ARTEXT : La Biennale di Venezia
54 Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte
Giardini di Castello - Belgio
FEUILLETON
Angel Vergara
This exhibition created by Angel Vergara is principally a reflection based around the theme of the Seven Deadly Sins, such as desire, anger, sloth. Using this theme as a leitmotif applied to contemporary society is a way of infecting a sort of virus into the range of trivial images that the media floods us with.
On the seven screens of the large frieze that forms the centerpiece of Angel’s project, the images appropriated by the artist are projected over and over again before finally being attacked by the paintbrush and paint, as if highlighting the powerlessness of this very gesture.
By combining painting and media images, numerous fundamental questions about the Image and Western iconography are raised. In this sense, Angel Vergara’s project is a kind of never-ending story assuming a total search. The images are repeated, posed and superimposed, thereby creating a sort of phantom reality.
In the center of the pavilion, various paintings on glass will be displayed. Although these are independent works, they can be said to b linked indirectly to the large frieze in the central display area. In the two spaces next to the entrance there will be poster and TV screens broadcasting images of performances and installations, along with extracts of Vergara’s previous exhibitions in order to contextualize the work of this artist
B: What exactly do you want to tell with your work?
Vergara : I want to reflect critically on the world I live in, I want to take in a position. I simply can’t stay neutral in this world. Popular culture has always been part of my work. It allows me to explore less elitist territories, to link art with my, and others’, daily life. Action is another element I strongly believe in. Seeing art as an action, is illustrated by my way of painting – I paint on videoscreens – but also by a part of my work in which I transform art galleries into bars, supermarkets or other places where economic transactions take place. By perturbating these places, I want to question them.
B: Is there something people really should know to be able to ‘read’ your work better?
Vergara : Of course I hope my work speaks for itself, but maybe it’s good to know that my work is often the result of ‘unexpected attempts’. I paint over videos, quickly following the movement with my brush. So I paint, very paradoxically, a world in movement. This is very contrary to the classical academic idea in which a painter starts from the firmness of things, and freezes moments in time. In this way, I want to unite the notion of painting with the notion of time.
B: Can you explain your fascination for ‘time’?
Vergara : Time is an element which characterizes us, human beings, from the very beginning. We only have a certain time to live, we are continuously asked to put an end-time to our activities – a film can only last 1,5 hrs, our holidays maximum two weeks etc. The way we deal with time also has become one of the biggest preoccupations of almost every government, it’s a way to control citizens. It seems that from the 21st century on, we have permanently farmed out our time to something outside ourselves: to our career, to money, to society, to the economic treadmill. Instead of living in harmony with time, we are lived by it.
Curatori :Luc Tuymans
Artisti : Angel Vergara
Web site : http://www.biennale.org/ |
