in all directions, creating a seesaw effect; and Agua, a work she developed alongside Brazilian architect Raquel Kogan for the 'Connect Me' exhibition in Denmark, in which one literally feels as if walking on water. and Pipe, an interactive sculpture presented in Arizona that immerses visitors in the landscapes of the Grand Canyon. In Bogotá, a couple of years ago, he presented Río Bogotá, a liquid mirror of architectural dimensions that adapted and transformed depending on the weight and location of visitors.

Along with fellow artist Leonardo Crescenti (RIP), with whom he worked as a duo for several years, he has held major exhibitions around the world, including Ars Electronica (Linz, Berlin, Mexico City); The Creators Project (New York, São Paulo); the Glow and STEP festivals (Eindhoven); Espacio Fundación Telefónica (Buenos Aires); and the Copenhagen Contemporary Art Festival (Copenhagen).

Biennials are global spaces that convene ideas from around the world. The São Paulo Biennial, the second in the world, was a major initiative of businessman Ciccillo Matarazzo, which emerged in the 1950s, when São Paulo was developing. After visiting the Venice Biennale with his wife Yolanda Penteado, they created the Biennial in Brazil, which not only showcased the experimental proposals of Brazilian artists of the time, but also the initiatives of artists from around the world, opening the door to cultural exchange and dialogue.

My work focuses on large-scale, immersive, and interactive site-specific projects and installations. This means I go to a place and observe what it's like, how people occupy it over time, what it communicates and what relationships are established from it, what history it has, what it was before, what it is now, and what it can become. These are projects that engage with architecture, with the flora and fauna. I listen to the place and I listen to the people.

And what does it mean to participate in BOG25 from this perspective? It means making a technical visit, studying, having a proposal, a plan. But as soon as you arrive here, drink Colombian coffee, talk with the people, exchange ideas, listen to the space, and see what's happening, the process changes and the challenge becomes greater. This is a project of art, science, and technology that knows no borders. When I'm here, I use all the knowledge that humanity has produced to develop a solution that offers a means of communication between the work and the space where people occupy it.

The first thing I must say is that I am happy. But it's not easy to be so. You need to reflect on who you are, reflect on what your body needs: to breathe, to make decisions motivated by who you are, decisions informed by the culture in which you live. Happiness is a very interesting concept, first, because it's a state that makes it possible to move through the world, to act in the world from that state of happiness.

Let's think about the human order: who am I? An interface in communication with the universe, with planet Earth, with the place where I live, with São Paulo, with my family, etc. This organism, the physical part of this organism, constantly examines its conditions. For example, am I breathing? Am I okay? Am I comfortable? Am I content? Am I thirsty? It's a maintenance sensor, to the point that my senses and my central nervous system function to inform this organism, of which my brain is a part, what physical condition I'm in. From there, it can establish plans. What do I want to do with my life? What should I do to achieve it? Whether it's work, study, travel, or making new friends. Thanks to this plan, I evaluate, for example, the experiences that making new friends has brought me.

If it was, then I'll return to them with a "happy" disposition. But if it wasn't, I might feel angry or frustrated, without ignoring the fact that human relationships aren't black and white, but rather allow for and require gray areas. With this in mind, the project I'll be offering you during the Bogotá International Biennial of Art and City will be called We a Gente, alluding to how we can change a state of affairs to lead a better life. That's my plan.

This question also has two ways of answering. One, from the audience, which is what you're suggesting: how does the audience prepare for an artistic experience? With the attention of the gaze and the energy of the body. This is how we prepare to see a work. The artist is known for being the type who breaks paradigms, who thinks about the world differently. So, the best way to enter an art project is to have no prejudices, to eliminate everything you've already seen, and to enter the experience, to immerse yourself in it. This, from the visitor's point of view.

From the artist's perspective, it's up to them to design the communication system that activates the visitor's sensors so they can experience the experience in the best possible way.

Artificial intelligence has already changed the way we all work. That's the news, and it's great, because there are many scared people wondering what we're going to do with this new development. But the truth is, it's not new. The idea of ​​creating artificial intelligence dates back at least 8,000 years before Christ. Myths already speak of these intelligences, of autonomous systems that open portals to the Olympian gods, and so on. Pinocchio captivates us with automation; he is given life through a divine breath. In short, the idea of ​​building an intelligence or a life similar to that of humans is very old, and we humans, through art, theater, music, myths, narratives, and stories, through the evolution of science and technology, have entered into this adventure of building lives similar to our own.

Why? Because it's the way we get to know ourselves. We don't fully understand, yet, how our brain works. We don't know what consciousness is. We don't have answers to these questions. By simulating these models, we discover ourselves. By simulating artificial intelligences, we expand our capacity to operate in the world. And what do we have today? The map I always talk about with my students is that science, art, and technology lead us to the following: we are equipped with the most competent and efficient biocomputer that nature has ever created, we don't know why. This biocomputer is here on board this journey around planet Earth. And what is planet Earth? A piece of rock, right? A piece of stone that moves in space with other planets. This is the journey.

We arrive on planet Earth, we are born there without clothes, without food, without preparation. We create cultures, and that's why this Biennial and the exchange of cultures are so important. And why do we create cultures? Because culture creates ways of living and surviving in this adventure that isn't simple, but it's brilliant and is taking us somewhere. What place is that? How are we going? Why are we going? These are the questions that artists and technologists ask themselves, and that all of us humans try to answer every day.