The description of a baroque world has to be categorically baroque. In the face of a tree of life from Oaxaca, I can not make any, let us say, classical or academic categorization. Alejo Carpentier As the heir to a tradition of images that is strongly interwoven with cultural anthropology, Fábio Baroli’s most recent work represents a poetic gesture of restitution of the everyday and the vigorous musculature of the regional imaginary. His narrative, which is informed by a raw and forceful naturalism, centers its attention on rural life, its difficulties and the affective relationships that result from it. Each individual depiction is a kind of radiograph of events, a historic record, and a homage to the agrarian culture of Brazil and Latin America. In his case, the painting appears carnal, stimulates the appetite, and engenders a virtually bulimic fear of an object of desire, which is ultimately nothing other than life itself. In this way, painting confers clarity as well as significance to historical progress. If we understand traditional visual narratives as a record of the social and aesthetic conduct that characterizes a group of people who belong to a particular time, a particular place, and a particular culture, then we must acknowledge the traditional character and the traditional dimension that are anchored in the work of this extraordinary artist. The traditional genres of painting, like portrait, landscape and still life, are blended and superimposed within his work. All of this while drawing on a first-rate technique and an enormous capacity to capture the substance of any situation. In such a way, his painting can, for all intents and purposes, be thought of as a kind of cinematic practice or as a singular approach to conserving the reality he observes. Undoubtedly, both possibilities allow him to decentralize the codes of modern life, as well as to induce a crisis in the strange connection that stretches between growing technologization and a certain nostalgia for the past, or for what is, anthropologically speaking, considered inferior. Any reading represents a penetration into the reality of the other and is an indiscreet approach, which reveals the ascent and descent of the narrative, visual, and symbolic systems in connection with their historical horizon. In this respect, every reading implies the segmentation, limitation, and reduction of our world, which is observed and measured on the basis of scientific, intellectual, or artistic parameters. However, in the concrete case of Baroli, the description is not kept at an admiring distance, or limited to the usual form of expression that one encounters when dealing with the cultural values of another. On the contrary, his painting is an essential part of this reality. He conceives of himself as a part of this time and this place, and he recognizes his ties to the soul of the things that he renders and reflects. The ethnographic and colonial visions of lo latinoamericano (what is referred to as “the Latin American”) have generated oceans of pages, informed by distortions, mitigations, and omissions. Therefore, it is the case that the natural conditions and the cultural information that appear in the pictures of the artist aspire towards a new perspective on things. On the other hand, Baroli’s work does not arise from the description of the tourist or the stranger, who indulges in depicting the weakness of archetypes and typologies; rather, he achieves precision via proximity, in order to touch the naked nerve of this culture, which is subjected to these endless meaningless and superfluous assertions. Fábio paints with an absolutely convincing honesty and encodes a universe out of situations, gestures, and practices, which constitute a map on which reading yields to the act of writing. Latin America has had enough of its open and exposed veins, of so many warped and fetishistic