Señores, is a series of ceramic busts containing live plants. The figure represented is a man with a mustache and with signs of military or diplomatic clothing, a figure with a 17th or 19th century feel similar to a national hero, a man of letters or a conqueror.
The figure is actually an anonymous character, an amalgam of reproductions of statues concentrated in a recognizable but nameless body. The busts refer to a certain monumental and historical aesthetic, visible not only in Colombia but in the Western world. This series of white Señores with mustaches who flood squares and parks, roundabouts and school books, to whom according to history we owe our heritage, our language and freedom.Señores to put on and take off, male figures that continue to dominate our historical narratives and imaginations, leaving in the shadow so many other parallel stories, that of women to begin with, that of native peoples, but also plant and animal stories.
The work refers to the change of paradigms and the questions regarding our relationship with institutions, with power and with a certain hegemonic history.These fallen Señores, perhaps sent to be collected, can now serve us in another way, no longer as a paradigm but as an object of use, as a container. The virile figure of the inverted and down-turned hero frees up a space that can now be used to sow and store new life. The principle of the sculptures is that they adapt to the context where they are displayed, as well as the local climate and vegetation.

This series explores diverse narratives of 20th-century abstract art. Each painting serves as a visual representation of artworks from the past century, curated by friends or acquaintances of the artist. The compositions follow a grid system, based on the principles of the Polish-American Chronology System.

Originally conceptualized by Polish educator Antoni Jażwiński in the 1820s, the system gained recognition through General Józef Bem in the 1830s and 1840s. It was later refined and popularized in the 1850s by American educator Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. The Polish-American System of Chronology uniquely translates historical events into colored shapes within a 900-square grid.

The grid spans a century, read from left to right, top to bottom. Each year is divided into a square, further subdivided into nine smaller squares representing different historical events. In “Historias abstractas,” the system has been adapted, with each painted square representing a work of art categorized by year and medium. Colors denote the birthplace of the respective artist.

Essa série explora diversas narrativas da arte abstrata do século XX. Cada pintura serve como uma representação visual de obras de arte do último século, selecionadas por amigos ou conhecidos do artista. As composições seguem um sistema de grade, baseado nos princípios do Sistema de Cronologia Polonês-Americano.

Originalmente concebido pelo educador polonês Antoni Jażwiński na década de 1820, o sistema ganhou reconhecimento através do General Józef Bem nas décadas de 1830 e 1840. Posteriormente, foi aprimorado e popularizado na década de 1850 pela educadora americana Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. O Sistema de Cronologia Polonês-Americano traduz de forma única eventos históricos em formas coloridas dentro de uma grade de 900 quadrados.

A grade abrange um século, lida da esquerda para a direita, de cima para baixo. Cada ano é dividido em um quadrado, subdividido em nove quadrados menores representando diferentes eventos históricos. Em “Historias abstractas”, o sistema foi adaptado, com cada quadrado pintado representando uma obra de arte categorizada por ano e meio. As cores indicam o local de nascimento do respectivo artista.

The Bondage series consists of small-scale concrete paintings that depict the actual or fictional removal of various statues around the world, specifically those celebrating colonial figures or military ideologues. The statues are portrayed against an abstract background, as if they were levitating.

For years, Colombian artist Iván Argote has been staging interventions on public monuments. In Etcétera, Argote covered a statue of Francisco de Orellana in a park in Bogotá. Orellana is a well-known Spanish conquistador and self-proclaimed discoverer of the Amazon Rainforest.

The illusion brought on by the mirrors temporarily erases this invader from view and instead reflects the natural environment in the park. It brings attention back to the land, and the land dispossession and environmental degradation caused by colonization.

1944 – First, I found those “marked to die” when I was thirteen. It was in Transylvania, Hungary, at the end of World War II. My father, my relatives, my friends from school had been “marked” with a yellow star of David sewn in the clothes at chest level to identify, terrorize, intimidate, and then deport them to extermination camps. You could feel in the air that something terrible was about to happen.

1980 – Almost forty years later, already living in Brazil as a photographer dedicated to the indigenous cause, I accompanied some doctors on medical aid expeditions. Since 1973, during the “Brazilian miracle” years, the Yanomami territory in the Brazilian Amazon was invaded with the opening of a highway. With mining, the search for gold, diamonds, cassiterite, clandestine, and not-so-clandestine mines flourished. Many Yanomami were victims, marked by these dark times when the disease reached their land. Our modest salvation group, just two doctors and I, plunged into the Amazon rainforest. Our intention was to start organizing work around health problems. One of my activities was to register the Yanomami communities in archives. To do this, we hung a sign with a number around the neck of each Yanomami: “vaccinated.” It was an attempt at salvation. We created a new identity for them, without a doubt, a system alien to their culture.

