Thimo Pimentel's Furtive Cultural Journey

Yaniris López - Listín Diario
08/02/2017

The visual artist Thimo Pimentel once again provokes lovers of art and cultural ecotourism exploration, with the second edition of the “Furtive Cultural Journey”.

The rally invites you to get to know the cultural and tourist East... And to continue or begin the most coveted art collection with an ecotourism vocation in the Dominican Republic.

A basic summary?

Sign up, decipher the clues that the potter, doctor and great researcher of aboriginal culture is placing on his social networks and that will guide you to a point in the national geography and keep what you find there: an original and exclusive piece of pottery made, dated and signed by Thimo. Since its creation as Arte Furtivo in 2012 (the artist distributed some pieces around the Colonial City to see how people reacted), more than 550 pieces have been distributed throughout the Dominican Republic and another 30 in other countries. But the rally is much more than the search for that work of art. Thimoaddicts make this cultural journey an opportunity to learn, have fun and get to know the country. Do you join the tour? They can participate, says Thimo, “from little children to those over 80 years old”. Photographer, graphic artist, educator and president of the Igneri Foundation, Thimo Pimentel shares with Listín Diario the details of a journey that promises many hours of exploration, observation and teamwork.

What is the route or path to follow this year?

This time the Furtivo Del Este Cultural Route is heading to the East of the country. We left the NEXT Station, on the Autovía del Este, next to the Shish Kabab Restaurant.

Some places to which you will give special attention?

The route has specific attractions such as the Duey and Yuma rivers, caves with pictographs, monuments over 500 years old, the Basilica of La Altagracia, the small houses of Otra Banda, Verón, Punta Cana, knowing the Megacilindro or the Church of Our Lady from Punta Cana, to finish at the Playa Blanca restaurant that will be inaugurated days before the event.

Who can participate and what do you have to do to sign up?

Participate from small children to over 80 years old and to pre-register you just have to say the name of your team, send the names of the members and their telephone numbers by writing to thimop@elit-tile.net

Only the thimoaddicts know the names of many of the pieces created by the 2016 National Prize for Visual Arts and that are already part of Furtive Art. ©Jose Joga and Victor Rodríguez

The logistics or rules to follow of the rally?

The event has a route that can be followed on Google Maps, or by taking a physical map that will be given to each team. Instructions and clues will also be given through a WhatsApp chain. Other clues may be coming out on Facebook, on Thimo Pimentel's page, on Instagram or by email. There are written, encrypted, graphic clues. The routes are divided so that the participants have more opportunities to find the pieces: a blue route, a green route and at the end a red route for the handsome and intrepid.

What works will the participants find on this occasion?

Cylinders, chiquindolos, mini, medium and large dumb dogs; sitting hearts, small, double hearts; bulliris, fierce dogs, cocolondrios, gruaripakis, cocolondrios eggs, border markers, venus, ciguapas, sgraffito pieces, guanines, gigones, Caribbean skulls... All works are original and different from each other: no two pieces are the same.

Those who find the pieces automatically become their owners, without having to pay a penny for the artwork.

“Those who find the pieces automatically become their owners,” confirms Thimo. ©Igneri Foundation

What cultural goal does your stealth art have beyond deciphering a clue, finding and collecting the pieces?

The fundamental purpose is to promote culture, observation, family integration, historical and geographical knowledge of the land we live in, this magical and unusual island inhabited centuries before the arrival of the European invaders. Learn about their customs, their beliefs, gastronomy, eliminate taboos and myths, fears and apprehensions, promote friendship, knowledge and cultural interests between different groups, promote visual arts leaving the rigorous spaces of art galleries, promote the collecting of works of art, work with new technologies, using drones, GPS, smartphones. Integrate participants in social works that contribute to improving the quality of life of places where we pass. Stimulate photography with competitions parallel to the event and photos taken at the same event.

What edition of the rally is this?

So I tell you. Furtive Art as such began in September 2012 and to date some 550 works have been placed. Some sixty more works will be placed for this event. As a Furtive Cultural Journey, this is the second edition, the first one we did in the middle of the year towards the Short South.

Some thirty pieces have also been placed in other countries: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico (in the Pyramid of Teothihuacan), on the Great Wall of China, in different North American cities, in Buenos Aires and in Machu Pichu (Peru).

How long is the journey?

This journey has a single stage, it starts at nine in the morning and will end in Playa Blanca after four in the afternoon.

Will there be an exhibition later with the works found?

We are managing to make an exhibition in the new facilities of the National School of Fine Arts with the best pieces of furtive art found.

When?

The date of the Furtive Cultural Journey remains for Saturday, December 15. “The word rally is only anecdotal, because the event is, more than a competition or a race, a family and cultural activity where it is not necessary to arrive first, but to know how to decipher the tracks first and get directly to where the piece is”, Tim explains.

The artist takes the opportunity to thank the sponsors for the trust they place in the project and the press "which promotes these positive attempts where we want to add and teach how to add, so that with all the participants we all learn and in the end win more".

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