Interview with Jorge González Santos, visual artist
Spoken Portrait
By Daniel Santiago Salguero
These are notes from a WhatsApp phone conversation between Bogotá and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was held despite interruptions caused by lousy weather[1].
Jorge González, Lecturas bajo la cojoba (Readings under the cojoba). 2019. Photo Max Toro
Puerto Rico
Jorge González (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1981) defines himself as an artist influenced by his community. From this perspective, he has grappled with questions surrounding natural resources and contemplates self-managed educational models for an artisan community and parallel self-management spaces.
His interest in materials and processes—both natural and technical—has led him to reflect on the internal or analog rhythms, which entail order, patterns, and scales, particularly when discussing textiles. This has prompted him to realize that one can adopt minor, lower scales or alternative proportions altogether in varying proportions. This has led him to contemplate the concept of “descaling,” which can apply to temporalities, models, or methods of making, such as models of association between individuals or communities.
Jorge with his grandmother, Cosmelina “Carmin” Sanchez Casillas. Photo Jorge’s IG account.
Between 2006 and 2010, he spent four to five years without practicing as an artist. During this time, he became involved with gardening and other architecture-related processes. He says that in his current practice, he has revisited family interests, particularly in the realm of education, as his mother and grandmother were experts in this field. His work began to consolidate primarily through community-based projects.
Colombia and the U.S.
Jorge González. “Banquetas chéveres” (Cool Stools), installation details 359 days in 19 months. Dyed cotton cord on Puerto Rican wood. 2019. Photo courtesy of the Embassy Art Gallery, Puerto Rico.
In 2017, thanks to the Caribbean Fellowship grant, he spent several months in Bogotá at ¨Flora¨[2]. Later, he also spent time in New York, participating in the exhibition ¨Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art¨ at the Whitney Museum.
Jorge established a special connection with Colombia. During those years, he was invited to work in Barichara with a community of weavers, where he created a work that eventually became known as ¨Proyecto textil Soles-Suatí¨ (in the Guane language, which means “song of the sun”). Juliana Steiner was the curator who invited him and accompanied him throughout this project.
Jorge González, Suaty (Canción del Sol, Song of the Sun) Blanket-making exchanges at the Guatoc Reserve, Barichara, and procession to the Yuyu Cave, Corretjer-Para La Naturaleza Nature Reserve, Ciales, Puerto Rico. 2021. Photos courtesy of Juliana Steiner and Rubén Rolando.
Jorge explains that the craft of weaving survives through contagion by passing on the technique. There is a type of weaving in Puerto Rico called ¨Soles¨, which comes from the Canary Islands, and needlework traditions from the Netherlands and Salamanca. This “contagion” has spread through migrations from Louisiana to Paraguay, part of Guaraní thought, associated with spider weaving. He has acquired all this knowledge through his work with communities and his research on weaving.
He states: “In these processes with communities, like the one I worked with in Santander (Colombia), you give yourself over to transformation. In these processes, the value of learning lies in embracing the transformations within yourself. With this community, there was that kind of surrender. The best thing a person can give to these processes is commitment and long-term conversations that reimagine art itself. For example, this community engages with art from everyday life and livelihood. These are significant lessons we can later apply to other areas of knowledge or social spheres.”
In Guane (Santander, Colombia), considering the community’s traditions, they envisioned an annual procession to Santa Lucia, starting from woven elements. Jorge explains that these exercises help communities re-signify and reorganize themselves.
Due to the pandemic, they had to hold the final procession of the ¨manto¨ in Puerto Rico. It was planned to take place in Colombia as part of the residency. According to Jorge, Ernesto Pujol, an artist and friend of the community who recently returned to Puerto Rico, is a sensitive critic who supported the ¨manto¨ exhibition project. From there, they began reflecting on how myths are constructed, and how meaning is given to the ¨manto¨, and they considered walking as a gesture and incorporated it into the ritual.
In Colombia, at ¨Flora¨ with curator José Roca, they reflected on his process about land and nature.
San Juan and Kassel
Working session at the Borikén indigenous pottery workshop at the Cabachuelas Workshop, led by teacher Alice Chéveres, and students from the School of Fine Arts and Design, 2019. Photos by Jorge González.
Later, Jorge participated in the community program “Under The Mango Tree,” part of the Documenta [3] exhibition (Kassel, Germany), where he learned to identify the term “learner,” which means “unlerner,” with which he now identifies. In this experience, they discussed community and education about art, proposing how these individuals bring their knowledge and encounters, ultimately becoming unlearning spaces.
Jorge had already been working on projects related to arts and crafts, resource learning, and critical spaces around resources and territory, which led him to ask: ¨How do we create commitments to the resources transmitted through technique?¨ All of this began to take shape in Puerto Rico around 2014 when he worked for two years at ¨Beta-Local¨[4]. According to its co-founder, Michi Marxuach, Beta-Local is “a platform through which various types of work occur. Our focus is on generating new models of artistic creation that respond to our social and material realities: a debt-ridden state, a collapsed consumption model, a colonial government and economic structure, and a population deprived of manual skills after decades of industrialization. This is why we work with people from different backgrounds. Sometimes, it simply means bringing together people who might not meet otherwise. That alone is enough to generate something new that moves in a different direction. Our space has transformed from a classroom to a produce stand, an exhibition space, a mechanic’s workshop, a radio station, and a library. It has hosted discussions about the economy, basket-weaving workshops, and many community dinners. We focus on three projects: a free school facilitating knowledge exchanges, an international residency, and a nine-month collective research and production program. Our work occurs in public-common spaces where the division between artist and audience, intellectual and artisan, professional and amateur, dissolves.”
