Visitas

24.1.07

Whiteness white Whitehot art

WM | Whitehot Buenos Aires 2008 | The White Exhibition.


Elba Bairon, No Title, Paper and plaster, 79 x 64 x 52cm. 20 x 40 x 12cm., 2006


White is a colour. White could represent, for the occidental culture, the incarnation of every immaculate object we imagine. White could be the synonym of purity, integrity, chastity. White could be shiny and sparkling; white relates with everything that’s clean, fresh and tidy. But some other cultures do not bond white with these concepts, but with others that are the exact opposite. White, sometimes, embodies death and mourning.

The WHITE exhibition, taking place at one of the most prestigious art centers in Buenos Aires until February, combines every aspect enclosed in each definition or association people make when thinking about white. More than thirty artists from different countries (most of them from Argentina, but also from other Latin-American countries and Europe) present a couple of works each, where they express the kind of relationship they've establish with the idea of whiteness. Sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, installations; all types of artistic expressions have a place in the exhibition and the contrast between the different perspectives from which they approach the subject is shocking. Absolute opposite ideas, drastic points of view combining abstraction and figuration, all kinds of egos and sensibilities only linked by the proposal of the curators, Florencia Braga Menendez and Gachi Prieto. And the result turned out to be fantastic. White is everywhere, even in those works where it is hard to find some, the lack of white highlights its absence. “White is the medium; it’s a way to see, to be seen, to clarify; an enlighten way to take conscience. These works of art reduce, alienate the power of the eye and the light, they are silent works and at the same time they are full of virtual speeches. What matters is the adventure and experience of vision” said the curator Florencia Braga Menendez.

To define the exhibition and put some kind of label could be troubled and complicated. The first impression of the spectator is that variety dominates the scene. There’s only one thing in common and nothing else but it: the criteria to follow the indications of whatever the concept of white awakes in each artist. Every aesthetic and formal resource participates when it comes to make white’s omnipresence something obvious. White is everywhere. White appears as the opposite of black, as the alter ego of blindness, and as the absence of all other colour. Wherever there’s light, white is present; wherever there’s darkness, white is present by omission. Each one of the art works (almost a hundred pieces) tells a story independently; they would never share the same room in another situation. But when the spectator starts walking around, they find the inevitable connection that gathers them together. Differences turn into interesting points of view that reflect those multiple interpretations humans have of every single concept or idea. Something that seems so simple, such as the task to represent white (whatever that means), suddenly turns the scene into an arena where the most different ways to understand the proposal, can share and relate in the same habitat; an arena that doesn’t look at all like a roman circus but a place that allows the “other” to co-exist. Completely radical ways of thinking, working, and creating that invite us to know multiple phenomenal interpretations.


Eduardo Stupia, Paisaje (Landscape), Oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm, 2006

As the curator Braga Menendez said, “the tension is focused in white and everybody is dancing at their own pace, the same song”. So, the entire exhibition seems to be acting as an enormous mirror where it would be great if we could see our reflection and learn how to act in “real life” with tolerance towards each other. Wouldn’t that be great?

Some other works at WM BsAs:
Karina Peisajovich, Todo debería ser gris, salvo el círculo cromático (Everything should be grey but the chromatic circle), Technical data: Light projection: 3 halogen lights, colour filters, platform., Variable dimensions (aprox. de 2,50m x 2,50m x 2,50m), 2007
Leonel Luna, Angel, Direct take-photograph printed on canvas 170 cm x 170 cm
Bruno Dubner, S/T, Direct take over colour negatives, 108 x 108 cm, 2006.
Vero Di Toro, Centrado Nº4 (Centered Nº4), acrylic on canvas, 144 x 144 cm., 2007
Andres Sobrino, Three photographs, 120 x 90cm, 2007

Some other artists at WM BsAs:
Alejandro Dron / Alejandro Tosso / Ana Lizaso / Andres Sobrino / Andres Waissman / Blas Castagna / Bruno Dubner / Carlos Herrera / Carmelo Arden Quin / Chino Soria / Cristina Schiavi / Eduardo Stupia / Elba Bairon / Hernan Salamanca / Irene Banchero / Juan Andrés Videla / Karina Peisajovich / Katinka Pilscheur / Leonel Luna / Lux Lindner / Maria Luisa Mac Kay / Marina Sábato / Martín Di Paola / Pablo Lozano / Pompi Gutnisky / Rafael Gonzalez Moreno / Rob Verf / Tulio De Sagastizabal / Verónica Di Toro / Vivi Zargon

Posteos anteriores:


1. Para ver posteos anteriores andá donde dice «Entradas antiguas» (en gris, justo aquí arribita y a la derecha). Y repetir así hasta el primer post del año 2004 :)

2. Para buscar contenido según la fecha de publicación andá a la sección «Archivo»;

3. Para encontrar todos los posteos archivados diferenciados por tema o categoría, buscá en el módulo intitulado «SECCIONES»

(estos 2 últimas opciones las encontrás arriba de todo, al inicio de la columna derecha).