Pedro Gómez-Egaña is a Columbian artist who made Norway his home after graduating from the Bergen National Academy of Arts. Trained as both a visual artist and a composer, Gómez-Egaña combines sound, sculpture, drawing, the projected image, and mechanical devices to present theatrical installations that recall the heart string-tugging grandiosity of Disney’s golden age.

Gómez-Egaña uses choreography to great effect in his performances. Simple gestures like pulling strings, or more complex actions, like plucking a magnetized miniature space shuttle from thin air with a construction crane, form the basis for his investigation into the subtleties of motion. His works are performed with an economy of movement, yet they are able to manipulate the viewer’s emotions.

In his poignant installation Swimming Sideways, a paper dinosaur skeleton wilts like a neglected flower. The skeleton is connected to a mechanical device by a system of cables that rely on tension to control the movement. As the cables are coiled to their breaking point, different sections of the skeleton are subjected to gravity, one at a time.

studio

He showed me the beginning stages of a project he is working on for Oktoberdans, an international dance festival held in Bergen. He is still working out the details, but the piece will combine expressive drawings, lightbulbs, and skateboard wheels that are connected to tripods so that they can move along tracks like a camera dolly.

for Oktoberdans

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