For the first time, the Colombian artist Alejandro Villalobos presents his work in this venue, which, like many galleries in this area classified as Bogotá Art District, intermingles with the surrounding homes and creates a familiar feeling.
Speaking to Prensa Latina, he explained that his exhibition called Displacements consists of 13 pieces and is a criticism of the mismanagement of product packaging.
“We are not aware of these elements, what we are doing is polluting the planet and faced with this scenario we find ourselves in a dilemma because we do not know how to explain to people, how to teach how to handle garbage,” said the artist from Bogota.
He added that in schools they apply programs so that young people understand and every day they can improve, but there is not yet a generalized awareness about this problem that affects everyone.
The exhibition is made up of installations, paintings and sculptures made with the use of different techniques and materials such as plastic bottles filled with single-use packaging, bird cages, destroyed and with open doors, bags from large chain stores, among others. .
Forest fires to later build large buildings, poaching, consumerism, mishandling of garbage and the delusional idea that the superheroes in the movies are going to save the planet are several of Villalobos’ conceptual proposals in this exhibition. .
One of the facilities exhibits soda containers filled with bags of food that were consumed by the artist himself in about six months, not counting other products, which reflects “how much humanity consumes and throws away without knowing the fate of that garbage,” he said. .
He expressed his gratitude for being able to exhibit his work in this venue, because although he has exhibited in other parts of South America and Bogotá itself, in San Felipe it is something special.
THE CASA ESTUDIO FOUNDATION 74
The owner of the house where the gallery is located, Daniel Espinosa, commented that the Casa Estudio 74 Foundation was born in 2016 with the aim of presenting cultural projects so that they would be appreciated from another way and not as in a traditional institution.
The idea was always to give the possibility to different initiatives, both established and emerging creators, to enter the artistic scene, explained the director of the Foundation.
The fact of being located in San Felipe, where the union of several gallery agents and artists is consolidated, makes a community of 40 or 50 spaces grow in the sector with numerous exhibitions at the same time.
This encourages the increase in the number of visitors and makes it possible for spectators and collectors to find a vast sample of contemporary art in the same place, he added.
The Foundation was also born with the idea that it would be a solid platform for artists with large projects and who could present their works without the excessive rigors of a traditional showroom, he stressed.
And, although all the creative proposals fit in the gallery of this group, the priority is cultural, ethnic and contemporary initiatives, in addition to those with political, historical and social criticism content, as is the case with the three exhibitions it is currently hosting. Study 74.
DIFFERENT ADVERTISING
The art consultant Gustavo Gómez, in charge of cultural marketing, has among his tasks to work in favor of new creators in order to promote them and show them nationally and internationally.
Creators graduated from different universities arrive at the Foundation, others who have empirical training want to show their work “and here they can do so given the concept of being a coworking art space”. Three major events take place in San Felipe -Open San Felipe, Noche San Felipe and the Circuito San Felipe-, in which the Foundation with its gallery act in the rental of spaces, but at the same time they provide advice on curatorship and marketing for to be able to help artists, he said.
“We are the most irreverent, we are not a traditional gallery and this type of different thinking helps us to generate strategies in which the artists themselves tell us how much they have benefited,” he said.
In general, he explained, when the creator arrives at a traditional exhibition space, they ask for his portfolio, they ask him what his work is like, what his discipline is, and almost always must wait for a period of artistic growth to be able to exhibit.
We only ask him to complete the curatorship and we look for the right moment in the calendar for him to exhibit, he explained.
The two-story gallery has workshop spaces, exhibition rooms and also has a restaurant-bar where visitors can enjoy live music.
In Estudio 74 there is everything: sculpture, painting, performance, installations and the youth come to appreciate the samples in these spaces where they can interact with the authors, curators “and we who are willing to tell them how the creation process was”.
We want artists, especially novices, to start growing from here and not keep the work, but rather that collectors can also acquire it, have it at home, and create the habit of returning to this gallery.
CURATORSHIP
The chief curator of Galerías Múltiples, Agustín Franco, told Prensa Latina that Estudio 74 is open to young talents, consecrated creators, as well as different languages and artistic concepts in the world of plastic arts, therefore “in that it is quite democratic and inclusive ”.
I feel that the offer to exhibit is overwhelmed, something that is good on the one hand because it says a lot about the growth of these arts, but, on the other hand, no, he lamented, because the demand is lower and many works remain uncirculated.
He stressed that in the San Felipe neighborhood there is a lot of support from the mayor’s office for the development of talent, and among other actions, it encourages the artist to take the walls to make works, there is also support in scholarships not only for the plastic arts, but also for dance, music and other disciplines.
In these moments, the creators Fidel Álvarez Causil, Alejandro Villalobos and Johnny López come together with their exhibitions in Estudio 7 where they recreate themes such as unbridled consumerism, environmental pollution and pre-Columbian roots.
This is the gallery, it does not resemble a large museum with marbles, lights, walls and wide spaces, but it does have in common with those traditional spaces the samples of contemporary works of high visual and conceptual quality, a reflection of the virtuosity of its authors.
arb/otf
-Prensa Latina Correspondent in Colombia
