In 2013 we held the first curatorial project with artists who took part in the <proyecto> TESIS program from 2004 to 2007, an interesting moment to review the trajectories of those who began their professional lives in the visual arts during those years and who have since consolidated their own visual language.
In 2013 we held the first curatorial project with artists who took part in the <proyecto> TESIS program from 2004 to 2007, an interesting moment to review the trajectories of those who began their professional lives in the visual arts during those years and who have since consolidated their own visual language.
This second part includes the most recent graduates, 2008–2014; for that reason their work is precisely at this stage of searching, experimentation and consolidation. Some of them graduated only one or two years ago, yet already possess the theoretical, technical and conceptual grounding to ensure they will stand out in their artistic practice on the national and international scene.
In keeping with the complexity of our 21st century, the works selected for this show address concepts that reveal the paths opening or closing on the personal, global, economic, social or ecological horizon, without exhausting themselves.
These are some of the trends:
Weaving is a revaluation of ancestral practices that, in turn, reflects on the patriarchal processes of oppression, exclusion and domination, but at this stage has been embraced as a liberation through the very practice itself; the threads carry countless metaphors about connections, about bonds, about communal work, about shelter, about skin and sensitivity.
New iconographies. The image wears down, fades, undergoes mutations. The hyper-mediated environment we move through acts like an immense kraken that constantly captures, swallows and digests images; their permanence is fleeting, they jump onto social media to gain "likes" and die with the next "post." Because of this paradox of time, it is no longer 15 minutes of fame but a scant 15 seconds.
Memory. Remembrance is fragile, almost intangible. Exercises in historical memory, especially in our Colombian context, where relentless violence has been used to erase—both physically and in the record—thousands of people, denying them their right to a bond with a territory, forcing their displacement and annihilating their lives amid an orgy of terror, make the alternative practice of collective memory through art both necessary and recurrent.
Perceptual phenomena. New perceptual forms are discovered and validated, sometimes close to Renaissance perspective and sometimes entirely opposed to it; space is broader and more dynamic than geometers, astronomers and mathematicians proposed; space is affected by personal experiences, is enriched by them, and is shaped by them.
Drawing. We can say that at the center, at the very core of every visual project of our century, drawing plays an irreplaceable role. From drawing come the earliest concepts needed to develop a script, a mounting, an installation, a construction, a technological development, an animation; virtually everything passes through a visual conceptualization, and from there strategic decisions are made for its subsequent production. Drawing is, therefore, an essential tool for understanding the world around us and the way we represent it symbolically. By drawing, we learn.
The <proyecto> TESIS program confirms that we are capable of re-symbolizing our surroundings, of transforming the way we see, of learning from what we see and understanding its meaning beyond the surface or the space in which it is inscribed.
The exhibition, which opens on Saturday, October 4 at 2:00 pm, will be open to the public until October 26.