April 21 - 23, 2023
A program of Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá
A cultural program of:
April 21 - 23, 2023
A program of Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá
A cultural program of:
This exhibition is presented as an inquiry into access to water as a challenge projected into the future, intertwined with the exploration of the various symbolic and material values that this substance contains. Aguas aims to address this issue from a holistic perspective that ranges from the ecological to the social, historical and economic spheres.
Through a complex approach that examines the value of water in contemporary times, the series of works that will be presented is dedicated to the analysis of the environmental aspects inherent to this substance, where we reflect on the imperative need for its care and glimpse the future of this essential resource.
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, with special attention to the Global South. 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 widen the reach of the gallery program to new publics as well as to fulfill the desire of the artists to explore new territories. It also consolidates a long-term bond with the Latin American scene, a strong commitment to support the Colombian artistic ecosystem, and confirms the international projection of the gallery.
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.
Milena Bonilla’s research-based practice is currently invested in epistemological colonialism and the different ways it affects organisms, language and social structures. By identifying patterns, gaps and silences within specific historical narratives, the artist draws tensions between predetermined political templates and uses of cognition. These conceptual and perceptual exercises appear weaved across the manifold material manifestations of her work. Her projects fluctuate between drawings, sculpture and in situ practices. In her work, technique plays a secondary role, it is conditioned and determined by the ideas that get developed in her artistic processes. In this way, Bonilla expresses her interest in developing procedures, not in only the ones she generates, but also in the ones that she perceives in the cultural field through other people’s actions, in the rhythms present in the movement of cities, and in the dominant discourses that have shaped the cultural and economic history so far. Her practice is interested in the economy, the construction and the possibility of destruction, the culture and the territory. In her exploration of these ideas she finds potential sources of information where she confronts homogenous thoughts that have been determined by hegemonic voices through the times.
Correa Mejía’s paintings, characterized by its vivid colors which illuminate forms from within, crystallize a dreamlike inner world: unfamiliar landscapes undulate across the canvas as if moved by a spiritual force, and celestial bodies are seen presiding over human life. In them, we see flamboyant, radiant bodies — whether in movement, at rest, or in quiet contemplation —passionately spring across the canvas. The artist’s figures are alive in the most primordial sense of the word: espousing a connection with the universe, as well as the Self, they evince an honest appreciation for existence.
Paz Errázuriz is a Chilean photographer whose work could be described as a social testimony of the reality in her country. Following a career as an educator, she began her self taught photographic instruction —which she perfected in 1993 at the International Center of Photography in New York— and was a founding member of Chile’s Association of Independent Photographers. Starting to work in the early 1980s, during the military dictatorship of Chile, Errázuriz documented marginalised communities such as sex workers, wrestlers and circus performers. Her intention is to encourage the public to look at the part of reality that society refuses to look at, not in the terms of journalistic photo-realism, but rather in an attempt to subvert the conventions of the visual order, and its traditional values. In 1983 she started her celebrated series of portraits of transvestites La Manzana de Adán, a project with first publication was possible thanks to a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship (1986-1987). Ever since, Errázuriz work has focused in the people that stand outside the center and have always been subordinated to power.
Teresa Margolles’ works examine 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 México.
