CONTEMPORARY ART FROM CHILE
Gallery 0 (The castle cellar)
4.03 - 24.03.1996
Curators: Milan Ivelic, Gabriel Barros, Hernan Puelma
Co-operation: Ewa Gorzadek
With a few exeptions, the works included in this traveling exhibition
lack the historical and aesthetic weight of acnowledgment or internationally
aclaimed works of art.It is an exhibition exposed to the perils of adveture;
it's final destiny is unknown. This adventure is made more perilous by
the fact that the works of art exhibited are episodes, or rather fragments
of creative processes linked to one another which build up histories.
Chronologically, these works cover a period of twenty years- the past
two decades. Two decades crossed by seventeen indelible years in Chilean
collective memory.
The art work of Jose Balmes'Gracia Barros or Guillermo Nunes
are of a testimonial nature.Based on signs of contingency-with dramatic
characteristics during the millitary government-they propose an imagery
that talks about the situation of man, here and now. In the work of younger
generations of artists, such as Sammy Benmayor, Bororo, Oscar
Ggawcitua and Ignacio Valdes, gestures and stains act differently.
Their gestures are more playfull and there is a carefree lack of inhibition
in their use of colour, which is accompanied by a strong dose of persomal
subjectivity.
Francisco Smythe, who belongs to an intermediate generation
came under the influance of the conceptual ideas that were to cause a pictorial
deflation in the 1980's. He questions the very language of painting and
deconstructs the system of painting, rearanging an elementary syntaxs.
Other syntactic restrictions of different characteristics are also notisable
in the work of Cristian Abelli, Jose Basso, Francisco Corcuerra
and Humberto Nilo.
Also included in this exhibition is the space of plastic art which
is where playful atitudes, oneiric states, public and private myths, erotic
atmospheres, uncommon associations and fragmented worlds coexist. The starting
point is Roberto Matta, omnipresent Chilean artist who paved the
way to a deep and penitrating look. He has designed maps of the human psyche.
But he has also made works to reveal and deounce human imbecility as expressed
by violence, conflicts and tyrannies.
The sculptures exibited offer a panorama of diversity. In fact these
sculptural works cross the boundary between the classic severity of the
single block in the work of Lily Garafulic, Raul Valdivieso and
Jose Vicente Gajardo, to modern conceptions of volume by Carlos
Fernadez, Mario Irarrazabal, Osvaldo Pena, Francisca Cerda and Hernan
Puelma and then to finaly achieve absolute disregard and informality
by Francisca Nunez.
These works on exhibit reflect the ample repertior of techniques, subject
matters and sybolism used by contempory Chilean artists. We are interested
in communicating with people who visit this exhibition. Confrontation and
discussion is importannt to us. Critical discourse is essential. If this
occurs, the purpose of this tour will have been achieved.
The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle
Al.Ujazdowskie 6,
00-461 Warsaw, Poland
tel: (48 22) 628 12 71-3, (48 22) 628 76 83
fax: (48 22) 628 95 50
e-mail: csw@ikp.atm.com.pl