Artists: Carla Arocha & Stephane Schraenen, and Piotr Tolmachov.
Landscape and Spacing
Pulsar
November 6 – 22, 2015
Antwerp, Belgium
Pulsar is a new artist run, not-for-profit space located in Antwerp. Each month we feature works by local, international, established or emerging artists. A platform is offered for artist curated installations and exhibitions, encouraging a wide range of disciplines and practices.
November 4, 2015 Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen: Threshold https://abstractioninaction.com/happenings/carla-arocha-stephane-schraenen-threshold/
Artists: Josef Albers, Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen, Pavel Büchler, Alain Franco, Dennis Tyfus, Peter Fengler and Pieter Vermeersch.
Threshold
November 15 – December 21, 2014
Cultuur Centrum Mechelen
Mechelen, Belgium
Met de tentoonstelling Threshold in De Garage, gaan Arocha en Schraenen in dialoog met werk van Pieter Vermeersch, Josef Albers, Pavel Büchler, Dennis Tyfus en Peter Fengler.
In deze tentoonstelling presenteren Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen hun meest recente werk Wall. Deze sculptuur is samengesteld uit verschillende keramische elementen in subtiel gekleurde glazuren het licht reflecteren en zo het werk een steeds veranderend uitzicht geven. Wall speelt, zoals frequent in hun werk, een buitengewoon optisch spel met de omgeving.
Op de openingsavond op vrijdag 14 november, zorgt de muziek van Alain Franco voor een gevoelige verkenning van de kloof tussen tijd en ruimte, aanwezigheid en afwezigheid, geluid en stilte.
Artists: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen
Persiana
October 25 – December 21, 2014
Cultuurcentrum Mechelen
Mechelen, Belgium
De overzichtstentoonstelling Persiana markeert tien jaar gezamelijke praktijk van het Antwerpse kunstenaarsduo Carla Arocha en Stephane Schraenen. De tentoonstelling brengt een ensemble van sleutelwerken samen in een nieuwe constellatie speciaal bedacht voor de tentoonstellingszalen van het cultuurcentrum.
Arocha en Schraenen hebben van de waarneming zelf het primaire onderwerp van hun artistieke aandacht gemaakt.
Selected Biographical Information
Solo Exhibitions
- 2014: “In A Rhyhtmic Fashion”, Glyptotheca, Zagreb ,Croatia.
- 2014: “(to be titled)”, L.A.R.V.A., Guadalajara, Mexico.
- 2014: “Persiana”, CC De Garage, Mechelen, Belgium.
- 2013: “Click”, KaBe Contemporary, Miami, USA.
- 2013: “What Now?”, Isabella Czarnowska Galerie, Berlin, Germany.
- 2013: “Sunday”, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan.
- 2012: “Looking For Clues”, ltd Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
- 2012: “The Discrepansy Between the Pale and the Dark Zone”, Ganes Pratt, MALA Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- 2012: “After”, CAB de Burgos, Burgos, Spain.
- 2011: “Cabin Fever”, Cabin, Antwerp, Belgium.
- 2011: “Five Colors”, Editions Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- 2011: “Circa Tabac At the Wallace Collection”, curated by Ken Pratt, Wallace Collection, London, UK.
- 2010: “Undertow”, KaBe Gallery, Miami, FL, USA.
- 2010: “25°85’08” N – 80°12 ‘03””, Agency PLC at NADA Miami, Deauville Hotel, Miami, FL, USA.
- 2010: “Waterloo Station”, Peter Pilotto winter collection 2011, Fashion Week, Waterloo Station, London, UK.
- 2010: “As If”, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA.
- 2010: “Sequence #4”, Koraalberg Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.
Group Exhibitions
- 2014: “Museum to Scale 1/7”, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
- 2014: “HOW SIX MEN GOT ON IN THE WORLD”, Berlin, Germany.
- 2014: “Museum to Scale 1/7”, The Baker Museum, Artis-Naples, Florida, USA.
- 2013: “Selected Works: Carla Arocha & Stéphane Schraenen, Louis Lawler and Markus Döbeli Isabella Czarnowska Galerie, Berlin, Germany.
