We had the chance to talk to the OGR Prize Winner of this year, Rebeca Romero. Peruvian artist based in London, she was recently awarded by Artissima and Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT with her project Semilla SAGRADA, an installation that became both physical in the spaces of the Duomo at OGR Torino and 3D in a virtual version hosted on the Spatial platform in the Metaverse usable free of charge over time.
The award is part of the METAmorphosis project, the second episode of the Beyond Production platform, promoted by Artissima and Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and aims to reflect on the most innovative trends in contemporary art. Partners in the development of the project were Artshell, a software house for the art market, and LCA Studio Legale, in addition to REVIBE – Metaverse Experience Factory.
I grew up in Lima, it is a city full of ancient shrines, archeological structures are everywhere in the capital of the country and beyond. Learning about Pre-columbian and Inca cultures is a fundamental part of our education, of our life. I’ve always had an interest in Andean archaeology but how this ended up being one of the axis of my work is due to several reasons. I’ve been living in Europe almost half of my life, I moved here as a young adult and unfortunately I was never able to afford frequent trips back home. Some memories started to fade, it becomes tricky. You start coming up with ways to create bridges. It is a long process to embrace what some people define as “diasporic identity’. This identity started slowly to become part of my art practice. I did my masters in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University of London, and the experience really made me question what European eyes consider art, beauty, knowledge and later, technology. I became interested in challenging these ideas through my work. – Rebeca Romero.
