KUNSTHAUS RHENANI
Bayenstr. 28 | 50678 Colonge — Rheinarea, Germany.
www.rhenaniakunsthaus.de
- A Video-Installation by Cristián Silva-Avária
- Curator: Alex Mora
- 14 -27 January 2012.
- Tuesday to Friday, 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
- Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
- Opening: Saturday 14 January 2012, 7:00 pm -10:00 pm.
- Close: Friday 27 January 2012, 7:00 pm -10:00 pm.
Kunsthaus Rhenania has pleasure in presenting SUMMERTIME, the new exhibition of the Chilean artist resident in Brazil, Cristián Silva-Avária. In his first one-person exhibition in Germany, curated by Alex Mora, Silva-Avária presents a multi-channel video installation that proposes a powerful sensory experience related to how the concept of summer is experienced in different latitudes.
Silva-Avária intervenes the central space of the hall of the Kunsthaus Rhenania by using large quantities of plastic wrapping film to restructure the architecture of the building, creating a kind of greenhouse that supports two large video projections and a series of monitors in different formats.During the intervention, a video “Ship Hunt– will be shown, a work on the tourist cruise ships that dock in the area of Buzios and Parati in Brazil, together with images of the parks of Cologne captured during a residence carried out in September and October 2011, showing behaviour patterns typical of the short German summer.
The low angle of the images of the cruise ships, captured at water level in precarious production conditions and with the help of local fishermen and sailors, allow a view that is out of reach for most of the inhabitants of the places where the liners dock, while the images of Cologne observe the peaceful social life of the local parks from fixed and distant angles.
The relation of time and experience is hightened in turn by the wintry climatic conditions in which the work is exhibited. In this way, the multiplicity of images generates disturbing reflections about the individual and collective nature of the experiences exhibited.
Cristián Silva-Avária was born in Santiago de Chile in 1975. He presently lives between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Santiago. Since 1998 he has held several individual exhibitions, notably: The Reverso Project, Part II, Laura Marsiaj Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil (2011); Chilean Abstract Painting, L390 Space, Santiago de Chile (2010); The Reverso Project, MORO Gallery, Santiago (2009); Punto Medio, VVV Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2008); Match Point Project, Animal Gallery, Santiago (2007).
He has participated in more than 30 collective exhibitions, art encounters, fairs and bienales, including: In Cold Blood, Moura-Marsiaj Gallery, São Paulo, Brasil (2011); Operacion Truth, Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum, Santiago de Chile (2011); Lima Photo, Patricia Ready Gallery, Center of the Image, Lima, Perú (2011); SP_Arte, Laura Marsiaj Gallery, Bienal Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil (2011); Chile Extreme Art, Las Condes Cultural Center, Santiago, Chile (2011); Silence, Zipper Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil (2010); ArteBA, MORO Gallery, La Rural, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2010); Artists SXXI bicentenary, Catholic University Extramural Center, Santiago (2010); See, VVV Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2009); ArteBA, AFA Gallery, La Rural, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2008); SP_Arte, Florencia Loewenthal Gallery, Bienal Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil (2008); Children Playing, Sotomayor Art Center , ValparaÃso, Chile (2007); Painful Matter, Metropolitan Gallery, Santiago, Chile (2007); From Hand to Mouth, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile (2006); Contemporary Chilean Art, Valenzuela y Klenner Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia (2004); Chile & Italy, emerging artists, IILA, Rome, Italy (2004); Fantasmatic, Millenium Museum, Beijing, China (2004); Change of Oil, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile (2003); III Mercosul Bienal, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2001); VII International Bienal, Cuenca, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cuenca, Ecuador (2001).
En South America, Cristián Silva-Avária’s work is represented by the Morura-Marsiajen Gallery, São Paulo; by the Laura Marsiaj Gallery of Contemporary Art in Rio de Janeiro, y by the Patricia Ready Gallery in Santiago de Chile.
Alex Mora was born in 1971 in Concepción, Chile. He lives and works as a visual artist in Cologne, Germany. After beginning a classical art career in the Fine Arts School in ValparaÃso, he arrived in 1995 in Germany where he finished his studies in the Art Academy in Münster. His artistic work was influenced by his teachers Timm Ulrich, Paul Isenrath y Guillaume Bijl, as well as by a stay in Israel. Mora’s work includes sculpture, installations, performance and new media and crosses gender boundaries. Since 2006 he has also worked in the production, realization and curation of artistic and cultural projects.
