It is deeply satisfying to examine the variations, the evolution of artists' work after a given period of time; a fitting occasion for doing so has been the celebration of Proyecto TESIS's twentieth anniversary.
OSCILLATIONS
Participating Artists
Alicia Garavito
Gustavo Mantilla
César Contreras
Cristiam Fajardo Rojas
Tzitzi Barrantes
Tania Ausecha
Alejandro Sánchez
Sebastián Fonnegra
Natalia Salcedo
Lady Chavez
Nicolás Buenaventura
Maite Ibarreche
Vanessa Nieto
Sandra de la Cruz
Luis Fernando Gutierrez
Evelín Velázquez
José Sierra Vega
Erika Ordosgoitti
It is deeply satisfying to examine the variations, the evolution of artists' work after a given period of time; a fitting occasion for doing so has been the celebration of Proyecto TESIS's twentieth anniversary.
As the conceptual axis of this curatorial project, we have chosen the notion of oscillationsthat allows us to reflect on the mutations and movements that arise from an initial position.
From a given point, and due to different factors, a system can oscillate in some of its parameters, whether tension, intensity, frequency, or speed.
The works presented here reflect social, cultural, economic, technological, political, and even public-health tensions brought on by the consequences of the pandemic.
But they are equally a testament to the intensity with which we have lived through the 21st century, a period that has barely begun but that, like every start of a century,brings with it a mix of uncertainties, hopes, certainties, and doubts.
If we look at the frequencies of past times, we discover that every second decade has marked the essential axes of what was to come… the Second World War in the 20th century, the independence of the American countries in the 19th century, the rise of China in the 17th century, the end of the Thirty Years' War in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation in the 15th century, the Inquisition in Spain in the 14th century, and a long etcetera.
The speed at which events occur gives us no time to analyze them in detail; only centuries later do we understand these sequences, these social oscillations that generate meaning-laden sinusoidal waves carrying dizzying changes in their wake.
Of course, the resulting impacts amplify, resonating along the immeasurable curve of history, and bounce back a decade, five years, a century, a millennium later, sometimes plainly, sometimes veiled, sometimes transformed, and some almost invisible.
We stand before the testimony of the 21st century; we can sense it, we must decipher it, commit ourselves to change, and be the protagonists of this unique, unrepeatable moment, so as to leave a scratch, an indelible mark to be remembered by future generations.
Will we be capable of accepting this challenge? Of waking from the nightmare? Of leaving behind the recurring horrible night and moving forward with joy, ahead of the inexorable curve of history?
Let us oscillate at a different frequency, harmonious and sublime.
Gustavo A. Ortiz S.
Director of the MAC