MOONSPRING MEETS BEATRIZ EGGLI

Beatriz Eggli came to Switzerland from Venezuela 20 years ago. This geographical move triggered something inside her and brought out in the surface the need to redefine herself. She remembered her childhood dream of becoming an artist and she decided it was time to express herself through art.

“I started to have images in my mind that I wanted to develop and to create.”

She reached out to a friend, who invited her to the Schule für Gestaltung (Design School) in Bern, where Beatriz later studied photo design. Studying photo design was actually never on her plans, as back in Venezuela she had studied acting, singing, voice-over and contemporary dance and she worked as a model. But the move to Switzerland seemed to bring her further away from being the medium of expressing other people’s art, and brought her closer to being her own voice and expressing her own art.

“When you have a strong desire, things start to move on the direction of your dreams.”

FROM AN INNER THOUGHT TO SHARING YOUR ART WITH THE WORLD.

Beatriz creation process is quite fluid and harmonious, it comes natural without any force. It all starts with an inner monolog, asking herself questions and answering them back with deep honesty and humbleness. The ideas grow slowly from inside her mind and when they seem clear enough, then it is time to bring them to life. This process is reflecting Beatriz’s general mindset “to give yourself the chance to listen to your own voice and to follow what your heart tells you”. For her, this is what “Positively Egoistic®” is all about.

“I don’t know the name of my work until I see it. My piece of work will tell me its name.”

Beatriz is not considering any of her series (collections) to be finished, but rather everything remains continuously open, giving her the opportunity to work on them and connect with new ideas that follow.

“I am giving a voice to something that wants to come out.”

The initiative and the purpose of Beatriz’s art is simply to express herself and her ideas. For this reason, she believes that to be an artist you need to be brave, as it takes a lot of courage to present your work to the public. Her pieces are something like a door into her inner self, her inner thoughts, her self-exploration.

This though is not instilling fear in her, but rather the contrary. She has the urge to share her art creations with other people.

It is exactly this interaction of her art pieces with the audience that completes her work and her purpose as an artist. The exchange of opinions, ideas and emotions that will happen in front of her pieces is the last piece of the puzzle for her.

IMMATERIAL CITIES (CIUDADES INMATERIALES)

As Beatriz friends and family from Venezuela decided to make new homes all around the world, she had the opportunity to visit all these different countries and cities and see them through their eyes. That was the starting point of her collection “Immaterial Cities”. In each city, she took 10 different shots of its emblematic places and she layered them superimposed over each other. She started with Tüscherz and Bern as these were the first places, she herself lived in after Venezuela. Today she has a collection of more than 20 cities in Europe and the Americas.

INTANGIBLE FORESTS (BOSQUES INTANGIBLES)

In the years of the Covid pandemic, as the contact with people and traveling was minimized, “Immaterial Cities” took a new form, and became “Intangible Forests”. Many of us turned to the nature and came closer to it, walking through forests. So did Beatriz, and she therefore decided to use the same technique to collect photos of forests.

THE POWER OF VULNERABILITY (EL PODER DE LA VULNERABILIDAD)

The distance between the photographic subject and the camera lens was becoming a barrier for Beatriz. She wanted to get even closer, and it was via scanography that Beatriz managed to fulfill this need. By placing a piece of glass over the subject and using a scanner to actually take the photograph, the distance was almost minimized to zero.

This technic was firstly used in her series “The Power Of Vulnerability”. Beatriz passes the scanner over wounds of trees and manages to visually capture all the scare cuts on them. She then digitally edits the images, prints them onto archival paper and further manipulates them with menstrual blood mixed with tabacco to add the ultimate personal note.

GATES OF LIFE (LAS PUERTAS DE LA VIDA)

Another interesting subject for Beatriz is the connection of women’s identity with their feminine body. A current taboo subject connected with a lot of judgment from the society. For Beatriz being owner of your own life also means knowing yourself and your body and accepting them, without any part of your body or life causing feelings of criticism, revulsion or even hate. Through her personal exploration to connect with herself, her femininity, and her body, and in an act on self-observation the “Gates Of Life” collection was born.

The scanography method is also utilized here, but in an even more intimate level. Creating a self-portrait by passing the scanner on a piece of glass over the vulva. Beatriz describes this as “a place to femininity for it is the gate that receives the seed of life. The same gate we all go through to arrive at existence is also a vessel of pleasure and pain.“.

Additionally, the idea of a ring with a 3D design cast on steel was born, as a more personal piece. A unique and personal stamp for every woman to worn as a piece of jewelry.

About Beatriz Eggli

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