“Sognando mui exiláo”: Avía un río by Gustavo Mujica and Vivian Scheihing

Abstract

How can we appreciate the relationship between writing and image in contemporary artists' books? Throughout the twentieth century, there has been an attempt to get rid of discursive tutelage on the part of painters who are no longer content to “illustrate” the text but bring new dimensions to shape a new object. In this article, I propose to reflect on the interaction between visual art and writing in Avía un río, a collection of poems by Gustavo Mujica accompanied by images by Vivian Scheihing. Mujica, “El Grillo”, invents a language in which other languages, spaces and times resonate, which keeps the profound unease of the exile at bay. The painter shares this experience. In her drawings she responds to fragments of the text while at the same time introducing personal motifs, in accordance with the tonality of the book of poems. A text navigating between the cosmic and decomposing worlds relates to drawings in which the signs of a journey between nostalgic and aimless can be seen, but with a mission: to note down “neo-encounters” and “to search for presence and life”.