31/03/2011

Damien Ortega "Tool Bit"

I know I have been really bad at reporting the last events. Maybe this is due to the fact, that when I am not totally satisfied myself with what I see, I don`t wanna write about it. But everything is so subjective. 
I have finally made myself list some of the last events and exhibitions I have been to Pinchuk Art Center

I definitely need big solos shows. A retrospective of the works which can give me the feeling of where the artist was going to, how were his/her ideas evolving in the last years. I need to understand what is the main theme of his/her works not trough the little explanatory note on the wall but myself.
However now, the center is showcasing three solo shows at the same time, plus a little show of Ukrainian artists and their works representing Candice Breitz. This had a little disappointing effect on me, and makes a total jumble of ideas in my head. 

I really liked Damien Ortega show. It has something really simple and maybe agricultural in it. Something common between two cultures, between Mexican and Ukrainian. I know it sounds a bit foolish to say that, but it reminds me of the pictures on the outskirts of Ukrainian country sides. Some debris of tractors lying here and there on the soil. Parts and pieces of factories decomposing on the black spring fields. At the same time these are just my impressions from the exhibition at Pinchuk Art Centre.
To say a few words about Damien Ortega. It is a well-know artist in the art-world. He was born in Mexico in 1967 and is considered to be one of the most famous mexican artists of the new-generation. 

He is known for his "do-it-yourself" style, taking things and detaching them. Exposing simple objects at galleries and museums by simply detaching and reassembling them in a new way. 

"Ortega deliberately presents it as a work-in-progress, with the implication that it could continue to grow, or be rearranged into new configurations. Detaching a functional object like a chair from its everyday setting and projecting it into the realm of art involves a certain short-circuiting of the viewer’s expectations. There is a subtle irreverence at play here that pokes fun at both the purity of canonical Minimalist sculpture, and at the museum as repository for the kind of permanent monuments that Ortega seeks to undermine"

(From Tate Modern web-site).
Damián Ortega, "Moises", 2007. Found tools and wire

Damián Ortega, "Moises", 2007. Found tools and wire

 Damian Ortega, "Project for Social Housing", 2007. Clay bricks, cement, silicon and steel; variable sizes

This project is particularly interesting to me. It reminds me a bit of  a Termitary. Taking into account the trend in architecture  and landscape design to make things to look the more naturally possible. One day we may see buildings of this type. Why not, big cities are growing, populations are growing as well. Why not make Social housing more playful?
However the I was told that the artist was inspired by stalactites and stalagmites. Who knows...? :)



 Damián Ortega, "Melting Point", 2011. Aluminum, lead, bronze, glass.

Damián Ortega, "Tool Beat: Melody", 2011. Steel. 
 This work particularly reminded me of Ukraine.  And I really liked how the little gold fishes were swimming in this wheel.  It is funny to see how nature reintegrates in the things we leave behind us. The rests of our civilization. 

Damián Ortega, "Tool Beat: Melody", 2011. Steel. 




(all of the pictures are taken from the Pinchuk Art Center website, http://pinchukartcentre.org/)







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