For ARTBO 2022, mor charpentier presents a selection of works that seek to extend the concept of landscape, going beyond the idea of figurative representation. Our stand wants to question intrinsic aspects of the landscape, reviewing its ability to integrate the sociopolitical dimension, as well as its conceptual and symbolic meaning.
Through the work of six artists, the idea of landscape is reviewed and expanded in very different media. To begin with, Teresa Margolles presents the degraded landscape of the city of Santiago de Chile, showing the consequences of neoliberal policies in Latin America through a series of photographs. In her work The Constellations, Bouchra Khalili proposes an imaginary cartography created from the journey of different migrants through the Mediterranean Sea. In a complementary way, Hajra Waheed creates a piece that shows the landscape as a medium that transposes human struggles in a group of paintings that show human relationships from the ironic and the dystopian perspective. Taking up the Coubert's classic painting La falaise d'Etretat après l'orage (1870), Saâdane Afif is inspired by the pure landscape to materialize the perception of a clear surface made by lights, thus creating a conceptual landscape that allows to see a wide color spectrum. For his part, Óscar Muñoz proposes a social landscape from an archive work created from the images of strangers in Cali. Finally, Charwei Tsai writes the Heart Mantra on wood that she manages to collect after a typhoon, evidencing the fragility of the natural balance of the contemporary landscape.
Established in Paris since 2010, mor charpentier represents both emerging and well-established artists whose conceptual practices are anchored in the social realities, history and politics of contrasting geographic regions. By promoting engaged practices internationally, the gallery aims at broadening the knowledge about the crucial debates of the present.
A significant inaugural show with Colombian master Oscar Muñoz fulfilled a void in the French artistic scene, and set a tone for a program focused in content and willing to broaden the spectrum of origins, subjects and identities in the art market. Ever since, a growing number of major international artists have join the gallery. Coming from global backgrounds and different generations, they all share a commitment with either political, feminist, post-colonial, queer or human rights causes.
In 2021 mor charpentier opened a second exhibition space in Bogotá. This expansion was driven by the will to expand the reach of the gallery program to new publics as well as to fulfill the desire of the artists to explore new territories. It consolidates a long-term bond with the Latin American art scene, and confirms the international projection of the gallery.
Teresa Margolles’ works examines the social causes and consequences of violence. For her, the morgue accurately reflects society, particularly that of her home country where deaths caused by drug-related crimes, poverty, political crisis and the government’s inept response has devastated communities. She has developed a unique, restrained language in order to speak for her silenced subjects, the victims discounted as ‘collateral damage’ of the conflict. Margolles holds a degree in Forensic Medicine and Communication Science from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.
Tsai graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Industrial Design and Art & Architectural History (2002) and has completed the postgraduate research program La Seine at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2010). Highly personal yet universal concerns spur Tsai’s multi-media practice. Geographical, social, and spiritual motifs inform a body of work, which encourages viewer participation outside the confines of complacent contemplation. Preoccupied with the human/nature relationship, Tsai meditates on the complexities among cultural beliefs, spirituality, and transience.
His multifaceted work draws on the know-how of craftsmen, musicians and writers in collaborative projects that challenge the very concept of the unique work of art or the individual creator. Afif, who describes himself as a “talkative conceptual artist,” uses forms of popular culture, such as music, to bring people together in a shared moment of creativity. Through the exploration of different media (performances, objects, sculptures, texts, posters, etc.), it provokes both the collapse and the expansion of the notion of creative paternity.
His multifaceted work draws on the know-how of craftsmen, musicians and writers in collaborative projects that challenge the very concept of the unique work of art or the individual creator. Afif, who describes himself as a “talkative conceptual artist,” uses forms of popular culture, such as music, to bring people together in a shared moment of creativity. Through the exploration of different media (performances, objects, sculptures, texts, posters, etc.), it provokes both the collapse and the expansion of the notion of creative paternity.
Muñoz graduated from the Escuela de Bellas Artes in 1971, and has developed his career through a prolific investigation of post-modern methods of representation, using non-conventional photographic and mechanical printing techniques and video. He created a singular imagery and historiography by using transient mediums such as human breath, water, dust and fire, focusing on the precarious reality of human life.
Muñoz graduated from the Escuela de Bellas Artes in 1971, and has developed his career through a prolific investigation of post-modern methods of representation, using non-conventional photographic and mechanical printing techniques and video. He created a singular imagery and historiography by using transient mediums such as human breath, water, dust and fire, focusing on the precarious reality of human life.
Muñoz graduated from the Escuela de Bellas Artes in 1971, and has developed his career through a prolific investigation of post-modern methods of representation, using non-conventional photographic and mechanical printing techniques and video. He created a singular imagery and historiography by using transient mediums such as human breath, water, dust and fire, focusing on the precarious reality of human life.
