La Central at ArteBa
Booth D44
May 24-27
La Rural, Buenos Aires
Featuring the work of : Felipe Arturo, Otto Berchem, Carolina Caycedo, Nicólas Consuegra, Sebastián Fierro, Manuela Viera-Gallo, Juan Carlos Haag, Juan David Laserna, Lucia Pizzani, and Daniel Santiago Salguero.
La Central, Bogota presents
ENCAPUCHADA
A project by Otto Berchem
part of
Project Rooms at Art Lima.
April 24-28
Curated by Octavio Zaya
On February 20th, 1980 the Colombian guerilla group M19 overtook the Embassy of Dominican Republic in Bogotá. This lead to a standoff, with the hostages and guerillas remaining inside for over a period of sixty days, which produced a huge amount of coverage in the media. With their theft of Simon Bolivar’s sword six years earlier, the M19 Group exposed a talent for sophisticated and creative actions of resistance, that could also be perceived as performance art.
For Art Lima, inspired by the images of the Toma de la Emabajada, Otto Berchem works with his own chromatic code to explore one of the classic symbols of the semiotics of the Revolutions.
Un proyecto de Otto Berchem
El 27 de febrero de 1980 el M19 se tomó la sede de la embajada de la República Dominicana en Bogotá. Allí estuvieron recluidos rehenes y guerrilleros por sesenta días en los cuales hubo gran atención mediática.
Desde el robo de la espada de Simón Bolívar en 1974 el grupo M19 utilizó estrategias combativas que bien podrían ser confundidas con acciones perfomáticas.
En esta ocasión el trabajo de Otto Berchem parte de las imágenes que se difundieron durante el período de la Toma de la Embajada y, usando su propio código cromático, explora los lugares comunes de la semiótica revolucionaria.
Posted in News and Exhibitions
Tagged Art Lima, Exhibition, La Central, Lima, M19, Octavio Zaya
Participating Galleries:
Sultana (París)
La Central (Bogota)
DiabloRosso (Panama City)
Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala City)
Yautepec (Mexico City)
Participating Artists:
Stefan Benchoam, Otto Berchem, Buró de Intervenciones Públicas, Pia Camil, Aníbal Catalán, Donna Conlon + Jonathan Harker, Radamés “Juni” Figueroa, Jacin Giordano, Federico Herrero, Annie Lapin, Natalia Ibáñez Lario, Melvin Laz, Gretel Joffroy, Rachel de Joode, Jorge de León, Olivier Millagou, Sofia Novella, Gavin Perry, Calixto Ramirez, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Ana Roldán, Sally Ross, Diana de Solares
Raw Material” is a five-day group exhibition collaboratively developed by five galleries: Sultana (Paris); La Central (Bogota); DiabloRosso (Panama City); Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala City); and Yautepec (Mexico City).
The project arose from a conversation between Sultana’s Guillaume Sultana and Yautepec’s Daniela Elbahara in Los Angeles in January and quickly transformed into an effort to bring a small international group of like-minded galleries from three continents together, in order to coordinate a single exhibition during Mexico City’s most important week for contemporary art.
The title “Raw Material” assumes a wide variety of meanings within the context of this exhibition, from the geopolitical to the poetic to the literal. Its curatorial system was thus designed to be open enough to allow each of the galleries to contribute and collaborate with a high degree of autonomy, yet without sacrificing the visual and conceptual cohesiveness of the overall exhibition. Essentially, each of the works showcased in “Raw Material” reflects a clear concern with the aesthetics and significance of its own material and materiality, although these works bridge a variety of artistic intentions and media, including sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, and video.
The exhibition will take place in an historic Porfirian-era house located at Puebla 124, in the Roma Norte neighborhood, and will be accompanied by a series of artist talks and other events throughout the week.
The exhibition will be open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday, from 12:00 – 19:00 hrs and is free of charge.
