ABRAHADABRA

Images, sounds, and objects have always been linked to the human universe through ritual in diverse ways, but above all as tools for accessing our desires, from the most mundane and evident to the most mysterious and hidden. Resemblance and contagion are terms shared by both the ritual object and the work of art; aura, originality, and the power of transformation and even healing are elements common to both, and in an instant the fetish becomes a work and the work a fetish. In the relationships we establish with them, we come into contact with our superstitious, supernatural, and mystical side; believing becomes necessary in this magical operation. Rituals are direct and indirect, they influence the life processes of human beings, and they fulfill multiple functions: the veneration of deities, the rejection of negative or malevolent forces, the commemoration of special moments, connecting with beings who no longer inhabit the material world, achieving control over the body and sexual pleasures, and even raising the dead from their graves. In this way, magic and its processes, like art, transform, change, mutate, and operate through symbols, and it is in daily life where they can develop their full power. The proposals of the artists involved in this project use images, objects, and sounds alike to communicate a veiled world to us, a hidden world that does not manifest easily and must be made material for contemplation and understanding.

Images, sounds, and objects have always been linked to the human universe through ritual in diverse ways, but above all as tools for accessing our desires, from the most mundane and evident to the most mysterious and hidden. Resemblance and contagion are terms shared by both the ritual object and the work of art; aura, originality, and the power of transformation and even healing are elements common to both, and in an instant the fetish becomes a work and the work a fetish. In the relationships we establish with them, we come into contact with our superstitious, supernatural, and mystical side; believing becomes necessary in this magical operation. Rituals are direct and indirect, they influence the life processes of human beings, and they fulfill multiple functions: the veneration of deities, the rejection of negative or malevolent forces, the commemoration of special moments, connecting with beings who no longer inhabit the material world, achieving control over the body and sexual pleasures, and even raising the dead from their graves. In this way, magic and its processes, like art, transform, change, mutate, and operate through symbols, and it is in daily life where they can develop their full power. The proposals of the artists involved in this project use images, objects, and sounds alike to communicate a veiled world to us, a hidden world that does not manifest easily and must be made material for contemplation and understanding.

The exhibition's main intention can be related to the notion that the surrounding reality and its phenomena (physical and metaphysical) are appropriated by the artists, in such a way that the physical matter composing their works becomes charged; serving as a living memory, fetish, total work of art, or complex image that is activated by whoever truly wishes to experience and make contact. To the extent that we question this notion of “charge” and the way the artist operates, we come to delve beneath the surface that conceals it, revealing its animist power.

The exhibition opens on July 17 at 7:00 pm and will be open to the public until August 30, 2015.