- 2013: “Museum to Scale 1/7”, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium.
- 2013: “Place Is the Space”, Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis Missouri, USA.
- 2013: “The Distaff Side”, The Melva Bucksbauam collection at the Granary, Sharon Connecticut, USA.
- 2013 :”CAB Burgos Collection”, El Centro de Arte Alcobendas Madrid, Spain.
- 2012: “Caraota von Moules”, with Arturo Herrera and Meyer Weisman, Künstlerhaus Bethaniën, Berlin, Germany.
- 2012: “Spectral Metropole”, curated by Ken Pratt, City Museum (Mestni Muzej), Vzigalica Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- 2011: “New Art From Belgium”, Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin, Germany.
- 2011: “You Never Walk Alone”, curated by Vanessa van Obberghen, Worksound, Portland, OR, USA.
- 2011: “Artefact 2011”, S.T.U.K., Leuven, Belgium.
- 2011: “New Art From Belgium”, Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, Germany.
- 2011: “Carla Arocha – Stéphane Schraenen: Framed and Vaast Colson: Screwed”, BeLa Editions, Brussels, Belgium.
- 2010: “Into the Light”, December 9-19, 2010, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium.
- 2010: “The Raw and the Cooked”, curated by Clayton Press and Gregory Linn, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, USA.
- 2010: “New Art From Belgium”, Galerie Christian Nagel, Antwerp, Belgium.
- 2010: “The State of Things”, curated by Ai Wei Wei and Luc Tuymans, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China.
- 2010: “POP-ARTPOP-ART”, NICC (New International Centre of Culture), Antwerp, Belgium.
- 2010: “Célébration”, F.R.A.C. Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Publications
- 2014: SIMON, Joan, ‘The Women’: The Distaff Side. Sharon, CT,p 104
- 2013: NEHB, Julika, ‘What Now’, Kunst, Berlin, Germany. p 6-10
- 2013: PATT, Ken, ‘Account’, What Now?, Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Distanz, Berlin, Germany. p 9-12
- 2013: MOLESWORTH, Helen, ‘Interview with Carla Arocha’, What Now?, Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Distanz, Berlin, Germany. P14-22 / MOLESWORTH, Helen, ‘Interview with Stéphane Schraenen’, What Now?, Galerie Isabella Czarnowska, Distanz, Berlin, Germany. P 24-31
- 2013: MOLON, Dominic, ‘Place is the Space: A Building, A Decade, An Exhibition’,Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, St Louis, Missouri, p 39, 41, 44-45
- 2013: KREUGER, Anders, The Collection as a Character, M HKA, Antwerp, p.69
- 2012: PRATT, Ken, ‘Global Positioning system (GPS) – Or The Bitter Tears of Caraota von Moules’: Caraota von Moules, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.p 3-15
- 2012: (H)ART, ‘Protject of Arocha-Schraenen: Umbrellas In Olimpyc London, March, pp.21 (ill.)
- 2012: (H)ART, ‘After’ At CAB Burgos’, January, pp.15
- 2012: RICH, Sarah, ‘Afterthought’, exhibition catalogue After. CAB de Burgos,Burgos, Spain.
- 2012: RICH, Sarah, ‘Soto and You in Soto Paris and Beyond 1950-1970’, Grey Art Gallery, NYU, New York, pp. 45-53
Collections
- American Express, New York NY, USA.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, USA.
- Benedictine University, Chicago, USA.
- British Airways Collection, O’Hare International Airport, Chicago IL, USA.
- CAB De Burgos, Burgos, Spain.
- C.I.F.O., Miami, Fl, USA.
- F.R.A.C. Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
- F.R.A.C. Bourgogne, Dijon, France.
- Fundación Banco Mercantil, Caracas, Venezuela.
- MCA, Chicago, IL, USA.
- MOMA, New York NY, USA.
- MUHKA, Antwerp, Belgium.
- Nationale Bank Van België – Banque Nationale de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium.
