Iván Argote (Bogotá, 1983) has lived in Paris since 2006, when, after graduating in Graphic Design from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, he moved to the French capital in order to continue his education at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Despite his youth, Argote has become a significant presence in the art world, with a number of exhibitions already under his belt.
Argote’s work uses a range of resources and focuses on highlighting the ways people establish relationships in everyday situations, connected to historical and political events.
In an interview on the occasion of his solo exhibition at Museo del Chopo, in 2017, Argote emphasized different situations that help visualize how emotion and affectivity influence the way we experience politics and a critical view of history. “I grew up in a militant family highly engaged in social policies, a family that was deeply cognizant of Colombian history both ancient and contemporary. So, there was always on my part an awareness of those historical processes, and this is reflected in my work (…). I am interested in analyzing political processes from an emotional perspective, thinking through how our perception of history alters our view and our understanding of the world, our ways of remembering.”*
With public spaces as his platform, Argote explores the city as a constantly shifting site; using emotion as his instrument, he builds his own critical resources, conceived to prompt thought in the viewer. “With my work I seek to point out problems in our historical architecture, and I am interested in doing this in a voice that combines playfulness, love, and humor while remaining earnest and thoughtful.”*
The work on our cover, Oui la vie, is comprised of a series of concrete slabs on which words suggesting respect and dignity have been carved, thus transforming them into poetic pathways through different sectors of the city of Douala, Cameroon.
* Regina Montemayor, “Somos Tiernos. La primera exposición individual de Iván Argote en el Museo Universitario del Chopo”. Vogue Magazine, October 2017, Mexico.
IVONNE PINI