Jorge learned a critical approach to thinking about art education, emphasizing learning alongside others. He began to think of art spaces with community, discovering affectivity as a critical space and method for conceptualizing the space they wanted to create. He incorporated the concept of generosity as a central element in his discourse and practice.
From this, he reassessed an academic space in decline, with a touch of tropical modernity, and proposed the ¨Escuela de oficios¨ (School of Crafts) project as a regeneration alternative. This led to the development of self-managed learning models that shaped various interactions and contributed to the project ¨La Germinal¨, a symbolic space managed by Mónica Rodríguez, inspired by the thoughts and work of Luisa Capetillo. Capetillo was a feminist figure from the early 20th century, an anarchist who wore pants, and a writer, thinker, ecologist, and vegetarian. Jorge recounts how her ideas resonated with them: “This project is directed toward that historical figure, and we are still thinking about how to incorporate her into our cultural narrative.”
As part of the project, they read one of Capetillo’s texts in a performance before engaging in a clay-stomping exercise. In general, Jorge strives to work with elements in an honest manner. They revisited Capetillo’s idea of founding an agricultural school, as her literature was focused on that concept. “She was a queer feminist woman!” exclaims Jorge, adding that for them, Capetillo is a significant reference, representing a radical desire for full diversity. Her radical and original voice prompted them to ask how to approach notions of the “originary” from this perspective of full radicality. “It has been a long journey,” Jorge adds.
They walked with the ¨manta (cloak) as an act of will—walking as an artistic gesture.
Puerto Rico
Armigo Santos collaborates in the making of a woven rush carpet on a skateboard ramp, a study of Chemi Rosado Seijo’s work, in the shared studio of González and Rosado Seijo.
As you, the reader can see, Jorge’s work is deeply community-based. He speaks of Chemi Rosado, his studio companion, who collaborated with Michy Marxuach, an independent art curator, through ¨M&M Proyectos¨[5]. They engage in critical education projects that are currently artist-run and have significantly influenced community projects around public spaces. They reflected on the question: How do we inhabit the art space before it is consolidated? It is both a project and a space for developing content.
They built a house on the farm of one of his basket-weaving teachers, conceptualizing the idea of structures as a form of weaving. Basket weaving carries meanings from the past, specifically in the history of agricultural coffee-growing (baskets used to collect coffee). The question became: How can we think of a house through the lens of weaving, of clay, and its dynamics? In this case, the house became a container for the collective. “Then there is the idea of walking with the natural cycle, related to the solstice and the act of stepping. It has been a significant year, full of reflection and difficulty,” adds Jorge.
Now, in his studio in San Juan, an altar is dedicated to the losses they have experienced as a community. This is connected to their resources and the sense of gratitude for what they have.
Lareña Mythology: About the Torrecilla Mountain (Tales of the Road) 2018–2019, linen edging.
Different Networks
Jorge shares a reflection on the metaphor of weaving: “To offer, to give thanks, to reuse with a better will. To work generosity as a concept in relation to resources. The fibers are generous; they can form architectures and are active in the collaboration process. It is essential to examine oneself within the ancestral nature of the territory, which is often fragile in the face of aggressive and violent systems where ancestry can be violated. We must think about how our actions (weaving, carving, pottery) manifest materially when there is thought behind them. The weaving commemorates sowing: earth, life, growth, and food; many concepts are translated into textiles. The intention to grow internally is a facilitating structure. It is home. It sifts, filters, and protects.”
This is part of a long-term exemplary commitment to the community. His background in plants, design, architecture, and education has all come together through experimentation and execution.
Jorge is a craftsman and educator, a master artist who connects with communities that are sometimes very distant geographically or ideologically; he is grounded in the concept of self-managed spaces. He had to work significantly on his openness to enter a learning, exchange, and long-term commitment process. He says, “Knowledge is meant to pass through us. It should be a space for transformation.”
¨Lareña Mythology¨ (Lareña Mythology): About the Torrecilla Mountain (Tales of the Road) 2018–2019, linen print.
[1] This text was originally published for a column I had on art called “Deuda,” in a local cultural medium in the Coffee Region of Colombia. It appeared in 2021 in a more experimental version. In light of my column, “Retrato Hablado,” I have decided to revise and republish the interview with the permission of Jorge González, whom I found just as willing and kind as during our days of conversation. The urgency of the themes, along with his inquiries and methods, remains pressing if not even more so today.
[2] Flora ars + natura. An art residency program in Bogotá that operated from 2013 to 2019.
[3] • Documenta. An international quinquennial art exhibition since 1955 in Kassel, Germany.
[4] Beta-Local is an organization that facilitates time and space for artistic practices in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
[5] M&M Proyectos. An art residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
