Claudio Beorchia is stuck in Enschede. The Italian artist has been in one of the studio’s at ARE since the beginning of January. His artist-in-residence would have ended in the end of March, but due to the Corona Virus he was not able to fly back home to Italy again. ARE also can’t receive new international artists until June, so Claudio can stay at the studio for now. We asked him to write about what it is like for him to still be in the ARE studio today:
Quarantined
These are certainly strange, floating, suspended weeks. Work practice hasn’t really changed much. Although I often work through relational and site-responsive projects — so I’m used to stay outdoor, travel and work in specific contexts — I don’t even mind spending time and working in the studio. Things to do, ideas and stimuli are certainly not lacking.
But even in the protected environment of the studio, I can perceived that, outside, everything has changed. In a few weeks our habits and activities have been twisted. Our movements are limited, the hierarchies of urban, domestic and social spaces have changed. Places and activities that were important are now no longer, other environments and behaviors have suddenly become essential.
In a changing world, language must also be renewed. So I started to invent words, to create a glossary that try to describe, with lightness and irony, these changes. The glossary will be published also online by Offcity, a Czech creative platform. Here are some examples of the quarantined dictionary:
