Sapient, 2024
Acrylic on canvas. Purchase
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Art by Cesar Luna
Poem by Benedicta M Badia
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I die a little every time
Locality emotions
Locality grows
Locality expands
You always arrive as “unknown”,
Instincts rush to seek faces you can recognize
Recognition comes with time
Still you effort to reach out.
One day you find warm crinkles in someone’s eyes
you know you finally have become
your locality has been found.
Learnt accents tingle around,
Sighing aromas, flavors follow your daily life,
The people, the people, the people ….
Their hearts….their hearts…
Don’t ask me, don’t ask me,
Do not ask me to leave you behind.
Do not forget who I am.
I die a little every time.
Locality beloved
My soul is crying as I part
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Benedicta M Badia | Throughout my career, I have actively engaged with artists, institutions, and systems worldwide that are at the forefront of developing innovative and impactful formulas for social change. By challenging the status quo through critical lenses, I have sought to influence collective thinking and foster societal change through art. I firmly believe that art ecosystems can play a crucial role in shaping social conventions and human behavior, thus making it a territory of public interest.
My engagement with the arts, including my art collecting practice has evolved into a personal statement in tension with the current political context. I am passionate about empowering those who are building bridges and celebrating differences by initiating conversations that demand attention. It is my belief, that the value of art lies not in material transactions but in its intangible role as intellectual and emotional discourse, activating phenomena and imbuing them with significance through decoding and contextualization.
I have dedicated myself to question the art community on the sophistication required to navigate these matters. I challenge the semantics surrounding stereotypes within non-Western cultural structures. By acknowledging that the colonial phenomena was universal, I aim to eradicate misconceptions and promote a multifocal, global perspective that transcends domestic or binary formulas.
My ongoing relationships with artists and thinkers who explore these themes worldwide are an asset in confronting the “unconscious” that resides within these programs. I firmly believe that categories have been misused to legitimize market consumption, support speculation, and conform to preconceived categories and Western cannons. This approach perpetuates a lack of curatorial dialogue and critical thinking in contemporary art narratives.
Art and culture have been defined by the differences that separate them from the dominance of mainstream narratives. Thus failing to recognize their potential for new meanings and dimensions within the modern and contemporary geopolitical imagination. I seek to challenge this saturation of statements derived from differences and subalternity, recognizing that talking solely from these perspectives inadvertently perpetuates them. Instead, I propose a critical policy, that does not loose sight of the object of criticism, but acknowledges it is reproducing what it is denouncing. The critical discourse would assume its contradictions as vital to enable other imaginations, dynamics, representation, and circulation.
Cesar Luna is a street artist whose inspiration comes from skateboarding and street art culture. His work manifests mostly through mixed media by mixing physical elements of skateboarding with sculpting materials and various paints to bring his visions together.
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1000 Words | Home Not Home Artists + Writers
Noa Alemán + Tamar Brooks • Jacqueline Almaguer + Alanis Castillo Caref • Lexi Alvarado + Isabela Ortega • Danielle Arend + Janina Gatilao • Sofia Brunwin + Spencer Hutchinson • Andrea Cole + Rocio Franco • Lydia Collins + Tarnynon Onumonu • Gregory Diaz + Irvin Ibarra • Danielle Dykerhouse + Betsy Van Die • Jonathan Espinoza + ben-aki • Jaymes Fedor + Maria Requena • Samantha Franco + Angeles Rangel • Ines Gardea + Angelica Davila • Frank Geiser + Penny Mann • Evelyn Hernandez + Valeria Osornio • Stephanie Hererra + Neha Chawla • Ivana Jarmon + Theo Sullivan • Vivian Jones + Luz Silva • Lewis Lain + Thulasi Seshan • Cesar Luna + benedicta m badia • Marie Magnetic + Jasmine Rodriguez • Delisha Mckinney + Paloma Velasco • Diana Noh + Juj-Lepe • Andrew Rehs + Corbett Berger • Clau Rocha + Maria Jose Ramos Villagra • Amyia Ross Brittanii Batts (Tanae b) • Fawaz Sakaw + Arianna Maggio • Lucero Sanchez + Clay-Cofre • Ramin Takloo-Bighash + Yiwen-Lyu • TEEL ONE + Melody Contreras • Pamela Trejo + Kim Yeoh • Cindy Uriostegui + Scum Drop • Ami Vasilopoulos + Stephanie Cruz Rincon • Ivy Waegel + Aryn Hills • Emily Schroeder Willis + Angelica Flores • Raine Yung + Micaela Petkus