Ariel Bustamante

Born 1980 in Chile.

»Not that long ago, I lived alone in the Atacama desert for almost one year. In this uninhabited area, I spend infinite hours listening to the winds, walking behind them, searching for patterns and forms. After a while, they seemed to become something else than just physical phenomena, at that point they appeared to have their own desires and preoccupations, and a strong urge to talk and be touched. I think my work has to do with spending a long time listening to different kinds of things. Whether alive or not, the perspective I have at the beginning changes dramatically and unexpectedly by the time I learn how to listen to them.«

Ariel Bustamante is a self-taught artist based in La Paz/Bolivia. His practice concentrates on long-term processes of both craftsmanship and experimental research. Based on the physical, cognitive and social aspects of listening, Bustamante produces highly complex auditory spaces that are informed by the production of experiential methods of inquiry.

In 2016, he produced his work Conversation Room, a public sound sculpture installed in the very center of Helsinki City, Finland. The work invited the general public to participate in one-to-one verbal encounters inside of an acoustically isolated, biodegradable sculpture. The artifact functioned as a unique ecological architectural space, which was designed over a long period in collaboration with traditional building specialists. Over the course of two years, Bustamante and his team practiced conversation as a method for interpersonal self-exploration, developing techniques to subvert the norms and habits that operate when we think with others.

Bustamante has written for the European Hz Journal, Stockholm/Sweden, presented his projects at Matralab, Concordia University of Montréal/Canada and talked about his work at the Curating program at Goldsmiths, University of London/United Kingdom.

Bustamante has exhibited his projects at the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe/Germany; Harvestworks, New York/USA; Linda Gallery, Beijing/China; The Transitio Electronic Arts Festival, Mexico City/Mexico; The Wye, Berlin/Germany; The White Building, London/Great Britain; Liquid Architecture, Melbourne/Australia; National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago/Chile; among others.

From March 6 to May 28, 2019, Ariel Bustamante was a fellow in the framework of the »WimmelResearch-Fellowship«, a joint project between Robert Bosch GmbH, Akademie Schloss Solitude, and Wimmelforschung.