Maria Alicia Zamora Noguera
undergraduate degree Sociologist, Self-taught artist, Nicaragua
tumbalacasamami@yahoo.com

Art residency: 3. 9. – 13. 9. 2010

Maria Alicia Zamora Noguera, from Nicaragua, previously exhibiting at the 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts organized by the MGLC (International Centre of Graphic Arts) in Ljubljana, received an undergraduate degree with honors in Sociology from the Universidad Centroamericana (2000). She is a self-taught artist who uses graphic techniques for intervening in the public space.

In her 14-day art residence at the Studio Asylum she had made an intervention entitled Devolutionaria on the wall of the Menza pri koritu at the ACC Metelkova City as a permanent installation on the wall. The artist came to participate in the art residency to research common points of the two former socialist countries, Nicaragua and Slovenia. Her primary interest lies in urban street art with political content. Using paper and reproductive techniques as the inspiration, her art work – a mural – links political iconography of Nicaragua with the iconography remaining from the former period of socialism of our territory. Besides her research, discussions and co-operation with the local artists and individuals from [A] Infoshop, a social space for research and development of the theory and practice of anarchistic movements, as well as other interested public at ACC Metelkova City, Alicia prepared sketches and collected materials. In her work, she has primarily employed printed media such as posters assembled in collage, putting the messages in entirely new contexts assuming a new aesthetic role, thus making a direct intervention into the area of Metelkova with her work. The concept of her artwork includes a constantly changing and layering of the mural by the interventions of the passers by. Mural until now contains work of art by invited artists (Nevena Aleksovski, Leigh San Juan) by the author herself and awaits further development.

The roots of the project she has carried out in Ljubljana stem back into the year 2005, when she prepared a project entitled Participatory Public Art Project Murals October. The primary idea of the project was co-operation and exchange of experience between Italian street artists and artists from Middle America. In Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, the participating artists faced new aesthetics of politically engaged street art concieved around the lost trace of revolutions and related iconography. Joining their efforts they covered with drawings the wall wherefrom there had been – for political reasons – frescoes removed already twice before.

As a part of her residency in Studio Asylum, a disscussion led by Matej Žonta and the artist herself was organized in the Alkatraz Gallery on Thursday, 9th September. The visitors were presented with the artist’s work, processes of creating and the content of her work. The opening of the mural Devoulutionaria, which was extremely well attended, took place on 10th September 2010.

The exhibition was a part of the events celebrating the 17th Anniversary of Metelkova City and part of the Alkatraz Gallery program, which is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana - Department for Culture.

http://www.galerijalkatraz.org/?p=1961
http://www.galerijalkatraz.org/?p=2219
http://www.madc.ac.cr/mambo452/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=338&Itemid=77
http://elattico.blogspot.com/2008/03/neo-grficas-y-un-documental.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4v3LSeb8NM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EETKKr9tb7o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h96oRZ7_128


Download Alicia's CV in english:
Opening of the mural Devolutionaria photographs
Photographs of the discussion with the artist
Video of the mural in process on the wall of Menza pri koritu's wall was shot and edited by Nevena Aleksovski, Leigh San Juan, Sebastian Krawczyk, Sara Filipovič, Ana Grobler and Maria Alicia Zamora Noguera.