The most delicate feeling, according to Kant, branches into two kinds: one is the feeling of the beautiful, and the other is the feeling of the sublime. The affection produced by both is pleasant, but in very different ways — thus we see that the day is beautiful, and cleverness is small and beautiful. These are useful guidelines for understanding this German philosopher, who held that the day is beautiful and the night is sublime; this sensation has several levels, ranging from the melancholic to the horrific. From the great, which is sublime, to the beautiful, which is small — yet nothing is entirely certain or clearly defined. In this way these two kinds cross over into one another, provoking feelings that carry us from the beautiful to the sublime.
The most delicate feeling, according to Kant, branches into two kinds: one is the feeling of the beautiful, and the other is the feeling of the sublime. The affection produced by both is pleasant, but in very different ways — thus we see that the day is beautiful, and cleverness is small and beautiful. These are useful guidelines for understanding this German philosopher, who held that the day is beautiful and the night is sublime; this sensation has several levels, ranging from the melancholic to the horrific. From the great, which is sublime, to the beautiful, which is small — yet nothing is entirely certain or clearly defined. In this way these two kinds cross over into one another, provoking feelings that carry us from the beautiful to the sublime.
Understanding is sublime, wit is beautiful, audacity is sublime and grand — within this arbitrary construction built in the year 1765, and the following year in a compendium of notes, where moral and anthropological questions speak of a Eurocentric world, before the extension of the sublime appears in the New World, where the traits assigned to Europeans and their various nationalities give way to forms of mestizaje, where the contributions of native peoples combined with those of Europeans, plus a new ingredient — African cultures — produce beings with a history full of new sources. Kant’s ideas are enriched, and citing him leads us toward a new and interesting development.
There are unfinished spaces in Latin American art, the product of socio-cultural contingencies that have caused a delayed development in local practice. The ups and downs of our art, in formal terms, can be seen in galleries crowded with projects that in the end never saw the light of day. The social and the political — inherent factors — stand as witnesses to the work of our artists. On this level, this exhibition is composed as a review of our art, considering its internal dimension, whose content alludes to situations inherent to contingent realities
Our vast territories periodically suffer earthquakes that take hold of the landscape, turning it into a nightmare for their inhabitants. Land shifts appear, dust particles rise and change the color of the sky, cracks form in the earth, torrents of water are diverted, rivers, lakes, and glaciers appear and disappear, and the sea becomes a punishing enemy that destroys every creation of man. It is then that we become aware of the force of nature and its beauty; we manage to grasp its full potential and confront the sublime, punishing force of the unforeseeable. The underlying event of our coexistence is expressed as a constant distrust among inhabitants themselves and toward nature.
Built under this sign of survival, our cities and towns lead us to appreciate the architectural styles and movements that, through their history, explain this act of composing with the unpredictable. These are the cards that lead us to the genesis of this exhibition, where the invited artists build, assemble, and create, playing with this uncertainty.
This is how these fourteen invited artists draw on these realities, shaping wake-up calls about our civic behavior.
The explosion of creativity immersed in these twists of fate brings together culminating moments in which the act of improvising is elevated by a shrewd gaze, not devoid of passion, which is the genesis of this show. We now submit ourselves to the gaze of these spectators, siblings of our Pacific histories.
The show opens on April 14 at 5:00 pm and will be open until May 21, 2016.
Artists: Ángela Wilson, Andrés Vio, Eugenia Vargas Pereira, Pedro Tyler, Catalina Prado, Francisco Peró, Teresa Ortúzar, Carolina Oltra, Lorenzo Moya, Catalina Mena, Alicia Larraín, Hernán Gana, Amelia Errázuriz y Rodrigo Bruna.
Ernesto Muñoz
Curator
Secretary, AICA International, Chilean Chapter