readings, of the carnivalesque and nostalgic approaches. Fábio Baroli’s Latin America, rural and agrarian, decentralized and peripheral, presents itself under the seal of authenticity and a thirst for knowledge. The culture does not require any more instructions, any more sober prescriptions; it requires, urgently in fact, the liberation and the recovery of innovation, the magnetization of the authentic, the naturalization of its everyday rituals; rituals which were transformed into a scene of the exotic by the colonial gaze. As a direct/perverse consequence of a self-serving falsification of reality, the thirst for Western distinctiveness has displaced the role of the Latin American artist and reduced his art and its functions (as well as representations) to those of the anthropologists and ethnographers of the moment. Baroli’s surfaces display his influential links to photography and his penchant for collage as a resource that enables him to create a colorful, constantly changing vision of the world. His magnificent compositions enable the interfaces of this process of development and assembly, similar to the operation of digital software, to become visible. Moreover, at the same time, they virtually embody the idea of the palimpsest, which is one of the most apposite metaphors to describe the time and the reality of Latin America. Paradoxically, the depth and wealth of his painting is illustrated through its lightness and transparency. They demonstrate the signs of cultural resistance and the unconditionality of individual language. His painting is text and magnet. Andrés Isaac Santana (Translation from German into English: Alexandra Skwara) Imán La descripción de un mundo barroco ha de ser necesariamente barroca. Ante un árbol de la vida de Oaxaca, yo no puedo hacer una descripción de tipo, llamaríamos, clásica o académica. Alejo Carpentier Heredero de una tradición pictórica con fuertes vínculos con la antropología cultural, la obra reciente de Fabio Baroli es un gesto poético de reivindicación de la vida cotidiana y de la poderosa musculatura del imaginario regional. La suya es una narración marcada por un naturalismo visceral y descarnado que centra la atención en las infracciones de la vida campestre y en los intercambios afectivos que resultan de ella. Cada imagen es una suerte de radiografía del acontecer, un documento testimonial y un homenaje a la cultura rural brasileña y latinoamericana. La pintura, en su caso, se hace cárnica, estimula la masticación, genera cierta ansiedad bulímica hacia un objeto de deseo que no es otro que la vida misma. La pintura, así, otorga visualidad y sentido el devenir histórico. Si por narración pictórica costumbrista entendemos aquella que registra el comportamiento social y estético que caracteriza a un grupo humano perteneciente a una época, lugar y cultura determinadas, entonces tendremos que aceptar el carácter y la dimensión costumbristas asentada en la obra de este extraordinario hacedor. En ella se mezclan y se superponen los géneros tradicionales de la pintura como son el retrato, el paisaje, la naturaleza muerta y el bodegón. Todo ello bajo las exigencias de un tecnicismo impecable y de una enorme habilidad para captar lo esencial de cada situación. De tal suerte, resulta desde todo punto de vista posible pensar su pintura como una especie de ejercicio cinematográfico o una singular operatoria de taxidermia sobre la realidad que tiene frente a sí. Ambas posibilidades le permiten, sin duda alguna, el descentramiento de los códigos de la vida moderna y la puesta en crisis de esa extraña relación que se tensa entre la exacerbación de la tecnología y cierta nostalgia por el pasado o lo que, términos antropológicos, se advierte como lo subalterno y lo lateral. Cualquier lectura es una penetración en la realidad del otro, una aproximación indiscreta que revela las ascendencias y