Port of Memories is an installation that consists of an analog film documentation of the performance called Time Travel. The performance was executed between 2020-2024. In the cities of Helsinki and New York, and in the town of Gama, the place where Paola’s father was born in Colombia. Additionally, the exhibition consists of an installation of an aquarium that contains water and Paola’s hair. This aquarium will project images in the exhibition space and complement the film documentation of the performance.
Aquariums are connected to the idea of belonging and are linked to water, an element capable of transforming and transporting memories and objects in different spaces. This connection to water has also allowed Paola to ponder ideas about someone’s past, life changes, transitions, and self-observing. Similarly, hair carries infinite memories and it has an ambiguous relationship to the rest of the human body. Paola is interested in the uncanny of the hair as an external material when it has been separated from the body. Hair can be considered as a ghost with a past story, it is alive, similarly to the film. Paola finds that the aquarium and its recreation resemble the developing process of analog filmmaking, both requiring liquids and circular movements. Aquariums usually have a pump that makes the water rotate. In analog filmmaking, circular movements are needed to expose the film to the developer when developing a film. All these aspects have naturally enabled Paola to undertake deeper analysis and explorations over the elements captured through the camera and in the darkroom.
The performance Time Travel has been done in three different geographical areas in the world; Helsinki, the city where Paola lives; Gama, the city where Paola’s father was born; and New York, the city where Paola recently participated in a residency program.
Paola Fernanda Guzmán Figueroa is a Colombian/Finnish visual artist and filmmaker. She has a BA and MA degree from The University of the Arts Helsinki and a BA in Visual Arts from Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. Her work is based on the narratives and the lived realities of her family members and the geographical distance among them. Paola’s art dissolves frontiers and connects the past with the present by evoking situations, stories, and bodies that are placed in constant motion and in dialogue with each other.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues and has been documented by different media. Time Travel was presented at Governors Island, New York City (2023), CICA Museum, South Korea (2022) and El Retiro Park, Madrid (2020). Mommy say something to the camera, mom! has been showcased at Doclisboa International Film Festival (2023) and Cinemassí Latin-American Film Festival in Helsinki (2022). Nanita, para siempre was exhibited at the Cultural Centre Gabriel García Márquez, Bogotá (2022) and Oodi Helsinki Central Library (2023) Paola has recently participated in residencies at Saari Residence, Finland, and Residency Unlimited, New York, supported by The Finnish Cultural Institute.
