Elías Heim: Reflection and Growth
After viewing his exhibition at NC-arte in Bogotá, Colombia fluoro’s Associate Editor Audrey Bugeja sat down with Colombian artist Elías Heim to discuss the exploration of his personal history, through art.
Heim’s reflective nature and passion for his work was evident as he spoke about his extensive career and his view on art’s ability to induce reflection and growth.
Heritage
Heim is from Colombia’s third largest city Cali. When Heim was growing up, Cali was dependent on the industries of sugar and production. These days Heim sees Cali as a different city, one that thrives with an intersection between tourism and business.
With a Jewish Colombian background, Heim acknowledges that this gave him a unique cultural vision, a specific quality between Colombia and Europe. His childhood saw him adopt Jewish traditions along with Colombian, which created a dialogue between two cultures.
An intrigue about his own background guided Heim to travel to the Israeli city of Jerusalem to study art. “I was looking to my heritage, looking for people like me,” he said. “I enjoyed the youth and energy of Jerusalem. Everything is very intense, yet very relaxed,” he says. “It was also a culture shock.” Heim’s time in Jerusalem expanded his view of the art world.
Memory
A previous exhibition of Heim’s presented a body of conceptual works that were the result of his research and desire to evoke meaning. For this exhibition Heim developed a piece in Paris that was homage to the women who reconstructed Europe after the Second World War. “My Jewish heritage has made me very interested in the people who survived a strong situation.” Elías became fascinated by the role of women during the Second World War, who cleaned and reconstructed the buildings in Germany during the war. Bringing this concept back to Colombia, Heim highlighted that during the most violent period in Colombia “every 14 minutes a woman had to cope with tragedy and reconstruct their home because her husband was killed in a violent way.”
Taking this information, Heim created an installation, which featured hanging glass and crystal objects and each 14 minutes suddenly one fell and broke. “It was very shocking as you were not prepared to see a work that was self destructive,” says Heim. His work also relates to people who were in concentration camps during these times, who were trying to survive. For him it was a very philosophical subject about a human being that should never lose their impulse to give.
During the exhibition he asked a restorer to rebuild one of the glasses with Sellotape in a non-technical, primitive way, by making use of all of the paraphernalia of the laboratory. Heim highlights how this relates to his concept, “the result of the rebuild wasn’t perfect, because of this curse you always can see and it is impossible not to forget. It is a soul’s curse not to forget.”
Fragility
Heim’s most recent exhibition at the NC-arte in Bogotá presented a similar concept. “I wanted to keep thinking about the idea of surviving and the influence of remaining positive. The strength of the human being.” To realise his concept Heim decided to consult a man who scientifically worked with plants. Heim became fascinated with plants and their relationship to fertility and growth. Together with the technician Heim chose ten plants that were typical of the Cali region that would form the basis of his experiment.
Developing a series of furniture structures Heim nurtured the plants to grow through holes that had been formed by bullets. “A bullet has a diameter of 9mm, the same diameter of most of the plants we were working with.” Heim’s structures pair fragility and violence, pairing something that has a long trajectory of two years of growth with something that took seconds to make. “There are two links, one symbolically violent and one beautifully positive. I wanted to make that link.”
Light
Heim’s work brings perspective to the violent times in Colombia, with a view that looks forward. “Now we start to see at the light at the end of the tunnel. These works relate to the post conflict attitude of a new generation that has to grow and see the light, while living together with their past violent situation.”
His exhibition at the NC-arte also includes the use of lasers, working physically with the concept of light. This idea represents the use of lasers within games and the more sinister concept of crossfire. “In Colombia when something violent happens and a building is destroyed by a bomb or gunfire after a week the same building will be reconstructed immediately. I feel for the people who died there, close relatives, or witnesses who want to keep remembering what happened there. The behaviour of reconstruction erases what happened,” says Heim of the connection to Colombia. “The laser light is to remind that we are part of the game, the danger in Colombia is a reality that we are reminded of every so often, if you cross the laser light, you interrupt and you become part of the game.”
Change
Over the past 20 years living in and out of Colombia, Heim has seen the nation develop its cultural voice. He suggests that because of its status as a third world country Colombia is driven to be perceived as modern. “As a result of the development today we have a very strong mix that can define the Colombian art culture and expression.”
Heim’s own work has shifted over the decades, yet the essence has remained the same. “If I take a retrospective view, there is a secret language. The work looks unique from the last exhibition, but essentially it represents the same attitude.” Of this attitude, Heim highlights that his work comes from a place of risk. He acknowledges that for many it is natural to continue to create work from under the one theme when people respond well to it. However for his own work, he takes risks in investigation and does not get too comfortable.
Reflection
Heim highlights the role of an artist to react and create discussion. Colombia experienced over 50 years of internal conflict and Heim has only recently noted the discussions of future peace, something that was not present when he started to create his pieces. “If you make a piece about victims of violence you make propaganda of that violence. But if you make a work of future and positivity, you affect society in a more positive way,” he says.
Heim is an advocate of art’s ability to induce change, believing that “art has an ability to change things in a spiritual way.” This is evident in his approach to creating artworks that are ingrained with a strong conceptual message. Heim works in a way that is a natural progression, starting from intuition. “It is a subtle and magical force, not immediate or pragmatic, affecting something that you are not conscious at the beginning. If you start with your intuition at the end you will have an imagined situation coming together with a reality.”
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