descendencias de los sistemas narrativos, visuales y simbólicos en conexión con su horizonte histórico. Por lo que, entonces, toda lectura implica la segmentación, el constreñimiento y la reducción de ese mismo mundo que se observa y que se mide desde los instrumentos científicos, intelectuales o artísticos. Sin embargo, en el caso específico de Baroli, el texto pictórico no vacila en la distancia admirativa ni en la explicitación rutinaria de los valores de la cultura del otro. Al contrario de ello, su pintura es parte esencial de esa misma realidad. Reconoce, per sé, su pertenencia y sus vínculos con ese tiempo y ese lugar, con el alma de las cosas que traduce y que refleja. Las visiones etnográficas y coloniales de lo latinoamericano, han aportado mares de páginas embelesadas en el maquillaje y en la voluntad reduccionista. De ahí que las presencias naturales y los datos de cultura que actúan en estas obras del artista se esfuerzan en producir la metamorfosis hacia la nueva visión de las cosas. La obra de Baroli, a diferencia, no se articula a partir de la crónica del turista o del extranjero tan dada a la exhibición de la debilidad de los arquetipos y de las tipificaciones; sino que asume el rigor de la cercanía para hacer latir el nervio desnudo de esa cultura sujeta a infinitas aseveraciones trilladas y superfluas. Fabio pinta desde una honestidad absolutamente convincente, cifra un universo de situaciones, de gestos y de prácticas que conforman un mapa, ese en el que la lectura cede lugar a la escritura. Latinoamérica está cansada de sus venas abiertas y expuestas, de tanta lectura distorsionada y fetichista, de tanta aproximación carnavalesca y nostálgica. La Latinoamérica, rural y campesina, descentralizada y periférica, de Fabio Baroli, se presenta bajo el sello de la autenticidad y de la avidez. La cultura no necesita de más prospectos ni de más recetas estériles; necesita, y mucho, del rescate de la invención, de la imantación de lo genuino, de la naturalización de sus rituales cotidianos, convertidos, por la mirada colonial, en escenografía de lo exótico. La sed de otredad occidental ha malversado el rol del artista y del arte latinoamericanos reduciendo sus funciones (y sus representaciones) a la del antropólogo y el etnógrafo de turno, como consecuencia directa/perversa de una distorsión interesada de la realidad. Las superficies de Baroli revelan sus vínculos subsidiarios con la fotografía y su gusto por la técnica del collage, en tanto que recurso que le permite apostar por una visión caleidoscópica del mundo. Sus hermosas composiciones evidencian las costuras de ese proceso previo de edición y de montaje muy cercano a las operaciones del software digital, al tiempo que enfatizan sobre la propia noción de palimpsesto, siendo esta última una de las más ricas metáforas que describen el tiempo y la realidad de lo latinoamericano. La riqueza de su pintura se advierte, paradójicamente, en su ligereza y en su transparencia. En ella se revelan los signos de la resistencia cultural y la pertinencia del alfabeto de lo propio. Su pintura es texto e imán. Andrés Isaac Santana
Amparo Sard | Fuzzy Objectives Nov 16, 2024 - Jan 25, 2025 |
Frank Bauer | Herringbone parquet and other problems Sepr 28, 2024 - Nov 09, 2024 |
Tenda Lomba | This Wonderful World Aug 24, 2024 - Sepr 21, 2024 |
SELECTION 2024 Jun 18, 2024 - Jul 06, 2024 |
Jurriaan Molenaar | BAUHAUS + GRAUHAUS Apr 20, 2024 - Jun 08, 2024 |
Michael Tolloy | ANDROS + GYNE Feb 17, 2024 - Apr 06, 2024 |
Idowu Oluwaseun | PEDESTAL Dec 09, 2023 - Feb 10, 2024 |
SELECTION 2023 Nov 10, 2023 - Dec 02, 2023 |
Harding Meyer | Audience Aug 26, 2023 - Nov 04, 2023 |
Summer Break Jul 11, 2023 - Aug 22, 2023 |
Flávia Junqueira | Symphony of Illusions Jun 10, 2023 - Jul 08, 2023 |
Fransix Tenda Lomba | Historical Shock Apr 22, 2023 - Jun 03, 2023 |
Till Freiwald | Echo Jan 28, 2023 - Mar 31, 2023 |
