2018 — Curating Moments of Clarity
An exhibition by Thierry Geoffroy / COLONEL (FR/DK), Levi Orta (CU), Ismar Čirkinagić (BiH/DK) and Lester Alvarez (CU).
Curated by Gretel Medina (CU) and Tijana Mišković (YU/DK), Havana, Cuba.
A unidirectional, ascending path leads to a single vanishing point. However, contemporary societies have shown that agitation and movement can occur in many different directions.
To understand these movements, in this exhibition we shed light on the notion of “moments of clarity” as mobilisers of human experience — those instants when we glimpse a capacity for renewal, progress, and change. These are examples of the personal experience of a vision, a symbolic “eureka moment,” but also of a “not me in front of the others.”
No matter how differently they might be projected, interpreted and used, such moments of clarity will always be connected to light — perhaps light that flows easily and freely, creating an indefinite transparency, or light that brings precise contours and clear perception. Light, concretely or metaphorically, and on a personal, socio-political or historical level, will always be the source of visions, discoveries, or changes of perspectives we call “moments of clarity.” At the same time, bright light and clarity can result in blindness, preventing a clear guiding vision and direction.
The exhibition Moments of Clarity invites four artists to think together, each crystallising an aesthetic and conceptual expression based on the exhibition’s subject. This is not pure glorification of change, but rather a critical vision of its mechanisms, including reflection on how a promoted moment of clarity can create unhealthy states of euphoria and false positivity.
Thierry Geoffroy / COLONEL
“How to provoke a moment of clarity?” asks Thierry Geoffroy / COLONEL in one of his works. This question precisely reflects the artist’s attempt to stimulate awareness through art. Through awareness, it might be possible to avoid the growing state of apathy.
Geoffroy’s mixed-media artwork consists of two parts: a tent and a series of cartons — two of his most established artistic expressions. Tents have been used by the artist as a means of visual expression since 1991, used as a canvas for written statements questioning the artistic and socio-political context. The imperfect style and spelling mistakes are part of his artistic intention, illustrating tension and immediacy. The exhibited work makes two declarations — one in Spanish: “How to provoke the Moment of Clarity,” and one in English: “The awareness muscle has to be trained every day.” The first statement is a question Geoffroy constantly asks himself about the role of the artist within society. The second introduces the term “muscle of consciousness” — a poetic muscle rather than a physical one, representing the ability to create awareness and critical thinking.
The cartons are the result of an immediate artistic “scanning” — simple drawings combined with textual expressions, often including wordplay, providing an impression of the creative process and ideas on a specific topic. In this series, Geoffroy played with the word clarity, juxtaposing it with the word reality to construct a new word in French: “clarealité” (clareality).
Levi Orta
Known for his subtle interpretation of social realities, Levi Orta penetrates selected social frameworks, often discovered through his own participation. By changing small details, he makes the spectator rethink social phenomena and their implications — giving us the opportunity to redefine and question the familiar and commonplace.
In this exhibition, Levi Orta invited his mother, Niurka Mendoza, to collaborate on a contemporary art project, based on the belief that her professional biography is an effective tool for investigating our understanding of the present and our projections for the future. At the opening, Niurka Mendoza read out her CV and invited attendees to participate in a guided tour of the exhibition, approaching the topics from her personal point of view.
Ismar Čirkinagić
In the work of Ismar Čirkinagić, the moment of clarity is presented as a feeling of empathy, through which a situation or a sentiment — not necessarily familiar to the viewer — becomes relevant. Using a refined aesthetic language, he creates an approach to distant and complex contexts.
The exhibited artwork is a sculptural installation consisting of three parts: wood, dry leaves and a video with a sea landscape. The wood consists of railway sleepers collected from the Central Railroad Terminal of Havana, containing holes filled with rice grains, superimposed onto leaves collected in various green areas of Havana, such as the Quinta de los Molinos. The installation ends with a projection of the open sea, alluding to an infinite horizon. This aesthetic interconnection of wood, plants and sea creates a series of associations related to the notion of time and an interpretation of progress. The moment of clarity, as a historical moment with a vision towards the future, over time becomes unavoidably part of our past — confronting us with the idea of transience in contrast with the concept of progress.
Lester Alvarez
Lester Alvarez illuminates what has been forgotten, or not yet discovered. His artistic records of architectural and mental spaces function as lamplight against oblivion. The artist’s collaborative projects help to create a framework within which the self is blurred and a collective project begins to shine through.
The work The Houses of Abandonment is presented as a multimedia installation. It includes a homonymous video made at the former Conservatory of Music of Camagüey and other works — video animations, paintings and objects made by the artist Louis Arturo Aguirre, owner and resident at the old school. In the video, we also meet the musician Denise Chong, the artist and DJ Abraham Muñoz, and the writer Román Gutiérrez Aragoneses, who opens the video by reading from his poem “Eterómano de pañuelo.”
From their diverse experiences and artistic languages, these artists have shared a space for creating and thinking about clarity. The exhibition is, therefore, the result of collaboration, dialogue, and intriguing overlaps between different visual and conceptual expressions. It is a catalyst for ideas and a vehicle for reflection on the problems of history, society and art itself.
— Tijana Mišković and Gretel Medina
The Artists
Thierry Geoffroy / COLONEL (FR/DK, b. 1961) develops art formats such as EMERGENCY ROOM, Biennalist and Critical Run. He has exhibited at P.S.1 / MoMA, New York; ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Palazzo delle Arti, Naples. He has participated in the Venice Biennale (Maldives Pavilion), Liverpool Biennial, Manifesta in Murcia, and Cairo Biennale. His work is held in collections at HEART Museum of Contemporary Art, the Sprengel Museum, the National Museum of Photography, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark. Thierry Geoffroy is Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Levi Orta (CU, b. 1984) graduated from Universidad de las Artes (ISA) in Cuba and HWP – Ashkal Alwan in Lebanon. He has presented solo exhibitions in Cuba and Spain, and group exhibitions in the USA, Spain, Lebanon and Cuba. He participated in the 12th Bienal de La Habana and the Bienal de las Fronteras in Mexico. Winner of Premio Generaciones 2017 at Casa Encendida, Madrid.
Ismar Čirkinagić (BiH/DK, b. 1973) has lived in Denmark since 1992 and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2006. He has exhibited at the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast; HEART Contemporary Art Museum; and Kunsthal Charlottenborg. He has also participated in ARoS Triennale, Liverpool Biennial / City States, and Socle Du Monde Biennial. His works are part of permanent collections at ARoS Museum and the National Museum of Photography in Denmark. www.ismarc.com
Lester Alvarez (CU, b. 1984) was born in Camagüey and graduated from Universidad de las Artes (ISA). He participated in the 6th and 7th Salon de Arte Contemporáneo Cubano, in addition to solo and group exhibitions in Cuba, Spain, the USA and Italy. Winner of the Premio Internacional de Pintura at IX Biennale ISOLE in Sardinia, Italy. He was hosted by The Henry Moore Foundation and The British Arts Council in Glasgow Art School in 2012.
Opening