More Information: info@yau.com.mx | +52-55-5256-5533
A summary of the reviews of Revolver, at Ellen de Bruijne Projects.
Full Circle, weheartart.co.uk.
Every Letter has its own color, Kees Keijer, Het Parool.
Posted in Interviews and Reviews, News and Exhibitions
Tagged Amsterdam, drawing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Painting, Reviews, Revolver, Sculpture
March 15 – March 24th
Marshall Arts, Memphis, TN
We are all aware of the current exhibition at the Dixon, “Present Tense.” Regardless of the reason, the Dixon is only so big, only has so much wall and floor space available to exhibit work. So, choices had to be made and some artists had to be left out. This Dixon exhibition has generated a lot of talk within the Visual Arts Community of Memphis. Which is a good thing. And I want nothing else than to be able to have this conversation continue somehow, someway. That is what the show “Hanging Particles” is all about. It is artists that were not included in the Dixon exhibition. This is in no way a second place, second tier grouping of artist and should not be thought of as such. It is simply just a continuation of the work and the discourse generated from the “Present Tense” exhibition.
Curated by Memphis’ Own Dwayne Butcher.
Posted in News and Exhibitions
Tagged Dwayne Butcher, Exhibition, Gus' Fried Chicken, Marshall Arts, Memphis
OTTO BERCHEM, DO YOU KNOW
25.01.13 – 31.08.13
Otto Berchem is an American artist whose work explores contemporary society’s social codes and human relations. He conceived the sound installation ‘Do You Know’ as a true investigation inviting us to discover the collection of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais. This work will be shown for the first time in France at the Lille tourist office beginning in January 2013. The series of questions, which all begin with ‘Do you know . . .?’, enumerates the names of artists with a work in the collection. The seemingly random order in fact follows the order in which these works were acquired by the FRAC; the names are spoken in order of the date the artist’s piece entered the collection. This work will also be presented in the inaugural exhibition of the FRAC/AP2 in Dunkirk in September 2013.
Office de Tourisme de Lille – Palais Rihour
42 Place Rihour -BP 205
59000 LILLE
+ 33 (0)3 59 57 94 00
http://www.lilletourism.com
Mon-Sat 9:00-6:00
Sun 10:00-12:00/2:00-5:00
Posted in News and Exhibitions
Tagged Frac Nord-Pas de Calais, Installation, Lille, Sound Art
All revolutions go down in history, yet history does not fill up; the rivers of revolution return from whence they came, only to flow again.
Guy Debord
For his solo exhibition at Ellen de Bruijne projects, Otto Berchem’s REVOLVER focuses on the relations between language, architecture, history and poetry. Consisting of paintings, drawings, sculpture and video, and interacting with past experiences, as well as specific sites within his current context of living in Colombia, Berchem produces a series of work revealing the aesthetic connotations of past revolutionary moments.
Through the use of a personal chromatic alphabet developed originally for the project Blue Monday (2011) Berchem proposes a review of iconic images. Creating a parallel history by strategically deleting the pre-existing slogans, he replacing them with his own.
Berchem creates these gaps in time, occupying the image with his chromatic phrases, generating a new tension between history and his version of it. This allows the artist to explore the human necessity for rebellion and protest, and reach for his own place within the power structures that they challenge.
The title REVOLVER spins in different directions. On one hand it alludes to the guns used to aid revolutions, on other it makes reference to the cyclical nature of revolt, and ultimately its failure.
Otto Berchem lives and works in Amsterdam and Bogota. His recent work has been shown in Stem Terug, De Apple, Amsterdam 2012; Etat de Veille, Jousse Entreprise, Paris 2012; You Are Not Alone, Fundacio Miro, Barcelona, 2011; (solo) Blue Monday, La Central, Bogota; Out of Storage, Timmerfabriek, Maastricht 2011.
Posted in News and Exhibitions
Tagged drawing, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Painting, Protest, Video
