47 1/4 x 39 3/8 in
Narco-Architecture and its contribution to society -
The new series by Venezuelan artist Luis Molina-Pantin will be presented on Sunday 6 April at 11.00 at the Federico Luger Gallery in an exhibition entitled "Narco-architecture and its contribution to the community of Cali-Bogotá, Colombia".
These series come from Molina-Pantin's interest in cultural phenomena related to architecture. A selection of photographs taken between 2004 and 2005 - in particular in the Parque Jaime Duque (Bogota), and in the city of Cali - that the artist calls "hybrid architecture": buildings that show the local design, a mix of modern and contemporary, eastern and western architectural styles that have become a sort of potpourri architecture code that emerged from the aesthetic taste and by wealthy drug dealers, builders in Colombia from 1980 to 1990.
Its peculiar aesthetic condition is expressed in these constructions; far from being the formal purity of the original styles, these buildings and "monuments" show an adulterated civic variation - born in Colombia under the aegis of the golden decade of drug trafficking - which upsets the tradition of local architecture and attracts followers seduced by the symbol of a new social power.
Curator Ruth Auerbach says that "The practice of photography as a means of expression is for Molina-Pantin an effective strategy for detaching oneself from the documentary arguments associated with modern aesthetics, in order to enter the current of the new objectivity. "The detached vision, apparently cold and critical, his approach to
the object of study as well as his aesthetic orientation, is what makes his work so specific and unique ".
"His repertoire includes images generated by an objective reality of representation, in which the human presence is suppressed to give importance to desolate landscapes that show generic places: interior spaces, objects, landscapes or architecture."
"As an urban archaeologist, or as a passionate ethnographer, the artist becomes an acute observer, explores the cultural phenomena of certain contexts and collects images that he documents with a strategy of representation, far from any didactic intent".
Colombian curator and researcher María Iovino analyses the scenario of this artistic project: "Parque Duque represents a moment in the past in which the drive to grasp the glory of kitsch is combined with references to the great European culture and its peaks of power and elegance" .
The series is marked by a clandestine and risky nature, always implicit in the work of Luis Molina-Pantin. "The work seems documentary, but it is created with the conception of contemporary art. I always work under the premise of showing art that does not look like art", says the artist.
With a ten-year artistic career, Luis Molina-Pantin is one of the most active young artists in Venezuela; his works, always presented through photography, have been exhibited among other countries in Venezuela, Canada, the United States, Colombia, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Peru and Brazil.
The entire series "Narco-Architecture and his contribution to society" will be exhibited at the Gwangju Biennial, South Korea, from 5 September to 9 November 2008; curator Okwui Enwezor.
SUMMARY
An informal Study of the hybrid architecture, Vol. 1 -The narco-architecture and its contributions to the community. Cali – Bogota, Colombia / Estudio informal de la arquitectura híbrida, Vol. 1 -La narco-arquitectura y sus contribuciones a la comunidad. Cali – Bogotá, Colombia (2004-2005)