2008 – It is this ambiguous feeling that has led me, sixty years later, to transform the simple record of the Yanomami as people, “marked to live,” into a work that questions the method of labeling people for any purpose. Now I see this work, an objective effort to organize and identify a population at risk of extinction, as something on the edge of a conceptual piece.

Claudia Andujar

In this work Andrés Ramírez Gaviria reflects on the possibilities and limitations of interpretation and representation, as well as on the conceptual conventions in the world we inhabit. The focus of his reflection in this case is the historical definition of the unit of weight called kilogram.
The images record some of the official copies (numbered) of the prototype of the reference object for this unit of weight, which were distributed among the institutions responsible for the control of weights and measures in different countries of the planet.
The model was made of iridium platinum, a high-density metal and therefore resistant to corrosion, which guarantees the permanence of the conventional weight as a reference.
Despite this, the observation made it possible to verify that after some time some variations were registered. Ramírez Gaviria’s approach points out once again in this work the changing support on which the illusion of the formal, the solid and the concrete is sustained.

In this work Andrés Ramírez Gaviria reflects on the possibilities and limitations of interpretation and representation, as well as on the conceptual conventions in the world we inhabit. The focus of his reflection in this case is the historical definition of the unit of weight called kilogram.
The images record some of the official copies (numbered) of the prototype of the reference object for this unit of weight, which were distributed among the institutions responsible for the control of weights and measures in different countries of the planet.
The model was made of iridium platinum, a high-density metal and therefore resistant to corrosion, which guarantees the permanence of the conventional weight as a reference.
Despite this, the observation made it possible to verify that after some time some variations were registered. Ramírez Gaviria’s approach points out once again in this work the changing support on which the illusion of the formal, the solid and the concrete is sustained.

The works from the “Massa falida” series are composed of bags of debris used in construction. Sewn together, the bags form banners or flags. When arranged side by side, they reveal a repetition of textual information from the original product. Using ink and solvent, Komatsu selectively erases or highlights excerpts from these original texts, drawing lines and graphs to create new meanings.

Ladrillo mordido [Bitten Brick] is an artisanal brick, cast in iron, made and bitten by the artist. Iván Argote refers to the brick as an essential element in the construction and reconstruction of history and his bite symbolizes how these constructs are permeated by individuals.

“Copper is an element that I use a lot in my work because we are the second-largest producers of copper globally and the top exporters of copper to China. Therefore, the economy of Peru is heavily based on copper exports. In my work, I am very interested in the transmutation of the material from one form to another. In different series, I use various forms of industrialized copper, such as pipes or sheets, to reverse it into cultural expressions like textiles, as a kind of gesture of resistance.”

Ximena Garrido-Lecca

In this series, Candiani works with the mathematical qualities of traditional Mexican dances. The artist worked from the choreographic notation methodology developed by Zacarías Segura Salinas and presented in the book Danzas Folkloricas de Mexico. The study presented in the book seeks to detail the choreographies, so that it is possible to record all the dance movements considering that movements such as the zapateado had no previous codification.
Translations and codification are constant procedures in Candiani’s production. Dance Scores deals with the codification presented in the study by Segura Salinas and also with the symbolic qualities of frame embroidery.

“I started “Manifestantes” one week before the first march of the “revolución diamantina” (a march that protested the rape of a young woman by four police officers in the north of México City). I decided to sew the portraits as soon as I started thinking about a series of large scale sewn-paintings portraying women in different marches and protests around the globe. Privileging the moment of protest and unison – when the voice rises.

Sewing for me is a kind of loud drawing. These portraits are voices.”

Tania Candiani

The Corpo Fechado series is comprised of a series of vintage whips cast in bronze and sculpted in such way that their motions appear as a frozen instant. These pieces are also part of the series of sculptural and photographic objects that relate to Corpo Fechado: The Devil’s Work. Like in the film, there is a reversal on the handling of the whip as these tools for punishment are inverted in these works, drawing near to BDSM practices where pleasure and pain converge, and where relations of power and submission are consensual.

“The Depth of Things” is a series of 24 photographs created from a star planisphere. Bacal isolated and separated the galactic plane (the Milky Way) into 24 fragments, which he then used as precise guides for composing the images.
The artist placed domestic objects on a black table, following the positions of the stars and nebulae. For stars belonging
to any of the constellations of modern science, he positioned the objects at a precise height. He used a very shallow depth of field so that only those objects were in focus. In the background, items like steel wool, rice grains, nuts, buttons, etc., lose their definition and transform into galactic forms.
The work also serves as a domestic homage to the astronomical images captured by the Hubble and Webb telescopes. The mundane transforms into the stellar, revealing a cosmology of disorder.

