Antonio Jose Guzman is a Dutch Panamanian visual artist, communication designer and lecturer. He lives and works in Amsterdam, Panama City and Dakar.

Early life and career

Guzman was born in Panama City, Panama in 1971. Guzman began studying photography and video, and became interested in Polaroids at early age. In the early 1990s he worked in Panama for the advertising giant Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB)

Draftfcb Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB), is one of the largest global advertising agency networks. It is owned by Interpublic Group and was merged in 2006 with Draft Worldwide, adopting the name Draftfcb. In 2014 the company rebranded itself as FCB. Parent ...

as a staff photographer. In the same years he did a series of photo projects for

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

Latin America and was freelance photographer for

France Press France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area e ...

International. In 1994 he graduated from the Isthmus University. He wrote a thesis on the psychological effects of advertising photography. In 1997 he moved to Europe and started working as an editorial photographer and art director of different magazines in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, London and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. In 2003 he produced and directed his first documentary, "Representando". Inspired by various exhibitions of

Bill Viola Bill Viola ( , ; born 1951) is an American contemporary video artist whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, d ...

in the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Amsterdam and by the

Gasometer Oberhausen The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former gas holder in Oberhausen, Germany, which has been converted into an exhibition space. It has hosted several large scale exhibitions, including two by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Gasometer is an industrial lan ...

, Germany. Guzman started studies in 2004 on audiovisual arts at the

Gerrit Rietveld Academie The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, also known as Rietveld School of Art & Design and Rietveld Academy, is an art academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The academy was founded in 1924 and offers programs in fine arts and design. History In 1924, the I ...

of Amsterdam. At the Rietveld he began to work with

gravitational In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the strong ...

issues,

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

and the life of one of his heroes, the late Dutch California based artist

Bas Jan Ader Bastiaan Johan Christiaan "Bas Jan" Ader (19 April 1942 – disappeared 1975) was a Dutch conceptual and performance artist, and photographer. His work was in many instances presented as photographs and film of his performances. He made perf ...

. Guzman's examination project "Gravitational Experiences", was a series of multiple channel installations and the documentary "The Miracle". Besides his individual art practice, Guzman is a lecturer and the founder of The State of L3 Contemporary Arts and Film Collective, the

Communication Design Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media communicate with people. A communication design approach is not only concerned with developing the message in addition to the ...

studio Noisy Networks, and the visual arts atelier GF Workstation Amsterdam.

Work

Guzman works on research projects inspired by DNA, scientific research, migration,

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

and architectonic

utopias A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

. Guzman's oeuvre features installations, photography, sculptures, interventions, documentaries, films, sounds, single- and multichannel videos and

publications To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...

. His projects allow us to cross different

time zones Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

, unexplored worlds and

realms A realm is a community or territory over which a sovereign rules. The term is commonly used to describe a monarchical or dynastic state. A realm may also be a subdivision within an empire, if it has its own monarch, e.g. the German Empire. Etym ...

; bringing us into what Guzman calls

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

perceptions Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...

Chain Diary

Between 2007 and 2010 he took part in the nomadic exhibition ''Multiple M,'' in which he participated with his international interactive multimedia project ''Chain Diary.''

The State of L3

After the success of ''Chain Diary'' he developed the project State of L3 where he asks artists in Brazil, The Netherlands and Senegal to upload their work onto a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

so that their partners and later on other visitors can access, watch and react with their own ideas to what they see. In this way the database will create an ever-growing and expanding online community based on either personal histories or just interest in Africa and all its cultural and social expansions over the entire globe. The project brings together their thoughts, ideas, experiences, dialogues and virtual exchange in the L3 virtual database. The State of L3 explores with multimedia installations as a medium for a documentary on transatlantic networks and the artists reflections on the Black Atlantic African world, the

symbiosis Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

that exist between people of

African descent Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

and their position in the contemporary society as well as the historic perspective and the colonial past of the countries of origin of the artists. The project was supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, the VSB Foundation, the Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) and Erfgoed Nederland.

The Day We Surrender to the Air

The State of L3 was developed at the same time that Guzman started the documentary trilogy ''The Day We Surrender to the Air,'' a documentary based on the results of Guzman's DNA test. This DNA test, executed by the National Geographic

Genographic Project The Genographic Project, launched on 13 April 2005 by the National Geographic Society and IBM, was a genetic anthropological study (sales discontinued on 31 May 2019) that aimed to map historical human migrations patterns by collecting and ...

and African Ancestry, shows Guzman's mixed background. In the documentary, Guzman travels to the places of his

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

and brings to the front various questions considering

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

identity, migration and

Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

. The trilogy was supported by The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB). The documentary had its premiere at the

International Documentary Festival Amsterdam The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tic ...

(IDFA), before going on international tour in 2010. ''The Day We Surrender to the Air, Episode Two'' was firstly shown at The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2010 in Greece and the Africa in the Picture film festival, Amsterdam.

