artnexus #65

Ariel Orozco (1979, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba) proposes in his work a special relationship with the viewer. After exploring his personal history and creating in that basis his art actions, he moved towards an experience where personal issues gave way to the exploration of a broader social territory. The relationship between art and life became then the epicenter of his quest, generating a variety of interventions where the public space is made the stage of his poetic imagination. And the non-permanence of the object in his actions makes the relationship reality/fiction, space/time ever more complex. Analyzing the attitude of those who inhabit and move in the urban space, he is driven to provoke situations that make it possible to “measure” reactions. An example of this is his 2006 work 50 Acts of Luck, where, using a hidden camera, Orozco records the attitude of passers-by who find a coin left by the artist. Observing the gestures made by people walking, he is able to explore reactions that, in identical situations, ranging from those who pick up the coin and toss it, to those who deal with the encounter as a blessing of sorts. In the work reproduced in our cover, Space Without Space, the mirror placed on top of a grave reflects the sky. This material object creates a peculiar relationship between the notions of finitude and infinitude, while at the same time the idea of death displaces its emotional content towards a forceful poetic sense, individuality is lost and becomes a situation belonging “to all and none.”
 IVONNE PINI