Quando convidados a expor seu trabalho, Mônica Nador + JAMAC promovem oficinas com um grupo de pessoas da cidade ou instituição com a qual vão trabalhar. A partir dessas experiências, são gerados desenhos, que se tornam estênceis, utilizados nas pinturas produzidas para a exposição. Na série Estamparada, várias imagens geradas nas oficinas são sobrepostas a um acúmulo de 19 anos de atividades do JAMAC.

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When invited to exhibit their work, Mônica Nador + JAMAC promote workshops with a group of people from around the city or institution with which they are going to work. From these experiences, drawings are generated, which become stencils, which will be used in the paintings produced for the exhibition. In the Estamparada series, several images generated by workshops are superimposed on an accumulation of 19 years of JAMAC’s activities.

The concept of a central sun, often considered as the cosmic heart of the universe, has intrigued various cultures throughout history. This idea is rooted in the belief that there is a celestial source of life force from which all creation emanates. Several ancient civilizations and mystical traditions have woven intricate cosmological narratives around the notion of a central sun. For them, this radiant and transcendent entity represents the origin of energy, consciousness, and cosmic harmony.

While interpretations may differ, the common thread among these beliefs is the notion that the central sun serves as a guiding force, illuminating the paths of existence and infusing life with purpose and vitality. Such cultural perspectives on the central sun offer profound insights into the interconnectedness of all living beings with the cosmos, inspiring a deep reverence for the vast mysteries beyond our understanding.

Contemplating the concept of the central sun, these cultures encourage us to explore the boundless nature of the universe and our place within its grand tapestry.

Book covers from the Nations of the World collection are undone, leaving fragments of maps and composing new geographies.
The indexes of the same books announce chapters that describe countries using nationalist phrases. A part of the fabric of the cover, folded, gives the title to the work: Actions of the world.

“Minas” (trabalho em andamento) [Girls / Mines (work in progress)] is a series of portraits produced between 1964 and 2022. The title is a double entendre in the Portuguese language where “Minas” means both a young girl (a girl from the hood) and a landmine. In this series, the artist uses her own childhood drawings done between 1964 and 1973 as support in the composition of an ongoing series of portraits of women who are important to her artistic trajectory. The set, so far, contains 155 portraits.

“Minas” (trabalho em andamento) [Girls / Mines (work in progress)] is a series of portraits produced between 1964 and 2022. The title is a double entendre in the Portuguese language where “Minas” means both a young girl (a girl from the hood) and a landmine. In this series, the artist uses her own childhood drawings done between 1964 and 1973 as support in the composition of an ongoing series of portraits of women who are important to her artistic trajectory. The set, so far, contains 155 portraits.

Señores, is a series of ceramic busts containing live plants. The figure represented is a man with a mustache and with signs of military or diplomatic clothing, a figure with a 17th or 19th century feel similar to a national hero, a man of letters or a conqueror.
The figure is actually an anonymous character, an amalgam of reproductions of statues concentrated in a recognizable but nameless body. The busts refer to a certain monumental and historical aesthetic, visible not only in Colombia but in the Western world. This series of white Señores with mustaches who flood squares and parks, roundabouts and school books, to whom according to history we owe our heritage, our language and freedom.Señores to put on and take off, male figures that continue to dominate our historical narratives and imaginations, leaving in the shadow so many other parallel stories, that of women to begin with, that of native peoples, but also plant and animal stories.
The work refers to the change of paradigms and the questions regarding our relationship with institutions, with power and with a certain hegemonic history.These fallen Señores, perhaps sent to be collected, can now serve us in another way, no longer as a paradigm but as an object of use, as a container. The virile figure of the inverted and down-turned hero frees up a space that can now be used to sow and store new life. The principle of the sculptures is that they adapt to the context where they are displayed, as well as the local climate and vegetation.

Contornos, 2014, registers the variety of fences and barriers found in Cerro de Pasco. The video images examine these boundaries: some seem to be temporary and vulnerable, others impenetrable; they are visibly boundaries between mining operations and public space. The audio is a conversation with Alcibiades Cristobál, from the Huayllay National Sanctuary, a forest of stones on the outskirts of Cerro de Pasco which contrasts the images. Cristobál describes the region’s geological formations while alluding to a cultural past that is disappearing as the land itself and its layers of history are being removed by mining. The video was shown at the 20th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc Videobrasil, in 2017.

Yacimientos [Deposits], 2013, was filmed in Peru, in Cerro de Pasco and its surroundings. The video shows the decay of a city that is consumed by the expansion of a copper mine. We see the contrast between the beauty of the natural environment, with rock formations and adobe ruins, and the physical consequences of extractive operations that slowly consume everything around them, causing irreversible damage to the environment. The work was shown during her solo show in the first part of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo in 2020.