SELECTION | Part 2 Dec 16, 2022 - Jan 21, 2023 |
Daniel Heil | Wheel of Dharma Nov 05, 2022 - Dec 03, 2022 |
Claudia Rogge | WARP and WEFT Aug 27, 2022 - Oct 29, 2022 |
Éder Oliveira | Oposición Jun 24, 2022 - Jul 30, 2022 |
Fábio Baroli | Where the wind turns May 06, 2022 - Jun 18, 2022 |
Frank Bauer | Bilder vom Verschwinden Mar 12, 2022 - Apr 30, 2022 |
Selection Feb 08, 2022 - Mar 05, 2022 |
Harding Meyer | known unknowns Oct 29, 2021 - Dec 18, 2021 |
Kate Waters | It takes one to know one Aug 27, 2021 - Oct 23, 2021 |
Giacomo Costa | Atmospheres May 28, 2021 - Jul 03, 2021 |
Idowu Oluwaseun | REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE: a synthesis of time and sound Oct 30, 2020 - Dec 12, 2020 |
Peter Uka | Inner Frame Aug 28, 2020 - Oct 24, 2020 |
Harding Meyer | new works Jun 05, 2020 - Jul 15, 2020 |
Mary A. Kelly | Chair Mar 14, 2020 - May 30, 2020 |
Michael Tolloy | Solid Solidarity Jan 17, 2020 - Feb 29, 2020 |
Kate Waters | Love Shacks and other Hideouts Oct 18, 2019 - Jan 09, 2020 |
Frank Bauer | Paths of Inaccuracy Aug 30, 2019 - Oct 12, 2019 |
Christian Bazant-Hegemark | Kindness of Strangers Jun 07, 2019 - Jul 13, 2019 |
Sandra Ackermann | Escape into your Reality May 03, 2019 - Jun 01, 2019 |
Kay Kaul | Cloudbusting Mar 08, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 |
Jurriaan Molenaar | Fermate Jan 18, 2019 - Mar 02, 2019 |
Harding Meyer / Humanize Oct 19, 2018 - Jan 12, 2019 |
Mihoko Ogaki / Soft Landing Aug 31, 2018 - Oct 13, 2018 |
Peter Uka / Fragment of the Present Passed Apr 13, 2018 - May 26, 2018 |
Daniel Heil / Monologues Mar 09, 2018 - Apr 07, 2018 |
Düsseldorf Photo Weekend 2018 Feb 16, 2018 - Feb 18, 2018 |
Sandra Senn / Zwischen Zwei Meeren Jan 26, 2018 - Mar 03, 2018 |
Frank Bauer / Die Gelassenheit der Dinge Nov 17, 2017 - Jan 20, 2018 |
Kate Waters / Whistling In The Dark Sepr 01, 2017 - Nov 11, 2017 |
Untitled Jul 12, 2017 - Aug 02, 2017 |
Davide La Rocca / 13K ( Part 1 ) May 12, 2017 - Jun 27, 2017 |
Sandra Ackermann / Lost in Nothingness Mar 24, 2017 - May 06, 2017 |
Claudia Rogge / CONCENTRATION Jan 27, 2017 - Mar 18, 2017 |
Christian Bazant - Hegemark / The Rise and Fall of Transformative Hopes and Expectations Nov 11, 2016 - Jan 21, 2017 |
Harding Meyer / The Others Aug 26, 2016 - Nov 05, 2016 |
Crossing Borders Jun 03, 2016 - Jul 15, 2016 |
Sandra Senn / Flüchtiges Getriebe Apr 08, 2016 - May 21, 2016 |
Corrado Zeni / Éloge de la fuite Nov 27, 2015 - Jan 09, 2016 |
Claudia Rogge / PerSe Oct 16, 2015 - Nov 21, 2015 |
Kate Waters // Tell it like it is Aug 28, 2015 - Oct 10, 2015 |
Visions Of Sensory Space ( by Weightless Artists Association - SPARTNIC ) May 15, 2015 - Jul 04, 2015 |
Sandra Ackermann / Wasteland Mar 13, 2015 - May 02, 2015 |
Lost Scapes Jan 30, 2015 - Mar 07, 2015 |
Christian Bazant-Hegemark / Calibrating Aesthetics Nov 14, 2014 - Jan 17, 2015 |
Frank Bauer / Back to Basics Aug 29, 2014 - Nov 08, 2014 |
Harding Meyer // recent paintings May 23, 2014 - Aug 23, 2014 |
Till Freiwald - memoria Apr 11, 2014 - May 17, 2014 |
Quadriennale Düsseldorf 2014 / Gallery Evening Apr 05, 2014 - Apr 05, 2014 |
Giacomo Costa // Traces Nov 22, 2013 - Jan 11, 2013 |
DC-Open Galleries: Matthias Danberg - Inventory by Appropriation Sepr 06, 2013 - Nov 16, 2013 |
Christian Bazant-Hegemark // VOW OF SILENCE May 24, 2013 - Aug 20, 2013 |
Corrado Zeni // Generation Why Apr 12, 2013 - May 18, 2013 |
behind the Non-Colours Mar 22, 2013 - Apr 06, 2013 |
Sandra Ackermann // Running to stand still Feb 15, 2013 - Mar 16, 2013 |
Düsseldorf Photo Weekend 2013 Feb 01, 2013 - Feb 09, 2013 |
Mihoko Ogaki // Star Tales - White Floating Nov 30, 2012 - Jan 31, 2013 |
Claudia Rogge / Lost in Paradise Oct 12, 2012 - Nov 24, 2012 |
Harding Meyer // features Sepr 07, 2012 - Oct 06, 2012 |
Summer 2012 - Part 2 Aug 10, 2012 - Sepr 01, 2012 |
Summer 2012 Jul 06, 2012 - Sepr 01, 2012 |
