It is the journey of Nirvana Studios and its alternate universe told by one of his mentors, Alex Michel.
In 2003 we had a caravan of 30 vehicles for our exhibition tour. One truck had a breakdown and in that unplanned stop we saw a large sign announcing an auction. The field was huge, partially covered with vegetation and it had a ruin. Was auctioned and we thought: let's all join us and bid! We were a nomadic community for too long and needed to settle. It all happened there, in that moment in time. We showed up, bitted and they accepted our proposal. After that was the usual race to credits, see what there was to offer. We sell lots of cars, trucks, vans and rullotes. That's how it all started. It was the culmination of a quest for liberation, our nirvana. The name stuck. What remained of the old military barracks was only a shadow of its past. We put to all out efforts to work. We had to rebuild the space, open new channels, rise walls, everything ... there was nothing. Basically, all the experience he had accumulated to mount performances, scenarios, spaces, made us bit welders, blacksmiths, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. Life on the road teaches us these things, we are people of trucks, of the sea, of the stars and almost all are artists. It's sort of Templar's community that decided to build a cathedral. This was ours. The holy ground of our dreams and ambitions. The former barracks for our post-apocalyptic world.
We built his new space little by little, was a progressive vision. We did not stop being nomadic. We continued to take the road as our house. A part of the team returned to start to work and then came the rest. After a while we had our way back, again and again. Over the years, our exits star shrinking as our new home grew. This first phase we called studio eight to a hangar where we installed our multidisciplinary theater, where we do our shows, which houses the Custom Circus. Our reputation for alternative entrepreneurs, safe harbor, brought more people and more projects that helped to finance the construction of other studios devoted to the arts, are now twelve in total and today are designated Nirvana Studios, an area 40 thousand square meters. These independent zones are used freely, leased 24 hours per day; in fact, everything is built according to the projects. The artists, the collective comes to us and tell us: we need a space for our business. All that is integrated into our lifestyle, more underground, the most misunderstood people here is welcome and feel as a family, they come and end up staying. We have Zoe studio, which produces programs for sic radical and Gruvitar the best hardware store of batteries in the country, not to mention the rest. It is a global community. In total comprise approximately 700 people. Our universe involves a lot of these people, who are not directly linked to Custom Company, are peripherals projects that gravitate around us, but are part of our essence. The independence here is very encouraged. We promote the formation of collectives. There are no boundaries. Everyone knows and interact with each other. There is no segmentation. There is not a membrane, it is completely free, we get people from outside, and they develop a project and then go away. It is a very dynamic process.
The next step in this universe is an apocalyptic arena. The Custom Arena. In here, there is an avenue that is Nirvana Boulevard, where we have the Custom café built and now wanted to create a different environment, a movie set, this aesthetic language, as in "mad max" with a giant physical structure for our show on wheels. We are negotiating with the city hall, because it has some structural and plastic impact that is not often viewed favorably. Trucks vertically with aisles of containers and other structures which for us is art, bet they may not be seen that way. We are negotiating slowly. It is a space that could get 5000 people and had even visit, as an art live installation, living beyond 100% of the show. It is a beautiful dream and pleasant sight. This is our next step. We are in the hands of city council. Here, in our world everything is done legally, with permits we build. We have engineers and architects working for our cause, although we are always greatly delayed. It wears us out a lot financially, but we are ready, we can be very alternative and irreverent, but this is an act that is not worth going around it. It is a price we've always been willing to pay, because we know that in the end we will succeed. Now it is much easier, since our fame and surpasses borders. Overcome prejudice. It is the glimmer of a new world, free with the feet firmly on the ground. Come and meet us and tell us your dream.
