Affective symbiosis: creative laboratories in the middle of a pandemic

Abstract

This article addresses methodologies such as virtual laboratory and participatory creation as a path to a dialogue around moments of tension between life and illness. It is centered in the personal experience surrounding the coordination of the Biotechnological Lab and the Ecosistemic Lab, carried out by the Spanish Cultural Center in Santiago (CCESantiago for its acronym in Spanish) during 2021, framed around a broader project named Pichintún de Yerbas. The purpose of this space was, in the middle of the pandemic, to generate debates and encounters starting from conversation sessions, interviews with people and invited collectives from the visual arts, as well as communal creative processes carried out by participants of different latitudes. The reflection around the results of this experience allows the expression of certain stress points between views from different geographic spaces and creative methodologies, and meeting points in the dialogue surrounding the territory, the space and the affectivity from Latin America.