Nectar Art Projects

Rivers flow out of my eyes

Exhibition galerie tegenboschvanvreden March - May 2019

With Francisca Aninat, Edgardo Aragón, Marcos Ávila Forero, Adriana Ciudad, Voluspa Jarpa, Arturo Kameya, Tamara Kuselman, Neyde Lantyer, Ícaro Lira, Aníbal López, Ana María Montenegro Jaramillo, Carlos Motta, Enrique Ramírez, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Mónica Restrepo and Maya Watanabe

“The past has not been conquered and continues to affect the present,” said the former president of Argentina Néstor Kirchner, roughly twenty years after the Dirty War (1976-1983) had come to an end. Not only Argentina, but a great number of Latin-American countries are contending with the undeniable consequences of political and social shocks.

 

Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview
Voluspa Jarpa, Yo no soy un hombre, soy un pueblo, 2016-2019
Voluspa Jarpa, Yo no soy un hombre, soy un pueblo, 2016-2019
Ana María Montenegro Jaramillo, The Raven Paradox, 2018
Ana María Montenegro Jaramillo, The Raven Paradox (still), 2018
Ana María Montenegro Jaramillo, The Raven Paradox (still), 2018
Adriana Ciudad, Proyecto Alabaos , 2018
Adriana Ciudad, Dale licencia a esta alma, que esta alma quiere entrar, 2018
Adriana Ciudad, Levántate niña bella, Levántate a oir cantar and Para que veas como cantan las sirencas en el mar, 2018
Adriana Ciudad, Parece que aún la oigo and Yo la regaba con lágrimas de mis ojos, 2018
Marcos Ávila Forero, Arquitecturas de la Memoria - Landázuri, 2013
Francisca Aninat, Index, 2011
Francisca Aninat, Index and Waiting exercises, 2011
Francisca Aninat, Waiting Exercises, 2011
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Heart of the Scarecrow, 2019
Carlos Motta, Where do I stand? Left, right or the Human Kind? (still), 2008
Carlos Motta, Where do I stand? Left, right or the Human Kind? (still), 2008
Tamara Kuselman, Escucho los Grillos, 2016
Tamara Kuselman, Escucho los Grillos, 2016
Neyde Lantyer, The Prisoners, 2019
Enrique Ramírez, Los Durmientes, 2014
Enrique Ramírez, Los Durmientes (still), 2014
Exhibition overview
Edgardo Aragón, Efectos de familia (still), 2007-2009
Edgardo Aragón, Efectos de familia (still), 2007-2009
Mónica Restrepo, Historia de una trama (still), 2013-2014
Mónica Restrepo, Historia de una trama (still), 2013-2014
Ícaro Lira, (part of) Desterro, 2014
Ícaro Lira, Mapa, 2015-2019 and Desterro, 2014
Arturo Kameya, Blind Spot, 2015
Arturo Kameya, Blind Spot (still), 2015
Arturo Kameya, Blind Spot (still), 2015
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Life in His Mouth, Death Cradles Her Arm, 2016
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Life in His Mouth, Death Cradles Her Arm (still), 2016
Maya Watanabe, Sceneries, 2014
Exhibition overview
Exhibition overview

The region’s recent history has been marked by collective traumas and social division resulting from violence, civil wars and dictatorial regimes. Investigating the legacy of this past – as well as acknowledging it, representing it and dealing with it – thus constitutes an important mainspring for many contemporary artists in Latin America.

How do violent pasts influence the present, and how can this be expressed in an artist’s work? These questions were my point of departure for Rivers flow out of my eyes. The exhibition, comprising work by artists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, furthermore sheds light on a phenomenon that has fascinated me for some time, namely the ever-changing idiom with which artists relate to the past.

In her book Eruptions of Memory (2018) the French-Chilean theorist Nelly Richard writes about a ‘completed past’ as opposed to a ‘past being completed’, one which is continually being interpreted in new ways and is thus able to withstand rigid standpoints and apathy in the present.

 

 

On the basis of this idea Rivers flow out of my eyes provides a context for a broad range of reflections on periods of political repression and violence. A merely critical and investigative approach is avoided here. Instead the selected works show an emphatic use of ambiguity, fiction, humor, absurdity and poetic images.

The title of the exhibition has been taken from an Alabao, a funeral chant sung by the female inhabitants of Timbiquí in southwestern Colombia, with whom participating artist Adriana Ciudad spent a period of time. Within this context the phrase refers to a process of mourning as well as to the passing of time.

The arrangement of Rivers flow out of my eyes likewise involves a certain development. Three successive stages, each with a different make-up of artworks, indicate a progression from concrete to more poetic contemplations. In the first period, for instance, there is a focus on themes such as protest, social division, breaking with silence, mourning and memory. 

 

The second selection deals with the interpretation and representation of the past. The inheritance of (intergenerational) trauma, but also the body and landscape as the bearers of memories, are among the subjects that surface here. In the final phase of the exhibition we see artworks that involve a more cryptic and associative approach. As such the arrangement reflects a natural process of detachment with respect to the past. At the same time, it reveals the innovative and sometimes unexpected ways in which traumatic periods continue to resonate in visual art.

Curated by Madelon van Schie at the request of tegenboschvanvreden, Rivers flow out of my eyes is consistent with the gallery’s outlook, which embraces the exploration of new forms of presentation and collaboration.

During the exhibition two artist talks and screenings were organised with Tamara Kuselman & Enrique Ramírez and Maya Watanabe.

March 23 – May 4 2019