María José Garcés Larraín
Santiago, Chile
The criteria that I have chosen have one purpose in common: to create awareness of unity. This is why I concentrated on the design of a universal identity. What do we all have in common? We share the same territory, and we won't be able to find a solution to our problems without the recognition of this simple fact.
The flag is an image of our planet surrounded by the seven known planets of the solar system. For the Earth I used the images of water and earth, wheat and vegetation, in representation of life in all its forms. The planets orbiting around it remind us that, above all, we are humanity's heart beating in space.
Interview with María José
Postfossil: Hello! What is your name and where are you from?
My name is María José Garcés and I was born in Santiago de Chile, I grew up and I currently live here.
Postfossil: How do you work?
I work at home. I like to work alone, usually early in the morning or late at night. Depending on the project, work in silence or with music. I also belong to a female collective of collage, every Tuesday we get together and work around a theme, so I balance my loneliness at the moment of creating and nourishing the community.
Postfossil: What inspires you?
I am inspired by the contingency, I use mass media such as newspapers and magazines to obtain the material of my works. The technique of collage inspires me from its main strategy: cut. Breaking an image full of meaning to transform it and put the discourse in debate.
Postfossil: What are you up to right now?
I have been working on women's issues in various aspects. Last year I held an exhibition called "Mater" that addressed the issue of motherhood from a crude and realistic perspective. This week opens an exhibition with my group, called "Kassia" where we work centrally the archetypal story of women in the field of creation and the fight against marginalization in a world that has been governed by men.
Postfossil: How did you start the design process of the flag?
My first concern was the universal. I wanted to center the idea of my flag from a spatial perspective. I integrated the planets that we know of our solar system today, to contrast the borders to the interior of the planet and offer a symbolic look of human union.
Postfossil: What do you want to express with your design of the flag?
All the criteria given seem to me to point in one direction: unity. That's why I focused on something that unites us all: our planet. I wanted to work from the simple and the synthetic to arrive at a clear and universal image, emphasizing the importance of the conscience of the whole.
Postfossil: What is your wish for the future of the planet?
I wish, from the depths, that as a human race, we learn to respect ourselves and to give real value to diversity. I wish that as humanity we can live with respect with the geography, animals and plants of our planet. I want us to be able to enrich ourselves with every difference and be able to give each other the possibility both to teach and to learn from each other.
www. cargocollective.com/mariajosegarces
www.mariajosegarces.cl (under construction)