- Stiftung Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
My work derives from the interest and mistrust in constructed perceptions, which are considered to belong to a “natural order” and constantly build our notion of truth through a systematized knowledge. Most of my questioning focuses on examining the models associated with scientific research and the constant pursuit of order, measure, and control of the laws that govern the perceptible world. Through different guidelines, I analyze the relationship established between knowledge and power, and how that bond ideologically determines the way we perceive, interpret, and interact with our environment. I am interested in the search for the gaps and cracks generated in specific relations between representation systems and the notion of an objective and indisputable reality. In order to exemplify the perceived inconsistencies, I carefully manipulate images, texts, sounds and other elements that are associated with capturing, interpreting and transmitting information. Through this, I attempt to somehow put into evidence relativity, malleability, and the level of indetermination in all of which we aim to comprehend by trying to search for an objective and definite truth.
Mi trabajo parte del interés y la desconfianza hacia las percepciones construidas de aquello que pertenece a un “orden natural” y modela nuestras certezas a través de un conocimiento sistematizado. Gran parte de mis cuestionamientos se centran en examinar los modelos asociados a la investigación científica y la constante búsqueda por ordenar, medir y controlar las leyes que gobiernan el mundo perceptible. A través de ciertas consideraciones, analizo la relación que se establece entre conocimiento y poder, y cómo ese vínculo determina ideológicamente nuestro modo de percibir, interpretar e interactuar con nuestro entorno. Busco brechas y fisuras en la relación que se genera entre distintos sistemas de representación y lo que intentamos definir como realidad. Como parte de este proceso, opto por la manipulación selectiva de imágenes, textos, sonidos y otros elementos asociados a la captura, interpretación y transmisión de información. Con ello, evidencio la relatividad, maleabilidad y grado de indeterminación en todo aquello que intentamos comprender al vincularnos racionalmente en busca de una verdad objetiva y definitiva.
Selected Biographical Information
Solo Exhibitions
- 2013: “Reference points”, Galería Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, Belgium.
- 2012: “La inconsistencia de lo visible”, Galería Lucía de la Puente, Lima, Perú.
- 2012: “Espacio de contingencia”, NNM.Studio, Lima, Perú.
- 2011: “Backlight: la naturaleza como espectáculo”, Galería L’imaginaire , Lima, Perú.
- 2011: “Desencuadre y superficie”, Galería Lucía de la Puente, Lima, Perú.
- 2009: “Denaturaciones: Cultura y fractura”, Galería Lucía de la Puente, Lima, Perú.
- 2006: “Desborde y contención”, Galería 80m2, Lima, Perú.
Group Exhibitions
- 2013: “La extensión del soporte”, Fundación Telefónica, Lima, Perú.
- 2013: “Bahuaja Sonene”, Centro de la imagen, Lima, Perú.
- 2013: Parc, International Contemporary Art Fair, Lima, Perú.
- 2013: Belfast Photo Festival 2013, Belfast, UK.
- 2013: Proyector13, International Videoart Festival, Madrid, Spain.
- 2013: “Sound In”, Matadero, Madrid, Spain.
- 2012: ” XIII Convocatoria Internacional”, Galería Luis Adelantado, Valencia, Spain.
- 2012: “Animalier: The animal in contemporary art”, Graceful art gallery and studios, Oklahoma, USA.
- 2012: “Dejar actuar al tiempo”, Fundación Telefónica, Lima, Perú.
- 2012: “Otra carne. Corporeidad, mutación y deterioro”, Centro Cultural ICPNA, Lima, Perú.
- 2012: “Poetas en tiempo de escasez”, Centro Cultural ICPNA, Lima, Perú.
- 2012: “Terra incognita: Cartografías de lugares inextistentes”, Centro Cultural de España, Lima, Perú.
- 2012: “Yo no me río de la muerte – Javier Heraud 1942-1963”, Sala Miró Quesada Garland, Lima, Perú.
- 2011: “Lima Photo 2011”, Centro de la Imagen, Lima, Perú.
- 2011: “NordArt 2011”, Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf, Germnay.
- 2010: “Pasaporte para un Artista 2010”, Centro Cultural PUCP, Lima, Perú.
- 2010: “Mash up”, Centro Cultural del España, Lima, Perú.
