Heyd Fontenot: The Lodge of Saint Reborlaro
Sala Diaz is pleased to announce our 2019 Casa Chuck Resident, the inimitable Heyd Fontenot. An artist and curator, Heyd’s five-year run as Director and Chief Curator of CentralTrak in Dallas (2011-2016) is lauded as the most dynamic period in the institution’s history. He will bring the same cheerfully chaotic ethos to San Antonio with an unorthodox series of artist-driven events and community building activities in lieu of traditional studio visits. The project culminates in fall of 2020, with an exhibition at Blue Star Contemporary.
Introducing The Lodge of Saint Reborlaro, a communal and collaborative space courtesy of Heyd Fontenot. Beginning in mid-October, Sala Diaz, Casa Chuck and our communal back yard will be available to those who crave creative, intellectual and spiritual connection. Inspired by the urgency for artists and thinkers to intimately interact, Fontenot recognizes an opportunity to provide a literal address for community building. This incubator—fashioned after artists’ salons, fraternal orders, service organizations and country churches—provides space for casual but meaningful exchange.
Firmly existing within the Bible Belt, much of San Antonio’s population find solace and fellowship at their various houses of worship. Citizens without a particular attachment to religious dogma or affiliation are now offered, through this project, a comparable invitation to regularly gather, sharing the company of both like-minded and challenging individuals. As the nature of experiments go, the benefits and successes born of this shared physical space (contrasting social media’s virtual interactions) will be revealed throughout this multi-season project. Your participation—great and small—is both welcomed and essential. As a resident or visitor to San Antonio, you are hereby solicited to make The Lodge of Saint Reborlaro a part of your own artistic, intellection, social and spiritual practice. You may choose an activity from the list below or do something entirely of your own impulse.
We only ask that you:
1) in accordance with camping rules, respect “The Lodge” by leaving the space as you found it before your visit (or better)
2) take responsibility for your guests
3) obey the laws of the State of Texas
4) do no harm
Suggested participant-driven activities:
Host a weekly film screening
Organize a discussion on contemporary art with a guest speaker or multi-person panel
Start a book club
Hold a critique of easily transportable works
Acoustic musical performances
Workshop to help artists write more effective personal statements
Dramatic readings from the Mueller Report
Dream interpretation, poetry or short fiction readings
Fluxus or surrealists gaming prompts
Open-mic blasphemy with laugh track and thunder sound effects
Block happy hour for neighborhood businesses/neighbors
Séance, tarot reading, ouija board divining
Tidy and easily maintained craft activities
Spa day, foot baths, hair braiding and affirmations
Pamphlet production workshops, fashioned after Chick tracts, counter propaganda promoting useful scientific information, love & acceptance
Slumber party with ghost stories based on the Old Testament
Workshop to develop secret handshakes, rituals and imagery to contribute to the mystique of The Lodge of Saint Reborlaro
Portrait by Leon Alesi
PRESS