Political Visions from Gómez Narro and Artemio in PINTA New York
In the fourth edition of the Latin American and Contemporary Art Fair in New York, PINTA, added to the space consecrated to the works of the masters who constructed modernity was the growing presence of emerging artists. And in these works there is a resurgence of a political art that is not ideological, but has an incisive vision of reality. Some of these artists include Rafael Gómez Barros and Artemio (Narro).
Gómez Barros (b.1972) presented the photographic documentation of the installation with which he took the congress of his country, Colombia, this past February. Thousands of sculptures that appear in the form of "hormigas culonas", (a kind of ant that has a big buttock , whose scientific name is Atta laevigata), a dish of the regional gastronomy on this country, that take over the center of the legislative power of Colombia. But the “ants” are formed by the mold of two craniums made with glass fiber, sand, and carbon, and knotted with fabrics and torn tree branches.
The title of the installation- Casa tomada- is taken from a story of Julio Cortázar in which the habitants of a house start to lose their space in a gradually and strangely, until finally they must give up their property. Gómez-Barros states that this story of fantasy literature has become the tragedy of forced displacement in Colombia. “The craniums represent the two faces of human drama: cause and effect, the displaced and the displacer” says Gómez-Barros.
Now that the installation of Casa Tomada has travelled to the headquarters of the Trienal Internacional del Caribe, in Santo Domingo, and that its photographic documentation will go to New York and other places, not only does it give visibility to the face of violence in Colombia, but it also represents the harshest aspects of “immigration and uprooting in a supposedly globalized world”.
In a time without the collective utopias that derived in nightmares, Gómez-Barros beings the possibility of change to people: “Citizens are the ones who have to make the cultural politics as actives members of the construction of civility projects, and other realities. Because of this- he says- Casa tomada is displayed in public spaces, in the street, in the sidewalk, in the corner of the world”. Artemio (Narro), was born in Mexico on 1976. He exhibited his work in two spaces: in the PINTA Art Projects, and on the wall of the building on 46 street with 6th avenue, in front of a bar in Manhattan. The works exhibited in the fair they answer to the interpretation of the exposed concept of Tom Wolf in his essay Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's. Wolfe criticized the members of high society or celebrities that hold the fashion of a political ascension to the left that in reality has nothing to do with an attitude towards social change.
Artemio expresses its frivolity in a black humor aesthetic: he merges a Versacé logo and a ski mask. He also showed a work in progress that looks at the violence that is happening in Mexico, which in comparison makes “Sylvester Stallone a boy scout”. 28,000 bullets collected in the territory of his country are embedded on the representation of the Eagle devouring the nopal, the image of the Mexican coat of arms that reproduces the mythical foundation of the Aztec territory.
In the nocturnal projection of the piece that is known as “ El Gladiador de Artemio”, the public appreciated one of the interventions that he realized, altering famous Hollywood films. In this case, the scenes in Gladiator where Ridley Scott (Russel Crowe) fights, his opponent has been erased and the result is a parody. This type of intervention forms part of his proposal for a “Hollywoodpedia”, a visual encyclopedia that unmasks the use of certain concepts of the American film narrative.
Artemio takes hold of films to provoke critical readings. His re-editions not only reaffirm the open and unfinished character of each film, but also evidence how the ideological is filtered to the unknowing audience in the strongest actions scenes. The countless hours spent watching blockbusters in order to carry out this work in process equal a solitary battle against the mediocre and non critical gaze that the media transmits.
