Juan Bolivar

"I had been reluctant to undertake postgraduate studies; adamant that if I dug deep enough and hard enough I would find answers to my practice and research. Paradoxically through incidental conversations with Goldsmiths alumni, I began to understand that it is questions that guide research and not the quest for answers. I had reached a hiatus and developed an affinity with Goldsmiths simultaneously, and I wanted to explore the challenges Goldsmiths could offer in this quest for better questions. Goldsmiths introduced me to the idea of criticality. Not to be confused with the act of merely being critical, criticality is closer to the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi: unequivocal yet hard to sum up. The awareness of this quality – and the conditions for, and surrounding criticality – in turn provided me with a structure and compass with which to sustain my practice and its fundamentals in a meaningful way. Goldsmiths enabled me to contextualise my practice, making it possible to ask more pertinent questions specific to my practice whilst at the same time making me aware of being part of a bigger interdisciplinary picture. This sense of belonging to a tacit and actual peer group, continues to support and challenge my development as an artist – not just through the networks built during my MFA – but through the ethos and unique approach at Goldsmiths, which reverberates still within me uncompromisingly as ever."