PROMISES WRITTEN IN ICE

Rocio Gomez

We come across a project whose very name heralds a journey towards one of the most essential aspects of life: time passes, and it passes quickly, very quickly. Promises written in ice is a series of works that the Peruvian artist Rocío Gomez began during the Covid-19 pandemic. For 40 days, a literal quarantine, the artist wrote the phrase ‘I am prepared’ in ice letters on the street. The action consisted of placing these small letters on the pavement, which melted the moment they touched the concrete and were seen by the sun. How can you be prepared for something like that? The artist expresses the impossibility of preserving what has already begun to disappear. But what she manages to do is to capture the moment of the march. Calmly, tenaciously, stubbornly, she returns each day to carry out the ritual of placing the letters that will disappear, first becoming pools of desire and then immediately evaporating, leaving only memories. Day after day, through heat and cold, the artist would stop her other daily activities to return to the perhaps internal question: am I ready?

Cecilia Juardo (excerpt from the curator’s text)