Object of Desire
Guadalupe Casasnovas
02/08/2022
The Furtive Art of Thimo Pimentel
Almost eight years ago, the most important performance action of the last thirty years began in the Dominican Republic. Only a multifaceted creative genius like Thimo Pimentel — doctor, photographer, ceramic artist, draftsman, archaeologist, collector, researcher, cartoonist and cultural manager, winner of the 2016 National Plastic Arts Prize — could come up with such a project, whose scope goes beyond a clandestine performance or the realization of ceramic works for later passive exhibition.
Using the rakú technique, the artist created a series of more than one hundred and fifty ceramic pieces inspired by Gudea's cylinders and Mayan cylinders, which are distantly reminiscent of the pluvial mud drains of the old Dominican capital. All are original, numbered and signed by him. He hid them in emblematic places. It was necessary to access the clues posted on his Facebook page, decipher them, get to his exact location before others and claim the piece.
Thimo Pimentel uses the city of Santo Domingo as a canvas. The cylinders, in addition to each being an independent work of art, serve as an excuse to show us the city he loves. By participating you learn new things: Dominican culture, history, geography and anecdotes. Strategic alliances and new friendships are made to decipher the enigmatic clues and go out, often at night, alone or in a group, to look for pieces. The action promotes collecting, very few of his followers would be able to sell his works, even if they have them repeated.
The addicts, seekers of the pieces of furtive art that Thimo Pimentel has hidden in Santo Domingo, Punta Cana, Santiago de los Caballeros, Baní, Havana, New York, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Paris, Cuzco, Beijing, the Cataratas del Niagara... they don't sleep until they find a solution to the clues: they are obsessive compulsive. Looking closely at their collections, we realize their quality of design and execution.
Thimo — appointed a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in October 2019 — explains: “The pieces are similar, but each one is different. More than anything you can meet new friends and enjoy healthy entertainment with the whole family where physical and mental health is important.
The Dominican National Prize for Plastic Arts celebrates the eighth anniversary of Arte Furtivo with an exhibition of ceramics belonging to the collections of the project's followers. More than one hundred of the most exclusive pieces are on display at the MCC Contemporary Ceramics Museum.
Cuban doctor Jorge Ulloa Hung, research professor at the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo, offers a detailed analysis of Thimo Pimentel's artistic training processes and his contribution to the formation of Dominican cultural identities: "His ceramics reveal influences from the cultural roots indigenous people through the management of their techniques, forms, motifs, legends and myths, which become their constant flow of inspiration and generate an implicit and authentic way of representation. Through it, the artist not only values this part of Dominican history and popular culture, but also turns it into a reason for searching for the origins and cultural connections of what is Dominican with the rest of the Caribbean and the world".
