Exposiciones Colectivas

Earth without art is just eh

"Some people inflate themselves like a helium balloon with a title, a position, a fit body, a surname, or a bank account and forget that we live in a world full of pinpricks."

– Cositas bien nais, rainbowslash2009, trabajajajar (artists, curators and designers of the exhibition).

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Check out "Vivir del aire", mockumentary realized by Cunera about this exhibition!

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Earth without art is just "eh"

The following text was an invitation to the early-career artist and curator David Julián Cortés to interpret the exhibition.

The exhibition “Earth without art is just eh” is also a manifesto about role of art in everyday experience. The three pairs approached this issue with a very firm stance, yet without aiming to concretize that relationship. On the contrary, the displayed statements place the exhibition in that tropical space between doubt and certainty. The bold exploration of formats, materials, and contrasts fills the space with expressiveness, almost noise. In fact, while these phrases do not seek to eloquently build a thesis, they do manage to sketch mental scenarios where the relevance of artistic practice inflates, deflates, and expands. There is a lot of realism in this intention, not only due to the astute appropriation of industrial objects with commercial and advertising ends found in Bogotá but also because many of us share that state of uncertainty. This is not expressed much, as it requires recognizing one's vulnerability.

Furthermore, the prior action of placing the inflatable that says “ART IS LIKE AIR, YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT” and the banner that says “Art Is Not A Hobby, It’s A Lifestyle” in the rough urbanity of Bogotá could deepen such a stance towards artistic practice. In addition to aiming to capture the attention of passersby focused on the landscape, these surreal images emerge and will continue to emerge from the also disruptive youthful impulse to connect, play, and do things together. This adds warmth to the network of meanings and contradictions that the artists wove through their quotes, which are not only textual but also attentive to details of the city we inhabit. The T-shirts that say “broken crayons still color ;)” appropriate the way Only displays its garments in their installation. This evocation is so sensitive and direct that it positions the store as a high reference. Another root of the exhibition is the internet and the system in which these phrases containing the most democratic philosophy circulate. It is worth noting that the artists captured this phenomenon through painting, thus joining the tradition of the medium not with a landscape, portrait, or still life, but with a piece of advice conveyed through highly tensioned pink and white: “You are the artist of your life, don’t give the brush to anyone.”

In general, the three pairs used the maturity gained from imagining and working collectively to create a space where voices, mediums, and references coexist as well as colors. Thus, those who explore the collection will feel a warm welcome to a diffuse place but founded on a good amount of humor, spirit, and dreams. That is why the image of the visitors, including the artists, patching up with their respective bombs at the end of the opening becomes the most powerful image of all. This opening event turned the exhibition into a festive occasion, and at that moment, the works acted. The case of the bombs was particularly special, as they were an important plastic and conceptual medium within the exhibition, although later they were just a wish for those who released them into the sky that night.

– David Julián Cortés.