Caraota Von Moules
06 - 29 Jul 2012
CARAOTA VON MOULES
Carla Arocha, Stéphane Schraenen, Arturo Herrera
6 - 29 July 2012
Apart from Flemish artist Stéphane Schraenen (*1971, Antwerp), Carla Arocha (*1961, Caracas) and Arturo Herrera (*1959, Caracas) come from the same generation of artists from Venezuela. Today Arocha and Schraenen live in Antwerp; Arturo Herrera, after receiving a DAAD grant, has lived in Berlin since 2009. But what actually links these artists is much deeper-seated than what could be traced using the concept of national identity. The essence of these artists’ works is essentially linked via a number of thematic connections in their artistic methods. All the artists share the same artistic approach, whereby the directly perceptible is based on intellectual or intuitive, rational or intended significance. This is a familiar, broad context as such, a field in which many artists work. Together with their shared Venezuelan cultural origins, however, which determine each of the artistic works, this approach becomes something specific in a Berlin exhibition. In Venezuela there is a demonstrable presence of architectural forms and inspirations in fine art, which can be pointed out as deriving from processes of migration and the associated transport of ideas from European modernism, as well as Latin American modernism. If the exhibition succeeds in clearly identifying the relevance of this context in the works of Carla Arocha, Stéphane Schraenen and Arturo Herrera as a result of their overlapping formal features, it would surely make the developmental lines of contemporary international art history more differentiated, and their reception more diverse as a result.
Carla Arocha, Stéphane Schraenen, Arturo Herrera
6 - 29 July 2012
Apart from Flemish artist Stéphane Schraenen (*1971, Antwerp), Carla Arocha (*1961, Caracas) and Arturo Herrera (*1959, Caracas) come from the same generation of artists from Venezuela. Today Arocha and Schraenen live in Antwerp; Arturo Herrera, after receiving a DAAD grant, has lived in Berlin since 2009. But what actually links these artists is much deeper-seated than what could be traced using the concept of national identity. The essence of these artists’ works is essentially linked via a number of thematic connections in their artistic methods. All the artists share the same artistic approach, whereby the directly perceptible is based on intellectual or intuitive, rational or intended significance. This is a familiar, broad context as such, a field in which many artists work. Together with their shared Venezuelan cultural origins, however, which determine each of the artistic works, this approach becomes something specific in a Berlin exhibition. In Venezuela there is a demonstrable presence of architectural forms and inspirations in fine art, which can be pointed out as deriving from processes of migration and the associated transport of ideas from European modernism, as well as Latin American modernism. If the exhibition succeeds in clearly identifying the relevance of this context in the works of Carla Arocha, Stéphane Schraenen and Arturo Herrera as a result of their overlapping formal features, it would surely make the developmental lines of contemporary international art history more differentiated, and their reception more diverse as a result.