Interview with Clara Garcia and Raquel Lobelos

Canadian and spanish Co-organizers and major sponsors of the Automaton exhibition september 17th–24th, 2020 at automaton2021.com

Written by: Emma Piirtoniemi
Published: 2020/09/17

Clara Garcia and Raquel Lobelos are the co-organizers of a Canadian-Spanish collaborative exhibition entitled AUTOMATON. Featuring both Canadian and Spanish jewellery artists’ work, this ambitious exhibition explores some interesting– and timely– questions. As this project began pre-COVID-19, it has developed from a travelling exhibition, having initially been slated to show at Madrid Joya and in Toronto, into a virtual exhibition. In this interview, we learn more about how this international project came to be, and how it has evolved during precarious times.

Beginnings

What is the premise behind AUTOMATON?

Clara Garcia (CG): AUTOMATON is an artistic initiative that was created with the purpose of promoting the contemporary jewellery field outside of the regular spaces where this type of jewellery is typically shown. For Raquel and me, it was very important to create a space that gave the participating artists the freedom of creating unique pieces that expressed their uniqueness, passion and talent; while helping them make important connections to further their practices and brands.

In 2018, in one of my trips to Spain, I had an interesting conversation with Raquel Lobelos who has done exceptional work for the past 15 years to promote this field. We felt that there was a need for more opportunities to be open in this field and for the great work that is happening in Canada and Spain to be shown in both countries. For the next six months we set to delineate a clear vision, goals, objectives, and created the structure and content of AUTOMATON.

Raquel Lobelos (RL): The project began with these two questions, are we happier now than 100 years ago? Does technology and its implication on our lives make life easier? We wanted to answer these questions and study the changes that we have experienced during these 100 years through the lens of jewellery design. 1920 was a difficult time, a time between world wars, economic crises and yet, the arts developed in an exponential way: painting, music, fashion, and of course the jewellery of that time continues to be a reference for us. We could not have predicted that in 2020 we would have to live through a pandemic and overcome an enormous amount of difficulties to carry out our lives, businesses and of course this project.

What inspired you to curate this exhibition?

CG: Once the theme of the exhibition was decided, we set up to create a curatorial statement that would encompass all these contrasting concepts, the connections between the present and the past, what makes us humans vs. the impact of technology in our lives and our cultural differences. We were driven to create a unique opportunity and mold a space that would allow artists the absolute freedom to interpret these concepts from a very personal space.

RL: Every artistic project is a challenge, an enormous learning process since there is so much to learn from each partner, artist, sponsor. Clara and I had talked extensively about looking for a project that could unite both countries and show contrasting realities. For each question there are always many answers, different ways of understanding and perceiving reality. We were inspired to augment these different ways of feeling and understanding the world through the lens of jewellery.

Can you tell us about the participating artists and why you chose to work with them?

CG: Raquel and I examined the work of different artists in the field and tried to find artists who would have a unique voice in their work and strong business acumen. In the case of Canada, the artists contacted and invited to participate were selected by the recommendation of highly respected artists, educators and organizations in this field.

RL: Projects as complex as these require a high level of commitment and trust with the participants. In the case of Spain, the selection process was done by inviting artists that I know well and respect. I was also interested in choosing artists who have a different way of working and expressing themselves. This was very important for me so that the result was varied, as the objective of any project is to generate opinion, differentiation and not a uniform answer to the same question.

CG: The Spanish participating artists are: Abraham Vázquez, Ana Ruiz, Lluís Solano, Rosa Sempere and Teresa Andrés Bueno. On the Canadian side, the participating artists are: Christine Rio, Dorothée Rosen, Kim Paquet, Pasha Moezzi and Lindsay MacDonald. We are very proud of the calibre, talent and experience of the 10 participating artists, all with an exciting career behind them who will be contributing important reflections and creations to AUTOMATON.

Cultural connections

What is the relationship that you have established between the communities in Canada and Spain?

CG: It has become more challenging to establish these connections because of the current situation, however, as organizers we have worked very hard to establish as many connections as possible between important organizations in the field and the artists. We are very grateful for the extraordinary support that this project has received and to have been able to partner with important public and private institutions in Spain and Canada. We strongly believe that it is important to support this field and to make people in the arts, culture and fashion fields aware of the incredible work that it is being done in contemporary jewellery and its relevance.

 There is more work to be done in nurturing these relationships, but this project has definitely opened spaces and created awareness. It is our hope that in the future these relationships can become more established, get stronger and that more projects like this are produced to create more opportunities for everyone in the contemporary jewellery space.

What do you hope this exhibition will achieve in relation to international participation?

RL: I think the most interesting thing is to be able to connect organizations, companies, artists and make them known in both countries. We hope initiatives like this create a vehicle to promote the work of artists in this field, since for any artist leaving his/her environment can be very complicated.

CG: International participation and partnerships can be very difficult, however we had a unique opportunity on our hands and strived to facilitate these connections, not only across the two countries, but also across related fields.

I believe collaborations, partnerships, and projects like this are very important. We all have a responsibility to the field and to the amazing community of organizations, artists, and companies that are a part of the fascinating world of contemporary jewellery.

Do you see parallels between the communities and/or the work that comes from them?

CG: This is a broad question, as there are many complexities to consider within the two countries and communities, but I can say that we have found very interesting parallels during our development and conception of this project.

 One of the most interesting parallels between these communities is the way in which artists approach their practice and how focused and committed they are to their work. They are passionate about this field and use it as a vehicle to express ideas and voice matters that are relevant to them, which is incredibly inspirational. 

Tell me about Madrid Joya.

CG: Madrid Joya is an exciting jewellery tradeshow that convenes the best of the world of classical, luxury and recently, contemporary jewellery from around the world, with over 40,800 trade visitors from 78 countries and 500 companies representing different jewellery sectors.

This organization was founded 45 years ago, and has enormously contributed to the promotion, rejuvenation and internationalization of participating companies. It is a great space to connect, learn, find new business opportunities, and grow in your practice and as a brand. We are very honoured to have the Madrid Joya organization as a supporter and major sponsor of this initiative. Since our first conversations with the organization they generously opened their space for us and were ready to welcome the project and all the artists into the trade show this Fall. We were excited and honoured to collaborate with them and see this exhibition at their trade show in 2020, unfortunately given the current situation this edition of Madrid Joya had to be cancelled.

Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, how have you navigated the organization of this project? 

CG: The current situation absolutely disrupted the organization of this project and our strategic plan shifted a couple of times since the pandemic hit back in March. Our physical events, both in Canada and Spain, were seriously impacted forcing the project to move to a virtual platform.

RL: It has undoubtedly complicated things, we have had moments of throwing in the towel, because it is very difficult to fight against so many difficulties when so much time and work have been invested. Organizing such a project and coordinating artists and sponsors is already a difficult task, but adding the challenge of the pandemic, it has been like climbing Everest for the first time. In the end, everyone has remained strong, we have supported and encouraged each other, and in this case, technology has helped us to keep the project alive. Plans had to be adapted several times, we had to give up things that had already been achieved due to the recent regulations, but we are taking advantage of this difficulty by presenting the project virtually.

CG: The interesting thing is that we sought to understand how the last 100 years have changed us and the impact of technology in our lives. In the end, we are experiencing a similar event that has profoundly impacted our lives, and technology was the only vehicle that allowed us the ability to connect and keep this important artistic initiative alive.

AUTOMATON runs virtually from September 17th–24th, 2020
For more information:
Web: automaton2021.com
IG: @automaton20.21