Nowhere in the nowhere

29.04.2010 - 29.04.2010

Irene Van de Mheen (Hermelo, Holanda. 1967)

Nowhere in the nowhere

Drawings on, and without, paper.

In her work she explores both the possibilities and the limitations of drawing. She researches the relationship between physical space and its translation onto a flat surface – the subtle frontier that separates illusion from reality. All her work is strongly linked to space, both in its architectural and its abstract sense. She´s especially interested in transitional spaces and industrial buildings where any stay is temporary – spaces where you neither settle nor seek protection, spaces that engender a sense of longing for another place, the place of the other. It’s about being here and wanting to be there. For her, drawings describe their own space.

Her working method is intuitive. She uses basic elements of drawing – colour, line and space – with an emphasis on the manual and the imperfect. She draws tranquil spaces, mental constructions that provide an aesthetic experience by addressing the senses with their form, structure and colour. It continually fascinates her that two simple lines can create perspective – an evocative spatiality. Her work is always about organising physical space, or an empty sheet of paper, as a means toward understanding one’s environment.

For this new exhibition at the Galería Magda Bellotti she presents a work done with single colour lines occupying all the area of Space I. The drawn lines, along with the spaces left blank build a new place. The intervention is completed by a series of new drawings and a large installation of works on different mediums and formats that engage in dynamic relationships between them.

Irene van de Mheen (Holland 1967) studied fine arts at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Kampen and the Escola Massana, Barcelona. Among her exhibitions and projects we can highlight Light Light in Casa Encendida, Madrid; El dibujo por delante in the CGAC, Santiago de Compostela; The Bridge of Vision in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Santander, Extrañamientos in the Sala Alcala 31, Madrid and Netherlands Interior in the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca and has exhibited in numerous galleries and exhibition spaces inside and outside Spain.

Gustavo Marrone (Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1962)

NICKNAMES

Nicknames, the installation, stems from an investigation into the relational and affective behaviours in the network. Of how the elements that draw and express our emotional and psychological needs are altered and modified by the use of new technologies as never seen before. The velocity rate imposed and the exhibition are the elements that attracted my attention of this new forms of love. This work is bounded in the gay universe and the nicks that appear were collected from several web pages from different parts of Spain. With many of these nicknames I have had some dialogue. By choosing the support and register, one of my intentions was to re-materialize or somehow re-embody these names that only have a virtual presence in the net.

As Javier Peñafiel says in the catalogue of \\\\\\\"Voz entre líneas”, a project done for the art center La Panera in Lleida, where this piece appeared recently: \\\\\\\"In the sculptural text proposed by Gustavo Marrone, the nicknames that circulate in the gay network gain a sculptural presence in a strange twist of language, internet and sculptural solutions ...\\\\\\\" Exhibitionism and vouyerism are recurring elements in these new behaviours, and they are both evident in the formal election and presentation of the piece.

Nicknames, the video, is an animation that I made for the 7th Biennial of Mercosul, Brazil, 2009. It´s a collection of more than 90 nicks (nicknames, aliases) that people choose when they open a profile; they contain many of the desires both emotional and sexual that the user pretends to satisfy. The nicks were found in gay web pages of Barcelona. In the animation, they appear on the screen and start moving in their permanent virtual tour, during which they draw the map of Porto Alegre Center, host city for the Biennal. The presence of these nicks confirm the virtual participation in the Biennale of these persons. It is also a way to redefine the physical and the boundaries between private and public.

Nicknames, both pieces, are works related to the way we deal with emotions now a days, with the reformulation of the physical and virtual, and the new limits of intimacy.

Gustavo Marrone. March, 2010.