"THE TIMES OF AIR" OPENS AT ARTE ABIERTO PEDREGAL, MEXICO CITY
Colombian artist Cristina Umaña Durán's installation invites viewers to observe breathing — and through it, the passage of time.
Arte Abierto Pedregal has inaugurated Los tiempos del aire (The Times of Air), a commission by Colombian artist Cristina Umaña Durán, on view through August 2026. The show proposes a reflection on notions such as time, the body, air, memory, and fragility, inviting visitors into Durán's personal universe — a space designed for listening, perceiving, and contemplating the transcendence of the act of breathing itself. Seeing the invisible. In this context, air — that imperceptible, immaterial, and volatile element — manifests as the vital force that animates matter, while the body becomes a measure of time.
For the artist, the concept of Time is a fundamental axis, explored through cyclical and repetitive biological processes: breathing, swallowing, digesting. From this perspective, she proposes that one way to stop time is through the body, which she defines as an unstable, mutable, and even monstrous entity; a territory that oscillates between the self and the other, between subordination and dominion.
The immersive installation is a monumental drawing composed of bodies of air that inhabit the room, endowed with a rhythm and cadence that emulate the vital impulse. Cristina's practice — rooted in drawing and writing and expanded into sculpture and performance — is materialized here in inflatable and textile structures that, in the absence of air, remain as inert matter. When activated, these forms come to life: they expand and transform their scale within the space, following a capricious score that dictates their plastic breathing. Their seams cease to be joints and become instead boundaries, arteries, and veins, tracing organic shapes across their surfaces.
Through a palette of reds, oranges, and burgundies, the artist reveals an interior universe where play and curiosity open pathways to self-knowledge. Hands, a recurring motif in her visual language, act as symbols of connection, reach, and contact.
Los tiempos del aire is on view through August 2026 at Arte Abierto Pedregal, Periférico Sur 3720, Mexico City, Mexico.
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