- 2010: “ArteBo”, Bogotá, Colombia.
- 2010: “Quince años”, Galería Lucía de la Puente, Lima, Perú.
- 2008: “Visiones del arte contemporáneo en el Perú”, Galería Lucía de la Puente, Lima, Perú.
- 2008: “Tener lugar”, Fundación Telefónica, Lima, Perú.
- 2008: ” Fotografía peruana contemporánea”, Galería Animal, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
Links
Nacht und Nebel
Galerie Daniel Templon
Brussels, Belgium
Chilean artist Iván Navarro is exhibiting his work in Brussels for the first time, with Nacht und Nebel, an installation of trompe-l’œillight sculptures that explore memories of the Second World War.
Presented for the first time at La Fondazione Volume! in Rome in 2012, and curated by Antonio Arevalo, the installation recalls the atmosphere of Italy under Nazi occupation and the bombing campaigns of 1943-1944. It comprises six geometric light wells — circle, triangle and rectangle — constructed of brick and cement. Each sculpture spells out a word in neon, with mirrors used to project the word infinitely: ODIO, OCCHIO, EX, BECCO, ECCIDIO, etc. Plunged into darkness, the gallery thus seems to open onto endless light-filled passages, metaphors for both escape and disappearance.
Navarro seeks to trigger a different attitude to history, exploring the ambiguities of memory. Every illuminated word possesses both real substance and illusory density. Language becomes an illuminated manifestation of conscience, referencing double meanings and the painful chasms that separate appearance from truth.
For the Project Room, Ivan Navarro created two new pieces that play on the theme of ambivalence, whether formal or linguistic. Two purified wells invite the visitors to look at the words Above all and All of the Above, phrases normally self-contained in their meaning, but with new significance in the context of these works. Set in relation with an older piece, Defect — an ambiguous word because of its double meaning as an noun or verb — these works form a set that manages to subtly transform structure into an act of communication.
Born in Chile in 1972 and now a resident of New York, Iván Navarro uses light as his raw material. Turning everyday objects into electric sculptures and transforming the exhibition space by means of visual interplays, his work appropriates the language of minimalism in order to develop understated political and social criticism. Having grown up under the Pinochet dictatorship, Iván Navarro is haunted by questions of power, control and imprisonment, both physical and psychological. The title of this latest exhibition refers to Adolph Hitler’s 1941 decree that ordered the Third Reich’s opponents to be spirited away in “the night and the fog” (nacht und nebel) – a death sentence. The decree’s initials, NN, are the same as those used in Latin American for the disappeared, those No Names Iván Navarro’s works so often invoke.
Iván Navarro represented Chile at the 53th Venice Biennale in 2009. His work has been shown worldwide, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York (2006), Museo del Barrio, New York (2007), MOCA, Miami (2007), Fundación Caja de Burgos (2010), La Maison Rouge and Frost Art Museum in Miami in 2012. He took part in the Light Show exhibition at the Hayward Gallery (London) in 2013. His work features in a great many international collections, such as the Saatchi Collection (London), Martin Z. Margulies Collection (Miami), Hirshorn Museum (Washington, D.C.), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond), Fonds National d’Art Contemporain and Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la création (Paris). He will be installing a monumental in situ project in New York’s Madison Square Park on 20 February 2014, This Land Is Your Land. The installation will feature the giant water towers that are such an integral part of the New York cityscape, reflecting neon messages to create the illusion of infinite space.
Translated from Spanish
I develop my work through photography, collage, objects and installation, and it comprises an analysis of concepts of inequality, architecture, and spectacle in Chile in the last twenty years—Chile after the dictatorship. In this sense, it presumes an aesthetic reflection of the consequences of the “neoliberal revolution,” imposed on Chile during the ‘80s, and its projection on the social and cultural field since then until this day. In the series Spike Drawings, 2010-2013, I make a type of drawing on the wall with simple geometric shapes such as squares, rhomboids, etc., which is constructed with a metal material that is used as protection on the walls of middle and high class houses in Santiago de Chile. The wall protections are very sharp and comply with the fight against crime and the protection to private property. These works describe the segregation and social divisions, confinement and limitations, in a very simple way, using basic but eloquent shapes such as the square, which is the simplest act of delimitation in geometry. These works also refer to a tradition in modern art linked to Constructivism, geometric abstract art and minimalism. In this sense, it is a series that joins an extreme formalism of minimal shapes, with social content.
