‘Everything passes in time but time itself!’ proclaims on a quite somber tone Eduardo Cadava in his book ‘Lapsus Imaginis: The Image in Ruins’. For him, the present is not simply the present, but a result of the multitude of images that form it “now” and that might come from alien spaces and historical moments. Any image is for him always the image of another time. The image is bearing several memories at once. For him the image is therefor never closed.
This exhibition is dedicated to the recurrent necessity of contemporary artists to re-load the past, future and present into ‘the image’ and therefore to re-cast ‘traditions’. We can think in this context also about the concept of the “Reinvention of Tradition” – a pluri-valent notion which has been invested with various content in cultural analysis.
Many of the work included in this show, deal with various forms in which traditions have been actually recreated. They also imply the political background of such appropriations. These invented traditions are often involved for legitimising certain institutions or cultural practices. In many of the works exhibited in this show we find allusions to the art of the Modernism and that of the Renaissance, but these are never innocent forms, as they carry with them cultural wars, the heritage of colonialism, or present economic relations of power – especially in regard to Latin American and European connections.
The exhibition travels between forms which show how the history of art has been reinvented, to others that show how historical themes transport socio-economic and political aspects. These run like deeper currents through the works presented here and reveal often conflictual, un-resolved historic themes.
We can find allusions to cultural forms since the end of the 19th century, the Latin American modernism and its reception in Europe, but also to today’s large scale biennials’ scaffolding of information, to architectural complexes and fairs.
Curated by Marta Jecu
Participating artists: Felipe Arturo, Alessio Delli Castelli, Fernanda Fragateiro, Matias Machado, Jorge Pedro Nuñez
Galeria Baginski (press release)
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
Courtesy Galeria Baginski.