Tsai graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Industrial Design and Art & Architectural History (2002) and has completed the postgraduate research program La Seine at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2010). Highly personal yet universal concerns spur Tsai’s multi-media practice. Geographical, social, and spiritual motifs inform a body of work, which encourages viewer participation outside the confines of complacent contemplation. Preoccupied with the human/nature relationship, Tsai meditates on the complexities among cultural beliefs, spirituality, and transience.
Tsai graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Industrial Design and Art & Architectural History (2002) and has completed the postgraduate research program La Seine at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2010). Highly personal yet universal concerns spur Tsai’s multi-media practice. Geographical, social, and spiritual motifs inform a body of work, which encourages viewer participation outside the confines of complacent contemplation. Preoccupied with the human/nature relationship, Tsai meditates on the complexities among cultural beliefs, spirituality, and transience.
Teresa Margolles’ works examines the social causes and consequences of violence. For her, the morgue accurately reflects society, particularly that of her home country where deaths caused by drug-related crimes, poverty, political crisis and the government’s inept response has devastated communities. She has developed a unique, restrained language in order to speak for her silenced subjects, the victims discounted as ‘collateral damage’ of the conflict. Margolles holds a degree in Forensic Medicine and Communication Science from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.
Hajra Waheed’s multidisciplinary practice ranges from painting and drawing to video, sound, sculpture and installation. Amongst other issues, she explores the connections between security, surveillance and the covert networks of power that structure human lives. Her practice also addresses the traumas and alienation of displaced subjects affected by legacies of colonial and state violence. Characterized by a distinct visual language and unique poetic approach, her works often use the ordinary as a means to convey the profound, and landscape as a medium to transpose human struggle and a radical politics of resistance and resilience.
Hajra Waheed’s multidisciplinary practice ranges from painting and drawing to video, sound, sculpture and installation. Amongst other issues, she explores the connections between security, surveillance and the covert networks of power that structure human lives. Her practice also addresses the traumas and alienation of displaced subjects affected by legacies of colonial and state violence. Characterized by a distinct visual language and unique poetic approach, her works often use the ordinary as a means to convey the profound, and landscape as a medium to transpose human struggle and a radical politics of resistance and resilience.
Hajra Waheed’s multidisciplinary practice ranges from painting and drawing to video, sound, sculpture and installation. Amongst other issues, she explores the connections between security, surveillance and the covert networks of power that structure human lives. Her practice also addresses the traumas and alienation of displaced subjects affected by legacies of colonial and state violence. Characterized by a distinct visual language and unique poetic approach, her works often use the ordinary as a means to convey the profound, and landscape as a medium to transpose human struggle and a radical politics of resistance and resilience.
Encompassing film, video, installation, photography, printmaking, and publishing, Khalili’s practice explores imperial and colonial continuums as epitomized by contemporary forced illegal migrations and the politics of memory of anti-colonial struggles and international solidarity. Deeply informed by the legacy of post-independence avant-gardes and the vernacular traditions of her native Morocco, Khalili’s approach develops strategies of storytelling at the intersection of history and micro-narratives. Combining documentary and conceptual practices, she investigates questions of self-representation, autonomous agency, and forms of resistance of communities rendered invisible by the nation-state model.
Encompassing film, video, installation, photography, printmaking, and publishing, Khalili’s practice explores imperial and colonial continuums as epitomized by contemporary forced illegal migrations and the politics of memory of anti-colonial struggles and international solidarity. Deeply informed by the legacy of post-independence avant-gardes and the vernacular traditions of her native Morocco, Khalili’s approach develops strategies of storytelling at the intersection of history and micro-narratives. Combining documentary and conceptual practices, she investigates questions of self-representation, autonomous agency, and forms of resistance of communities rendered invisible by the nation-state model.
Encompassing film, video, installation, photography, printmaking, and publishing, Khalili’s practice explores imperial and colonial continuums as epitomized by contemporary forced illegal migrations and the politics of memory of anti-colonial struggles and international solidarity. Deeply informed by the legacy of post-independence avant-gardes and the vernacular traditions of her native Morocco, Khalili’s approach develops strategies of storytelling at the intersection of history and micro-narratives. Combining documentary and conceptual practices, she investigates questions of self-representation, autonomous agency, and forms of resistance of communities rendered invisible by the nation-state model.
Teresa Margolles’ works examines the social causes and consequences of violence. For her, the morgue accurately reflects society, particularly that of her home country where deaths caused by drug-related crimes, poverty, political crisis and the government’s inept response has devastated communities. She has developed a unique, restrained language in order to speak for her silenced subjects, the victims discounted as ‘collateral damage’ of the conflict. Margolles holds a degree in Forensic Medicine and Communication Science from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.
His multifaceted work draws on the know-how of craftsmen, musicians and writers in collaborative projects that challenge the very concept of the unique work of art or the individual creator. Afif, who describes himself as a “talkative conceptual artist,” uses forms of popular culture, such as music, to bring people together in a shared moment of creativity. Through the exploration of different media (performances, objects, sculptures, texts, posters, etc.), it provokes both the collapse and the expansion of the notion of creative paternity.