Artists
Argentina
Karen Palacio
MUTUALISMS
07.02.24 28.02.24
Karen Palacios (aka kardaver) is a live coder, VJ, programmer, and interdisciplinary digital artist from Córdoba, Argentina. She has a diploma in Data Science from FaMAFyC, UNC and is currently an advanced student of the Computer Science degree there. Karen was one of the recipient of the MUTUALISMS fellowship, thanks to which she was able to participate in the program and expand her professional contacts in an international cohort. Her audiovisual work has been featured in Tecnópolis, Germany, Chile, the Cordoba Art Fair, the MAPA fair, and other venues. In 2023, she won the 14th edition of the Itaú Award in the Art and Artificial Intelligence category. She is also a member of Mutek’s Amplify DAI program.
ARTIST STATEMENT & TESTIMONY
I maintain an interdisciplinary artistic practice that involves researching and producing in loops of implementation-reflection, with the purpose of understanding what it means to enunciate artistic-technological discourses in the Global South. My performances, installations and audiovisual works relate in a critical and rooted way to the depths of the computational, the histories of computing and archives: starting from the formal intestines of computing, passing through the different digital divides, until reaching the wiring of the planet Earth and its exploitation for minerals. My work is intrinsically linked to activism for the freedom of knowledge and the search for technological sovereignty, developing and relating to free software in my processes and resemantizing technologies that I knows from my career as an industrial programmer.
During the Proyecto ace Together Apart residency, I had the opportunity to reflect on and share experiences related to the concept of mutualism. Through discussions led by Proyecto ace coordinators, I was introduced to diverse approaches to exploring co-creative methodologies and themes within art. The residency provided me with a space to revisit my artistic journey and the motivations driving my work. I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with other artists and hearing about their respective journeys. A highlight for me was collaborating on a group project with artists Sheila and Michele, where we developed an electronic literature piece through the iterative layering of our individual inspirations, each expressed in distinct artistic languages. I used my background in programming and 3D modeling to the creation of this piece. I relished the opportunity to learn about the sources of inspiration that drive my fellow artists’ work.
BIO
Karen Palacio (aka kardaver)
1994 | Córdoba, Argentina
Lives and works in Córdoba, Argentina
EDUCATION
2021 | Diploma in Data Science. Faculty of Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, and Computing (FAMAFyC), National University of Córdoba (UNC), Argentina
2017-present (ongoing) | Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, FAMAFyC, UNC, Argentina
2014-2017 (not completed) | Bachelor’s Degree in Painting, Faculty of Arts, UNC, Argentina
EXHIBITIONS
2024 | Catedral. Visual Livecoding Performance, Latin American Festival of Arts and Technologies, Chile
2023 | Itaú Visual Arts Award, 14th edition. Emilio Caraffa Museum, Argentina
2023 | Sistema Palpitante. Visual Livecoding Performance, Mutek, Argentina
2023 | Tecnoestéticas – Arte, tecnología y ciencia. Franklin Rawson museum, Argentina
2023 | Women’s Salon. Fernando Bonfiglioli Museum, Argentina
OTHERS
2023 | First Prize in the Itaú Visual Arts Award, 14th edition, in the category of Art and Artificial Intelligence category
2023 | Seciti Acquisition Award for Tecnoestéticas – Arte, tecnología y ciencia along with Medialab UNC Esotecnias.
2023 | Funding for the Production of Contemporary Art in Artistic and Technological Practices, from MediaLab CCEBA, for the project Lenguaje Frontera – Otros infinitos en las fisuras técnicas de los sistemas
Related Activities
Together Apart
# 8: Mutualisms | Results
Artists in Dialogue
07.02.24 28.02.24
In this new edition of Together Apart, we met again, this time under the title Mutualisms. During 4 weeks of intense exchange, 12 artists from different countries and cities collaborated and contributed to create this space of mutuality in which to freely explore their ideas.
In the words of Daniela Ruiz Moreno, program curator: “The 8th edition of Together Apart was, once more, a very gratifying surprise to us—
the coordinators and creators of the programme. It was very interesting to see how the individual interests of each artist were articulated with each other through collaboration across different disciplines, the generation of collective archives, and the invention of methodologies for coexistence. We were able to observe a gradual development, akin to an accumulation and metabolization of all the knowledge and information shared by the various team members and the invited artist, Rodrigo de Arteaga, as well as the invaluable knowledge shared by each participant. We explored alternative approaches to artistic practice, a different way of conceiving scientific knowledge, and acted in response to the urgent need for these two areas to collaborate more frequently. As one of the participants mentioned, the final session felt as watching -in a fast forward speed- a garden grow. Bringing back one of the philosophers who accompanied us during this program, I would like to quote again the words of Michael Marder regarding the writings of Hildegard von Bingen, a Benedictine abbess who in the 12th century was contemplating more holistic and spiritual approaches to ecology and the plant world. Hildegard proposes to look at the mystery of plantness, of greening greenness, of growth. I believe that the arts, in relation to many other forms of knowledge, serve as a vehicle to achieve an awareness of the interdependence inherent in all forms of life on this planet and a re-enchantment with the mystery that life forms entail. Each participant in this program allowed us to do just that, from observing the mystery of trees that make many fundamental cycles of our lives possible, to the landscapes that surround us and shape us, the different constructions and perceptions of time, to the intricate and not entirely straightforward relationship of our coexistence and co-creation with technology and nature.”
