Hi Friends,

💙

Before you attend the braille reading – realized by my friend Javier;

A brief background about the basis of my architecture Dada86 Art Library– for visually impaired people and artists.

In 2009, when I lived in the city of Madrid, I met a wonderful person – Laura, who worked selling lottery tickets in a small ticket booth – where next to her was her beautiful dog – a golden Labrador. One day when I was a bit overwhelmed, I passed by her work place, and chatting for a while, I was struck by how happy Laura was, although for her it was impossible to see the world, to see the sky, to see the Sun.
Laura said to me:

– Hey Mary, don’t be sad, look! You can see!
I would like to see Paris, for example…. – Is the city of love! 🥰

And even if I buy a ticket and go there – I won’t see anything!

Of course it will be even more complicated to travel with my dog.

At that moment, looking at her dog’s eyes through the lottery window, I realized that Laura was right – anyway, I could travel to the city of love!
I could see the Sun, the sky! I have everything!
To express my gratitude to Laura for her inner vision, it occurred to me to take a portrait of her dog, so I didn’t hesitate to the next day bring my 35m Pentax K1000 camera and take a beautiful portrait of her.
It was a sunny morning and she was very happy to have a memory with her dog.
I then brought the picture to relief so that she could save it, and see it whenever she wanted to.
Time went by, and one of my best friends – Alice, invited me to Paris – where I came up with the idea of documenting my trip through my camera, and embossing all the photos for Laura.
At that time, I realised that reliefs were extremely expensive, and not all of them had good definition, so I had to create my own technique – and make all the relief photos myself by hand.
That’s how – Rose came about – an installation curated by Elvis Fuentes and exhibited at the Kumu Museum – Tallinn.

In 2011 – already living and studying cinema in the city of love and lights – where I didn’t hesitate to move to, after my trip – Karucel was born – the first 16mm film I wrote and directed, and where instead of working with actors – I worked with a visually impaired couple – both guided by love.
My producer Karlyn Sovied – screamed with gasps when I told her – I didn’t want to work with actors, but to capture the invisible to the human eye – so I did.
For this piece I had to create a relief storyboard, and it was wonderful to explore the direction of light before the invisible.
The most beautiful thing about the film – at presentations and festivals – is that no one noticed that the protagonists were visually impaired – I worked with their abilities, putting aside the disability.

Through my artistic experience – in 2016 the intellectual bricks for the construction of my Architecture concept – adapted to visually impaired people and artists – emerged.

The new perspective of my ceation – is based on the ability of visually impaired people, and not on their disability.

With this brief flash -back-
Currently in collateral to my creations, I am working on a painting programme – in which I collaborate with Javier – in his hands is the first reading of examples of a braille printer – as well as the development of my techniques adapted to the artistic expression of visually impaired people.

All clear now,

with joy I invite you join the reading- visible to the eyes and hearts of all 🌈

☀️

In the first part of the braille reading – Javier, he is helping me to define the quality of the printer – for Dada86 Art Library.
The document was sent from Norway, and is in English – it contains all the technical data of the machine, including its speed and embossing quality.

Now – the explorations of printers and printing machines – are closely related to my architecture.

From the beginning I decided that – In my architectural plans – the second floor of my creation – will be composed of braille books.

So for those unfamiliar with braille printers – this example comes from a Braillo B-450 2.1.

It’s a wonderful machine, no doubt – but too big for Dada86 Art Library -🤔

Therefore – after a research and logistical understanding of braille books, I realised that the best way to compose the second floor – is to print the books with a printer adapted to the architectural space.
So all the print machine explorations, with their respective relief powers – are an essential part in the development of my architecture.

Now about Braille reading, 🥰

After the exploration of Braillo B – 450 2.1, in direct collaboration with Javier – I decided that for Dada86 Art Library – it would be much better to work with another type of machine – smaller and handling another format – A4.

Is most effective to print the books in braille that will compose the second floor of the Architecture.

☀️

At the second reading, we explored my ink representation techniques, and their accessibility to the reading touch – with one of my fish from the collection – SelFish Blues.

As Dada86 Architecture is dedicated to the artistic development of visually impaired people – through the knowledge of artists – I continue to search for new forms of expression.
And precisely – ink on paper – which creates a small relief and makes the painting visible to the touch.
In this case we were starting from a complex drawing of a fish – which has several layers and many lines of information. I am very happy that my friend was able to see it, and that gives me a good starting point – to explore complex forms and once again work with ability rather than inability.

☀️

In the third stage, we made the first freehand drawing with ink and pen.
It was wonderful that the cafe we were in had marble tables and classical music – which helped to develop the pulse.
We also talked about different relief possibilities and it is at this point that the painting atelier 💙

These experiences enriched my perception of the artistic tools to be used for the cognitive exploration of the visually impaired people.
Based on this experience I conceived a tactile landscape workshop.💙

The workshop takes place in nature and is divided into two spaces – nature and the library :
🍀In nature – visually impaired people would be in tactile contact with plants and trees.
🍀In the library – through their memory and inspiration they would capture the shapes they explored in nature, they would make a work of art.
🍀The paintings would be with pen and ink, because as my friend Javier proved, it is possible to hold such a complex instrument in one’s hand and make perfect lines. By using relief like my fish, other visually impaired people will also be able to see it and that’s wonderful.

The works of art would be property of the visually impaired people, and would be exhibited in the same library, where the creative process is documented in video and audio format.
All artists in the world will have access to this workshop and will be able to reproduce it in their cities around the world; expanding and sharing the beauty and light with people so beautiful that they can only feel the reality with their heart.

Gratefulness to my loved ones, family, brothers, sisters, friends – all those who during this time have followed my path of building the firts Ecologuical Art Library for disabled children and artistes Dada86 – I love you all 💙