Published by Leonardo Calcagno
9 May–22 November 2015
All the World’s Futures
s56th International Art Exhibition
“Basualdo’s works will, whether we want to or not, train our eye to perceive what is not there, what lies beyond. In his works (in his worlds) there is always more than meets the eye: and what does meet the eye is there to lead it towards this dimension of the yet unseen. However much there might be, there is always more: a chink in an otherwise solid door, some extra space and emptiness behind or beyond the continuous lines of everyday life, the ghostly image of what lies beneath the table or behind the wall, the visible shadow of the hidden blade.
His art constructs a peepshow into other worlds.”
—Victoria Noorthoorn
Galeria Luisa Strina is pleased to announce Eduardo Basualdo’s participation at the 56th Venice Biennale, All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwenzor. Basualdo’s presentation focuses on the notion of limits, their nature and permeability, featuring a series of new works comprising sculptures, drawings, and a site-specific installation.
By means of an overall suspicion towards reality, Basualdo questions the relations between what is perceived by the mind and what is sensed through the body. The pieces presented in Venice use the senses to diffuse the boundaries of the material world.
Since his early works, Basualdo uses simple methods to create disturbing interventions in space. His objects, which are often in motion, play with our perception. Mysteriously poetic, they tell stories of gaps and transitions (One Way, 2009; Razón o Fuerza, 2010). Far from being abstract, they foster associations, narrative trails, mystery, and imagination. Even his static works have frequently the resonances of an event (Sky, 2011; Nervio, 2013).
In much of Basualdo’s work, scale plays a significant role as a strategy to confront the viewer with his or her own physical presence. Reflecting on the reaction of the body to architectural restrictions, he has worked on large-scale sculptural installations. La Isla, 2006–14, El Silencio de las Sirenas, 2011 and The End of Ending, 2012 plunge us into a world of strange familiarity, inspired by natural phenomenon and forces from our environment. Basualdo puts into perspective the notion of man at the centre of the universe like a lucid eye, capable of seeing everything but incapable of understanding or changing anything, as a victim of overwhelming circumstances.
His recent works explore further into the notion of limits, retracing relations with the body and architecture from his previous investigations and looking into the new connections it draws with language (Testigo, 2013; Promesa, 2014).
Eduardo Basualdo was born in 1977, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lives and works. Recent solo shows include La Isla at the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2014), El Silencio de las Sirenas at the Lyon Biennale (2011), The Traveling Show, Fundación Jumex, México DF (2010), his solo exhibition at the Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art, France (2013) and Galeria Luisa Strina, Brazil (2013). Recent group shows include Teoría (Goliath’s Head) at the Palais de Tokyo commissioned by SAM Art Projects (2014), La Biennale de Montevideo, Uruquay (2012); Art Parcours, Art Basel 43, Switzerland (2012). Public collections holding his work include Musée d Art Contemporain de Rochechouart, France; Tiroche de Leon Collection, Israel; Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France; Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Canada; and Juan and Patricia Vergez, Buenos Aires.
For more information, contact Luisa Strina at [email protected] or T +55 11 3088 2471.
source: Art-Agenda