Maria Friberg // The Painting Series May 11, 2012 - Jun 23, 2012 |
Mary A. Kelly // Father & Child Mar 30, 2012 - May 06, 2012 |
Maia Naveriani // Future Wolves and Chicks so far Feb 10, 2012 - Mar 24, 2012 |
Düsseldorf Photo Weekend 2012 Feb 04, 2012 - Feb 08, 2012 |
Kate Waters // The Air that I breathe Dec 09, 2011 - Jan 28, 2012 |
Frank Bauer / ...den Wald vor lauter Bäumen.... Nov 04, 2011 - Dec 03, 2011 |
Claudia Rogge // Final Friday Sepr 09, 2011 - Oct 29, 2011 |
Davide La Rocca - STILLS May 27, 2011 - Jul 16, 2011 |
Giacomo Costa // Post Natural Apr 01, 2011 - May 21, 2011 |
Harding Meyer - to be a real vision Feb 18, 2011 - Mar 26, 2011 |
Shannon Rankin - Disperse / Displace Dec 03, 2010 - Feb 12, 2011 |
Sandra Ackermann // I look inside you Oct 15, 2010 - Nov 27, 2010 |
Amparo Sard / AT THE IMPASSE Sepr 03, 2010 - Oct 09, 2010 |
Kate Waters // The Land of Kubla Khan Jun 11, 2010 - Jul 17, 2010 |
Jurriaan Molenaar // Lessness Apr 30, 2010 - Jun 05, 2010 |
Claudia Rogge // The Paradise of the Onlooker Mar 05, 2010 - Apr 24, 2010 |
Ivonne Thein // incredible me Jan 22, 2010 - Feb 27, 2010 |
Frank Bauer // Jet Set Nov 27, 2009 - Jan 15, 2010 |
Michael Koch // forever more Oct 23, 2009 - Nov 21, 2009 |
Masaharu Sato // SIGNS Sepr 04, 2009 - Oct 17, 2009 |
Harding Meyer // blind date Jun 19, 2009 - Aug 22, 2009 |
Maria Friberg // way ahead Apr 24, 2009 - Jun 13, 2009 |
Claudia Rogge - The Opening Mar 06, 2009 - Apr 18, 2009 |
Claudia Rogge // Isolation ( aus: Segment 8 - die Blasen der Gesellschaft) Mar 06, 2009 - Apr 18, 2009 |
JoJo Tillmann // What you see is what you get Jan 30, 2009 - Feb 28, 2009 |
Sandra Ackermann // Die Wirklichkeit ist nicht die Wahrheit Nov 21, 2008 - Jan 24, 2009 |
Kate Waters - Getting used to the 21st Century Oct 10, 2008 - Nov 15, 2008 |
Mihoko Ogaki - Milky Ways Sepr 04, 2008 - Oct 04, 2008 |
Summer 2008 // Painting Aug 12, 2008 - Aug 30, 2008 |
Silke Rehberg: Stationen 1,4,6,7,11,12,13,14 Jun 13, 2008 - Jul 12, 2008 |
Maia Naveriani: At home with good ideas May 09, 2008 - Jun 07, 2008 |
Justin Richel: Rise and Fall Apr 04, 2008 - May 03, 2008 |
Davide La Rocca - Strange Object Feb 08, 2008 - Mar 28, 2008 |
Frank Bauer: AkikoAlinaAlinkaAndrew.... Nov 30, 2007 - Feb 02, 2008 |
Maria Friberg: Fallout Oct 12, 2007 - Nov 24, 2007 |
Harding Meyer / in sight Sepr 06, 2007 - Oct 11, 2007 |
SUMMER '07 Jul 17, 2007 - Sepr 01, 2007 |
Kay Kaul - Wasserfarben Jun 15, 2007 - Jul 14, 2007 |
Sandra Ackermann - Point Blank Mar 02, 2007 - Apr 28, 2007 |
Tamara K.E.: pioneers -none of us and somewhere else Jan 19, 2007 - Feb 24, 2007 |
Till Freiwald Nov 17, 2006 - Jan 13, 2007 |
Claudia Rogge: U N I F O R M Sepr 01, 2006 - Nov 11, 2006 |
Kate Waters: Killing Time May 05, 2006 - Jun 17, 2006 |
Katia Bourdarel: The Flesh of Fairy Tales Mar 31, 2006 - Apr 29, 2006 |
Mihoko Ogaki Feb 10, 2006 - Mar 18, 2006 |
Silke Rehberg: RICOMINCIARE DAL CORPO Jan 27, 2006 - Feb 26, 2006 |
Sandra Ackermann Dec 08, 2005 - Jan 15, 2006 |
Corrado Zeni Dec 04, 2005 - Jan 11, 2006 |
Frank Bauer Nov 18, 2005 - Jan 15, 2006 |
Harding Meyer Oct 07, 2005 - Nov 12, 2005 |
AUFTAKT Sepr 02, 2005 - Oct 01, 2005 |
Claudia Rogge: Rapport Jun 17, 2005 - Jul 20, 2005 |
May 13, 2005 - Jun 11, 2005 |
Kate Waters: Solo-Exhibition in the Gallery Thomas Cohn, Sao Paulo Apr 16, 2005 - May 20, 2005 |
Vittorio Gui: FROZEN MOMENTS Apr 08, 2005 - May 07, 2005 |
Kay Kaul - ARTSCAPES Apr 03, 2005 - May 29, 2005 |
SEO Geheimnisvoller Blick Mar 04, 2005 - Apr 02, 2005 |
Claudia van Koolwijk at Museum Bochum Feb 26, 2005 - Apr 17, 2005 |
Corrado Zeni - Six Degrees of Separation Nov 26, 2004 - Jan 15, 2005 |
Maia Naveriani: What' s the difference between ME and YOU? Oct 15, 2004 - Nov 20, 2004 |
Tamara K.E.: MAD DONNA AND DONNA CORLEONE Sepr 03, 2004 - Oct 09, 2004 |
Davide La Rocca: Real Vision Reflex Jun 12, 2004 - Jul 17, 2004 |
Kay Kaul COLLECTORSCAPES Apr 23, 2004 - Jun 05, 2004 |