Escala-20 // Mixed media, fabric from a second-hand dress (Cotton), fabric markers, paper, photography. 70cm x 110cm, 2020

in collaboration with Michela dal Brollo

Escala-20 is a collaborative tele-art piece between artists Michela dal Brollo (Italy) and Miguel Angel Montoya (Colombia). The two artists accepted the challenge of creating in the distance due to the lockdown and mobility restrictions developed as a result of the Covid19 crisis. The process was not exempt of stress and logistic issues, but they managed to explore a way of collaborating with each other resulting in the piece that is now exhibited in GlogauAIR’s showcase.

Montoya works with fabric and clothes as medium and for this piece he made a dress-book out of a second-hand Moroccan dress that he named: Der Geist der Treppen (The Spirit of The Stairs), this expression represents all of those ideas that come too late, the comebacks to an argument that was already over.

This dress-book was sent to Trento in the North of Italy to dal Brollo. They agreed not to influence each other’s process by talking about it. The only instruction that came with the dress was “Dear Michela do with this as you please, modify, cut, desecrate…”.

In Italy, the dress-book was transformed into an illustrated tapestry. The result is a silent conversation through the material now broken, fragile, personal.

The final result was sent to Berlin via mail at the beginning of the second lockdown. Now it is showcased in GlogauAIR for a very particular audience: the people that go out of their houses and defy and venture the streets of Berlin.

You’ll be able to see more of Miguel’s work during our Virtual Open Studios until January the 3rd, 2021.