Issue # 39 Iosu Aramburú
Atlas subterráneo [1933 [1810 – 1983] 2020]
Installation View: Atlas subterráneo [1933 [1810 – 1983] 2020]
Atlas subterráneo [1933 [1810 – 1983] 2020]
This exhibition features two bodies of work: an installation consisting of images printed on paper and a series of medium and large format paintings.
The Atlas of Andean Modernism is a research project that explores the historical narratives on Andean modernisms that emerged in Andean regions. It consists of a chronological organization on image reproductions of artworks that have been used to illustrate publications about modern art of the region in a panoramic way. Seeing it unfold while the spectator navigates the different exhibition spaces, one can notice certain trends, understand the shift on artists sensibilities throughout time, and, with some attention, one can look beyond the typecasting and the structuring into which most historical narratives fall into, hence finding heterogeneity, contradictions and the utopian potential of cultural production.
The paintings aligned on the superior segment of the installation are made after photographs and engravings of archaeological exploration sites in Peru around the turn of the 19th century. All of them show ground views which imply the abrupt and (even violent) connection with an underground world where the past lies. After all, academic curiosity, looting and revaluation projects are some of the engines that have driven modern cultural production throughout the region.
The Atlas of Andean Modernism has been produced thanks to an artistic research grant from MoMA's Cisneros Institute, and part of the project was developed during a residency at the Delfina Foundation in London sponsored by Artus.