ExhibitionSeptember 1, 2016
"Liquid Sensibilities", 14th Edition of the Grants and Commissions Program of the Fundación CIFO for the Arts
For the 14th Edition of the Grants and Commissions Program of the Fundación CIFO for the Arts, Colombia stood out in the category of mid-career and established artists, in which projects submitted by Jorge Julián Aristizábal, Carlos Castro, and the duo formed by Leidy Chávez and Fernando Pareja were awarded. The Achievement Award was granted to Maria Evelia Marmolejo, also from Colombia. In addition, the winning artists during this edition include: Elena Damiani (Peru), Óscar Farfán (Mexico), Fidel García (Cuba), Felipe Meres (Brazil), Sandra Nakamura (Peru), and Fabián Peña (Cuba), in the emerging artists category. CIFO presents "Liquid Sensibilities" as a result of the extensive and thorough selection process that began with the nearly forty professionals and experts in the art field that are part of the CIFO's advisory committee and ended with the confirmation of the awards by the foundation's board of directors, reverting to some extent the usual process of the curatorship. In fact, the Grants and Commissions Program also serves as a diagnostic study of some of the themes that occupy and interest the Latin American art scene, evidencing indicators about the region's landscape of artistic production and thought.
The title of the exhibition explicitly alludes to the reflections on the contemporary world by Zygmunt Bauman in his famous book Liquid Modernity. According to the Polish sociologist, we live in a time of instantaneity. In contrast to old orders, more in line with the idea of perdurability, Bauman employs the metaphor of "liquidity" to refer to the nature of this new phase in the history of modernity. Additionally, the works presented underscore the way in which the ideas and interests pursued by the participating artists are connected, how certain central issues are interrelated and conceptual affinities and visual signs—not always apparent—are revealed. Seen through this lens, the works included in "Liquid Sensibilities" acquire profound and diverse implications. As site-specific proposals, they succeed in invading, flooding, and contaminating the space. On the other hand, several hard to erase traces flourish: the marks of a war that has still not ended, unresolved border and territorial issues, gender problems that remain to be settled, alternative ways of eluding the systems of control. Somewhere between the end of one world and the beginning of another, we are always left with the "almost," at the height of its turmoil. María Evelia Marmolejo, for instance, is one of the artists that pioneered performance in Latin America. Her most productive period, from 1980 to 1985, was suddenly interrupted until 2013 by a self-imposed exile. Winner of the Achievement Award, the work by Marmolejo is in search of a dialog between the female body and the socio-political, environmental, and psychological problems in society. On October 8, she will present Conciencia Dopada (Doped Conscience), a performance through which Marmolejo uses her body to refer to a fragmented and distorted loss of identity. She successfully approaches the paradox of a world where pervasive socio-economic, political, and gender-fueled violence prevails despite the advances of mankind. For the first time, the public will have the privilege of viewing a selection of some of the most emblematic works created by Marmolejo during the 1980s.
The title of the exhibition explicitly alludes to the reflections on the contemporary world by Zygmunt Bauman in his famous book Liquid Modernity. According to the Polish sociologist, we live in a time of instantaneity. In contrast to old orders, more in line with the idea of perdurability, Bauman employs the metaphor of "liquidity" to refer to the nature of this new phase in the history of modernity. Additionally, the works presented underscore the way in which the ideas and interests pursued by the participating artists are connected, how certain central issues are interrelated and conceptual affinities and visual signs—not always apparent—are revealed. Seen through this lens, the works included in "Liquid Sensibilities" acquire profound and diverse implications. As site-specific proposals, they succeed in invading, flooding, and contaminating the space. On the other hand, several hard to erase traces flourish: the marks of a war that has still not ended, unresolved border and territorial issues, gender problems that remain to be settled, alternative ways of eluding the systems of control. Somewhere between the end of one world and the beginning of another, we are always left with the "almost," at the height of its turmoil. María Evelia Marmolejo, for instance, is one of the artists that pioneered performance in Latin America. Her most productive period, from 1980 to 1985, was suddenly interrupted until 2013 by a self-imposed exile. Winner of the Achievement Award, the work by Marmolejo is in search of a dialog between the female body and the socio-political, environmental, and psychological problems in society. On October 8, she will present Conciencia Dopada (Doped Conscience), a performance through which Marmolejo uses her body to refer to a fragmented and distorted loss of identity. She successfully approaches the paradox of a world where pervasive socio-economic, political, and gender-fueled violence prevails despite the advances of mankind. For the first time, the public will have the privilege of viewing a selection of some of the most emblematic works created by Marmolejo during the 1980s.
Gallery
