We recently connected with Nina Surel and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nina, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is “Gravida” 2019, a site-specific installation that comprises the first cut of a video, along with documentation photography and an installation of dresses intervened with red clay. Gravida explores the notion of fertility, pregnancy and birth. For the video, 400 pounds of red clay, 31 women of all ages and walks of life along with a doula, a healer, and a conscious mover participated in a ritual, all with a connection with fertility practices and healing. Gravida is a tribute to primal femininity and women who have experienced their bodies to their fullest potential. The dresses, stained with clay, hang as a testimony to these women and the rituals performed. Three years later I reconnected with the participants for the creation of “Core”, my first series of ceramic sculptures, a set of individually molded pieces on the pelvis of a group of women. The unique shape of each body is secretly registered, while at the same time it evokes the permanence of the origin, the persistence of life. These totems are not only a symbol of resistance and appreciation towards womanhood, but also a recognition of the legacy of our female ancestors, the mothers and grandmothers who preceded us.
Nina, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am interested in the rite of passage and the relation of material with the human body. As a multidisciplinary artist I explore different archetypes by incorporating elements from an array of sources. I studied Fashion Design at Universidad de Buenos Aires and Stage and
Costume Design at the Arts Institute of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. I am inspired both by Art History and ritualistic practices that help me approach a personal and inner universe with an introspective emphasis in an ever-growing range of techniques, such as video, photography and performance as a departure followed by video, sculpture, painting and installation.
My practice seeks to record temporalities that inhabit our corporeality: aging, hardening, scarring and mutation. For this I select mediums that are both fragile and resistant like clay, raw canvas and plaster.
Art is a pathway to me. Inviting others to participate in performance pieces is an opportunity in which I can experience vulnerability. I want to bring more people into that exploration. I am interested in the strength of the human body, in the persistence of life, in the resistance of the soul, the legacy of past lives and the possibility of reinventing oneself by diving in a deeper more intimate -yet collective- search. In 2016 I founded The Collective 62, an artist-run space, and the first feminine collective of Miami.
It is a 4000 square meter space that gathers up to 17 contemporary artists from all
over the world.
: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Inviting others to participate in performance pieces is an opportunity in which I can experience vulnerability and I want to bring more people into that exploration. Helping others understand our bodies helps understand the world.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The possibility of reinventing oneself by diving in a deeper more intimate -yet collective- search.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Marina Font Julia Juncadela