Atelier Morales at Palazzo Bembo during the 55 Venice Biennale
The Paris based duo Atelier Morales is representing Cuba with the Project “ Tribute to Monet”, as part of the collateral exhibition “ Personal Structures”, at the Palazzo Bembo, during the 55 Venice Biennale. This ongoing global art project initiated in 2002, includes more than 70 invited artists from over two dozen countries.
“ Tribute to Monet” is dedicated to Claude Monet and his Rouen Cathedral series, which the French impressionist painted from February 1892 to April 1893. The project consists of 20 selected paintings depicting the main façade of the cathedral at different times of the day and year, and reflecting changes in appearance and feelings towards the monument depending on variations of lighting conditions. Monet showed, at his gallery in Paris, an unprecedented experience: the relationships between space, time and existence through art.
Monet named each of his pictures according to the time of day and particular atmosphere surrounding the cathedral such as A l'aube, Effet du matin, Plein midi, Soleil, Plein Soleil, Gray time, Harmonie brune, and Journée (At Dawn, Effect of Morning, High Noon, Sun, Full Sun, Gray Time, Harmony Brown and During the Day). In this way, the viewer could see and appreciate both the different artists’ mood in relation to his subject and the visual conditions transforming that particular space as time was changing.
“ Tribute to Monet” expands the Monet experience through actual technologies such as digital photography and three-dimensional prints; it allows the spectator to feel, observe and analyze the urban space, the Pompidou art centre in Paris, as an architectural setting and a mental symbol. The viewer can observe simultaneously the changes of light, atmosphere, actions, and people in the space represented.
Atelier Morales is showing multiple large format images of the same space and buildings at Beaubourg area, taken at 20 overlapping times and periods of the year. The work has an evolving nature, each of its parts is marked with the date and time the photograph was taken; this allows any image to be replaced by a new one whenever a collector acquires one or more. In other words, new dates and hours of the same image will be constantly filling the voids. Our artistic proposal consists in merging the different times of day in one work, instead of presenting each part on itself.
The duo states: “Monet chose a cathedral for his series, because of its religious significance and architecture in the admired Gothic style, at that time. We have chosen Pompidou art centre, a cultural symbol of communication for millions of people who visit it today. Museums in general have become an essential place for elevating and stabilizing our 21st Century existence. At Palazzo Bembo the viewers will have the impression of travelling through this urban space at different moments in one moment”.
