"There are those that were, there are those that are
and there are those that will be"
We call ourselves The Imaginary Beings. We are an informal group of people who come from all over the world and at one time or another we have worked together or supported each other in our various projects. There is no leader. Who ever brings the project in leads the process. We reform, disband and reform again in different constellations each time. We are on a mission, the army is mighty and we are charging again in to the breach as we speak: in the USA, in London, in Rio and in Portugal.
All that connects us is our mutual admiration, respect and love for creating at all costs. The world is small and we create everywhere. We hail from Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Madagascar, Rio de Janeiro, Milan, Cape Town, Beijing, London, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Norwich, Lisbon, Barcelona, Bristol, Madrid, Chile, Guadalajara, Venezuela, Johannesburg, Sydney, Poland, Edinburgh, Russia, Mumbai, Budapest, Faro, Brighton, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv.
skills
Need a.......: blacksmith, glassblower, performance artist, contemporary dancer, choreographer, photographer, philosopher, poet, video artist, wicker weaving artist, grafitti artist, sculptor, printer, painter, singer, make up artist, songwriter, casting technician, carpenter, 3D tech, digital artist, gymnast, fire-eater, writer, or.......?
genesis
As Arundahti Roy puts it so eloquently: "Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars,their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: we be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing".
It began as an idea that sprang from a coincidence. Our friend Zsi Chmera, who left this world in a hot air balloon, told (Toin Adams) about a book by Jorge Luis Borges called The imaginary Beings. They were both intrigued by it and she was to create his creatures in her inimitable way out of paper montage and print making and Toin would then create the menagerie in steel. At the same time another good friend Carolina Maggio was invited by the Jorge Luis Borges Center in Buenos Aires to do an exhibition of painting. Our Spanish friend and muse, dancer Marga Zafrilla Olaya helped consolidate our thoughts and out of this was born The Imaginary Beings Arts Collective. We began creating art events, often for no purpose other than the sheer joy of collaborating on something we had not tried before, sometimes because a great venue presented itself and other times simply to open and close our exhibitions. Many experiments and gorgeous experiences later our numbers keep growing and we continue to create art events all over Europe. We never made the menagerie in the end but we remember Zsi always.