''Piertopolis''

Guzman's research for multiple connections worldwide has defined and shaped his vision and artistic

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

, after an extensive family ancestry and DNA research Guzman jump into a bigger boat, that will define sociologically the whole humanity in his following projects ''Piertopolis,'' ''D.A.T.E.D Paris'' and ''Psychogeographic Mapping Project.'' ''Piertopolis'' is inspired by New Babylon of COBRA artist Constant, ''Piertopolis'' features an architectural design for an installation of a life-size landscape made out of piers and walking bridges. The project is supported by the Amsterdam Foundation for the Arts. AFK and by the Mondriaan Fonds. The ''Piertopolis'' exhibition at Gemak in January 2012 converted the entire museum into a

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

New Babylon (Constant Nieuwenhuys) New Babylon is an anti-capitalist city perceived and designed in 1959-74 as a future potentiality by visual artist Constant Nieuwenhuys.Henri Lefebvre on the Situationist InternationalInterviewconducted and translated 1983 by Kristin Ross. Printed ...

idealistic

Utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

architectonic landscape for a future society. His film the 'Legend of Billy Maclean' premièred in the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA),

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, India's premier cultural institution and his project DATED performed at the Divan Du Monde and Petit Ban in Paris (invited by Dimanche Rouge). For DATED Guzman made live assemblages of his documentaries 'The Day We Surrender to The Air' and 'The Legend of Billy Maclean', to the singing and voice of American artist Aurora Adams. DATED is inspired by the novel Rayuela, from the Argentine writer

Julio Cortázar Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ent ...

Los Angeles Mapping Project

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Mapping Project is a Psychogeographic Research of the population

demographics Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...

and transit of different district and neighborhoods of

. The Project explore the

Psychogeography Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes. It was developed by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International, which were revolutiona ...

idea of the city using new social networks. Inspired by

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...

"unitary

urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and m ...

", the information from the research was transform into

data visualization Data and information visualization (data viz or info viz) is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the graphic representation of data and information. It is a particularly efficient way of communicating when the data or information is num ...

maps, that generate an idea on how the district and neighborhoods of Los Angeles are forming itself towards the future, the maps demonstrate areas of

Transculturalism Transculturalism is defined as "seeing oneself in the other".Cuccioletta, DonaldMulticulturalism or Transculturalism: Towards a Cosmopolitan Citizenship., LONDON JOURNAL OF CANADIAN STUDIES 2001/2002 VOLUME 17, Plattsburgh State University of New Yo ...

homogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...

cultures, incomes and preferences. Articles on Los Angeles Mapping Project (Psychogeographic Mapping) by Dutch Art Events, Void Gallery Amsterdam, The Windward School, Los Angeles and art critic Rob Perrée"Mapping Los Angeles at Windward School a project by Antonio Jose Guzman"
''Windward School'', February 2013.

Exhibitions

Guzman's work has been included in group exhibitions in the MHKA The Museum of Contemporary Art,

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

; Gemak de Vrije Academie,

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

; Smart Project Space, Amsterdam; Gallery Image, Arhus, Denmark; Knipsu Art Space,

Bergen, Norway Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, secon ...

; Moretti and Moretti, Paris; and in the Corridor Gallery, New York City. He participated in the

Sharjah Biennial The Sharjah Biennial is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The first Sharjah Biennial took place in 1993, and was organized by the Sharjah Department of Cul ...

, United Arab Emirates 2011, Panama Biennial and in the

Dakar Biennale The Dakar Biennale, or Dak'Art - Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain, is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Dakar, Senegal. Dak'Art's focus has been on Contemporary African Art since 1996. History T ...

, Senegal, 2010. Guzman has been given lectures at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

New York; the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem; the DAI

Artez ArtEZ University of Arts ( nl, ArtEZ hogeschool voor de kunsten) is an art academy in Netherlands. ArtEZ combines several art institutes and art disciplines with branches in Arnhem, Enschede, and Zwolle. In its name the A stands for Arnhem, the E f ...

Master School program, Tent Rotterdam; IDFA The International Documentary Festival Amsterdam; Windward School Los Angeles and Det Jyske Kunstakademi,

Aarhus, Denmark Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

Gallery

File:Antonio Jose Guzman The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) Exhibition the State of L3.jpg, Guzman at The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) File:Towersmallguzman.JPG, Projection of Guzman's short film The Miracle. Tower of hour, Echtenstein Ateliers File:Antonio Jose Guzman smart project space Amsterdam.jpg, Guzman at Smart Project Space File:Antonio Jose Guzman Piertopolis Museum Werf't Kromhout Amsterdam.jpg, Guzman Project Piertopolis Museum Kromhout Amsterdam File:Antonio Jose Guzman Dakar Biennial Senegal.jpg, Guzman Dakar Biennial Projections File:Antonio Jose Guzman MHKA Antwerp Boat Transatlantic.jpg, Guzman at MHKA Antwerp File:Surrender-antonio-jose-guzman-stateofl3-cinema-poster-tessa.jpg, "The Day We Surrender to the Air" Press Conference Thessaloniki Film Festival File:postermilagro.jpg, The Miracle Poster

References

External links

*
The State of L3

Piertopolis

"The day we surrender to the air"

Listening

Guzman On Gravity1 Radio Rietveld Stedelijk Museum AmsterdamGuzman On Gravity2 Radio Rietveld Stedelijk Museum AmsterdamGuzman On Gravity3 Radio Rietveld Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guzman, Antonio Jose 1971 births Panamanian artists Artists from Amsterdam Dutch video artists People from Panama City Living people Audiovisual artists