Mi trabajo desarrollado en fotografía, collage, objeto e instalaciones, comprende una reflexión en torno a los conceptos de trabajo, desigualdad, arquitectura y espectaculo en el Chile de los últimos 20 años; en el Chile de la postdictadura. En este sentido, supone una reflexión estética sobre las consecuencias de la “revolución neoliberal” implantada en Chile durante los años 80´s y su proyección en el campo social y cultural desde entonces hasta ahora. En la serie “Spike drawings” (2010-2013) realizo un tipo de dibujo sobre la pared con formas geométricas simples -cuadrados, rombos, etc- que están construidos con un material de fierro que se usa como protección en los muros de las casas de gente clase media y media alta en Santiago de Chile. Las protecciones de muro son muy filosas y remiten a la lucha contra la delincuencia así como a la protección de la propiedad privada. Estos trabajos hablan de segregación y división social, de encierro y de límites, de una manera muy simple, usando formas muy básicas y elocuentes como el cuadrado que es el acto geométrico más simple de delimitación. Estos trabajos, hacen referencia también, a cierta tradición del arte moderno vinculada al constructivismo, al arte abstracto geométrico y al minimalismo. En este sentido, es una serie que vincula un formalismo extremo, de formas mínimas, con un contenido social.
Selected Biographical Information
Education / Training
- 1998: BFA, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Prizes / Fellowships
- 2007: Beca Guggenheim, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York, USA.
Solo Exhibitions
- 2014: “Proyecto Lanz”, Flora Ars Natura, Bogotá, Colombia.
- 2013: “Progreso”, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Santiago MAC, Santiago, Chile.
- 2012: “Postdictadura”, Bienal de fotografía de Lima, Centro de la Imagen, Lima, Peru.
- 2012: “Ultramar Sur”, Paco das Artes, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
- 2011: “Máxima tensión”, Galería Baró, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
- 2008: “Santiago dérive”, Stiftung DKM, Duisburg, Germany.
Group Exhibitions
- 2014: “Beyond the Supersquare”, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA.
- 2014: “Slow Future”, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland.
- 2013: “Emergency Pavilion: Rebuilding Utopia”, 55th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia, Italy.
- 2011: “Terrible Beauty-Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance”, Dublin Contemporary 2011, Dublin, Ireland.
- 2011: XI Bienal de Curitiba, Museo Oscar Niemayer, Curitiba, Brazil.
- 2011: “Now: obras La Colección Jumex”, Centro Cultural Hospicio de la Cabaña, Guadalajara, Mexico.
- 2009: X Bienal de la Habana, La Habana, Cuba.
Publications
- 2013: “Progreso/Progress”, libro publicado por el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Santiago. Textos de Christian Viveros-Fauné & Alma Ruiz.
- 2009: “Proyecto de arquitecturas revestidas para la ciudad de Santiago”, libro publicado por Ediciones UDP, Santiago. Textos de Guillermo Machuca & Marco Scotini.
- 2008: “Santiago Derive”, catálogo publicado por la Fundación DKM, Duisburg, Germany.
- 2006: “Objetos en Tránsito (Dario Escobar & Patrick Hamilton)”, catálogo publicado por la Fundación Gasco en Santiago. Textos de Victor Zamudio-Taylor & Isolde Brielmaier.
- 2004: “Patrick Hamilton en la 26 Bienal de Sao Paulo”, libro publicado por el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile. Texto de Guillermo Machuca.
Collections
- Fundación / Colección Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico.
- El Museo del Barrio, New York, USA.
- Museo DKM, Duisburg, Germany.
- Izolyatsia Foundation, Donetsk, Ukraine.
- Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, CA, USA.
- Sayago & Pardon Collection, Irvine, CA, USA.