EAST / WESTIDENTITY / GLOBALIZATION

CONTEMPORARY ART

MARIA ELVIRA ESCALLON - Colombia - «Desde Adentro» photography

From the inside 2003from the series From the insideMervyn Horton Bequest Fund 2008

On 7 February 2003 a car bomb planted by unknown terrorists killed 36 people in the El Nogal social club in Bogota, Colombia. 200 people were injured and the club contained approximately 600 people at the time of the explosion.

Artist Maria Elvira Escallón had worked in El Nogal and was associated with its cultural program. A few days after the attack she went to check on the condition of the club and was moved to record and keep a memory of what she saw. Escallón shows the traces left by those who were in the building during the event, marked in the layers of ash and soot covering the surfaces – signs of the fear and pain that were experienced there.

Sin título. De la serie "Desde adentro". Fotografía color, 70 x 104 cm, 2003

Sin título. De la serie "Desde adentro". Fotografía color, 70 x 104 cm, 2003

Sin título. De la serie"Desde adentro". Fotografía color, 70 x 104 cm, 2003

Sin título. De la serie "Desde adentro". Fotografía color, 2003

Sin título. De la serie "Desde adentro". Fotografía color, 94 x 140 cm, 2003

DORIS SALCEDO

Doris Salcedo Colombia b1958 Atrabiliarios 1992-1997timber, gyproc, cow bladder, shoes and surgical threadMervyn Horton Bequest Fund 1997

In Atrabiliarios, niches cut into the plaster wall contain shoes as relics or attributes of lost people. The artist has sealed the openings with membranes of cow bladder which she has stitched into the plaster with surgical thread, as though repairing torn skin.

Shoes carry the mark of our bodies more than any other item of clothing and Atrabiliarios is about bodily memory – its shapes, traces, and imprints. The work also has a strong resonance with the artist’s personal history. In her native Colombia, people often just disappear, held hostage by drug barons or by government-backed militia. Salcedo has lost members of her own family in this way. These shoes were donated by the relatives of those who have been taken. tallation

- Colombia – «Atrabiliarios» installation

Atrabiliarios. Instalation 1992-1997

"Shibbolet", una grietaen el suelo de 160metros,denuncia la secregacióny el racismo.(Tate Modern,Londres.)

"Sillas" Doris Salcedo.

Installation during 8th International Istanbul Biennale (2003). Doris Salcedo.

SHIRIN NESHATIran

Although Shirin Neshat lives and works in the United States, her artwork explores issues of her native Islamic society, especially the position of women. She uses the specifics of her background culture to create works that communicate universal ideas about loss, meaning, and memory. Neshat’s most recent work has consisted of films in the form of dual video projections. By projecting images on opposing walls, the viewer, who stands in the middle of this work, is engaged in a visual conversation, physically experiencing both screens, thus eliminating the passivity permitted by traditional cinema situations. Neshat’s new film, Soliloquy, which she directed and acted in and is being premiered at the Carnegie International, tells the story of a Muslim woman who is in constant negotiation between East and West, between tradition and present-day pressures.

Shirin Neshat, Soliloquy, 1999, 35 mm film transferred to video, 15 minutes (still)

NADIN OSPINA-Colombia-

CHINESE ARTISTS

The infamous BE@RBRICKs recently were the medium for a collaboration between MEDICOM TOYs and various Chinese contemporary artists. The collaborations were built and designed on 1000% BE@RBRICKs and will be housed in an exhibition in Beijing this upcoming month. A number of Chinese artists were selected by Medicom to participate in this project including Silly Thing’s, TK. The exhibition officially opens on April 25th in Beijing. Stay tuned for pictures of the event. via: Highsnobiety // O’logy