Sandro en résidence artistique (Imitation Of Life 3)

Finding himself in the midst of the tender melodrama of an impossible relationship, Santiago Reyes invented the alter ego Sandro, a stand-in written into the sassy artifice of a fotonovela. Sandro inevitably finds himself prey to each episode’s accompanying existential doubts, which bring him time and again to the question of love. Santiago Reyes brought together the adventures of Sandro for the project Imitation of Life, a chronicle of loss of affection and athletic performance anxiety. Here, the artist will use the 15m2 of the Galerie Nivet-Carzon to create a space for reflection, production, and exchange, a space to frame the latest auto-fictional episode in Imitation of Life: Sandro must go through the administrative formalities to acquire the necessary documents for his green card. Acquiring a carte de séjour valid for ten years had occasioned a period of relative bureaucratic tranquility… whether through neglect or anxiety, Sandro sees the paperwork pile up, untended to as time passes. This accumulation ushers in a state of tension and guilt. The problem is clear, the only obstacle to its resolution the resistance to act. But the critical moment is nigh, as is the expiration date on his visa. After consulting his friends, Sandro will deal with this problem as he always has: by resorting to art. Sandro en résidence artistique will be the occasion to display previous, current, and future works that will be installed and produced throughout the duration of a performance in the form of an artistic residency.