Fine Arts launches ‘No Cuesta D’Enero’ tonight

The Fine Arts Association will tonight launch their project ‘No Cuesta D’Enero’, which features performances, live painting, seminars, and a collaboration with artist collection Kitchen Studios.

The week-long programme will begin this evening with a dance performance by The Movement Collective in the Fine Arts Gallery.

Joseph Alecio and Gemma Lopez from the Fine Arts Association said the aim of the programme is to encourage participation in the arts and ‘No Cuesta D’Enero’ is a play on words for ‘no cuesta dinero’, as the events are free of charge.

“After Christmas, a lot of people find it a bit of a hardship to spend money,” Ms Lopez said.

“We wanted to encourage new, different kinds of artworks and performances into the new coming year.”

This is the second time the ‘No Cuesta D’Enero’ events have been held in the Fine Arts.

Tomorrow two talks will be hosted in the Gallery.

The first will be held at 6pm by Juan Gomez Macias titled ‘El Origen del Arte Abstracto’, and the second an hour later at 7pm by Ambrose Avellano titled ‘Conceptual Art: an Introduction’.

“We've tried to get a few artists to talk about current issues or styles that they like as well,” Ms Lopez said.

“Some in Spanish, some in English as well.”

On Wednesday, a portrait drawing session with members of the Re-Enactment Society will be held at the Fine Arts Gallery from 5pm until 7pm.

Later that evening from 7pm until 9pm a life drawing session will hold be held in the Gallery.

On Thursday, a performance by Trino Cruz, Alan Perez and Javier Lopez Escalona titled ‘Strait Rhapsody Project’ will be held at the Gallery at 6pm.

Mr Alecio said the Association is excited to provide this programme of events and collobrate with Kitchen Studios.

Kitchen Studios will be ‘taking over’ the Fine Arts Gallery from January 22 to 26, where the collective will show their works.

“We're excited about this because we are bringing associations together, we are stimulating the community and we are keeping with what one of our goals was, which is continuity of our events and organisations,” Mr Alecio said.

He added the events have also previously attracted people from across the border, widening the audience for local artists to share their work and build connections.

President of Kitchen Studios, Stefano Blanca Sciacaluga, said the collective will be exhibiting mixed media works from 10 artists.

Kitchen Studios will also bring their ‘fridge’ to the Gallery, which is stocked with art.

“The idea of the fridge is to just have a mobile gallery with the possibility of people selling work and having QR codes you can just scan.,” Mr Blanca Sciacaluga said.

Kitchen also hope to hold workshops on collage workshops and photo walks, with further details to be released shortly.

“We're still sort of getting it all together, but it's different,” he said.

“I've never seen anyone do this in Gib.”

Mr Alecio and Mr Sciacaluga agreed the collaboration has been positive for both groups.

“It's a number of people coming together to produce something for the community,” Mr Alecio said.

“So the collaboration happens on many different levels, but between Fine Arts and Kitchen, it has been quite easy, smooth and natural.”

“We also like try to help each other and they give us publicity on their pages. Maybe we get some members from their side and we're going to help them promote their new workspace.”

Sisters Zoë and Nikki Bishop form part of The Movement Collective and will be performing a piece of dance theatre called ‘Lotus’ tonight.

“What we like to perform tends to be more theatrical, a bit more physical,” Zoë Bishop said.

“I think it works really well for this audience. It feels better because they're looking at something subjectively as if it's art, which is ultimately what we think it should be. We really enjoy these opportunities.”

The performance began with a conversation between five friends, who will make up the five performers.

“It's a representation of the monotony and slog of the everyday sort of life,” she said.

“That feeling of sometimes being a bit stuck in the rat race and then learning to lean into other people and build new relationships, to help you persevere and grow through that.”
“That's what we're trying to show in a short amount of time. It's kind of a real experience and then taking it into the abstract of it. So we're really excited to see how people react, not to it.”

Nikki Bishop added: “It started off as a negative conversation about how we were to the system in a certain way or have to do certain things, but then also how our journeys have crossed over and how we've helped each other and actually, from that, something very positive has come out. So the idea of the lotus and being reborn or new energy, and then your energy becomes part of the community.”