Wilfredo Prieto
06 Dec 2014 - 15 Feb 2015
WILFREDO PRIETO
The View of the Garden of Helene Hollandt
6 December 2014 – 15 February 2015
In his objects and installations Wilfredo Prieto plays with contrasts in such a poetic manner that he seems to both exaggerate and abolish them at the very same moment. Wilfredo Prieto shapes simple materials with which we are familiar from everyday life and stages them so that they make an extraor-dinary and noble impression – without, however, forfeiting their realistic character. On the contrary: by leaving the sugar cube a sugar cube (Two Classics, 2011) and plastic wrap, plastic wrap (The More You Add, the Less You See, 2011) the artist reveals the aesthetic potential of these materials. Wilfredo Prieto deploys the principles of Minimalism without following them blindly. It is a more fundamental influence from Donald Judd, Carl Andre, et al., that manifests on the formal level of Prieto’s works. The artist furthermore aims at a shift in perception by broadening the associative space around ob-jects, materials and their common applications.
With the exhibition title The View of the Garden of Helene Hollandt, Wilfredo Prieto indicates the rela-tionship between the interior and exterior spaces as well as the original significance of the Villa Salve Hospes as a residence. He suggests a narrative layer that is animated primarily by the absence of per-sons. The piece Nude (2008), in which the remnant of a disrobing scene can be found on the floor as a nearly cinematic sequence, could hence be interpreted as a scene that brings the viewer into contact with the “Helene” of the title. In the early 19th century Braunschweig merchant D. W. Krause had the architect Peter Joseph Krahe build the Villa Salve Hospes for his adopted daughter Helene Hollandt, who, together with her family, subsequently inhabited this house with its view of the lavish garden known as “Hollandt’s Garden”. An openness to narrative in much of Wilfredo Prieto’s work supple-ments the levels of meaning that exist in his objects and installations with art-historical and socio-political references that add a further perspective.
Wilfredo Prieto (born 1978 in Zaza del Medio, Province of Santi Spiritu, Cuba) lives in Havana, where he studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte. He was awarded the 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Grant for New York and has already participated in numerous international exhibitions, such as the Havana Bi-ennial (2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012), the Singapore Biennale (2006) and the Venice Biennale (2007). The Kunsthalle Lissabon dedicated a solo exhibition to his works in (2011) and S.M.A.K. in Ghent pre-sented a retrospective in the summer of 2014. The View of the Garden of Helene Hollandt at the Kun-stverein Braunschweig is Wilfredo Prieto’s first solo show in Germany.
Along with copious illustrations and comprehensive essays, the catalogue Wilfredo Prieto: Works 1995–2012 features a conversation between the artist and Thibaut Verhoeven. The English/Spanish publica-tion was produced in collaboration with S.M.A.K., Ghent; the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; and the Kunstverein Braunschweig.
The exhibition is supported by: Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen Financial Services
The View of the Garden of Helene Hollandt
6 December 2014 – 15 February 2015
In his objects and installations Wilfredo Prieto plays with contrasts in such a poetic manner that he seems to both exaggerate and abolish them at the very same moment. Wilfredo Prieto shapes simple materials with which we are familiar from everyday life and stages them so that they make an extraor-dinary and noble impression – without, however, forfeiting their realistic character. On the contrary: by leaving the sugar cube a sugar cube (Two Classics, 2011) and plastic wrap, plastic wrap (The More You Add, the Less You See, 2011) the artist reveals the aesthetic potential of these materials. Wilfredo Prieto deploys the principles of Minimalism without following them blindly. It is a more fundamental influence from Donald Judd, Carl Andre, et al., that manifests on the formal level of Prieto’s works. The artist furthermore aims at a shift in perception by broadening the associative space around ob-jects, materials and their common applications.
With the exhibition title The View of the Garden of Helene Hollandt, Wilfredo Prieto indicates the rela-tionship between the interior and exterior spaces as well as the original significance of the Villa Salve Hospes as a residence. He suggests a narrative layer that is animated primarily by the absence of per-sons. The piece Nude (2008), in which the remnant of a disrobing scene can be found on the floor as a nearly cinematic sequence, could hence be interpreted as a scene that brings the viewer into contact with the “Helene” of the title. In the early 19th century Braunschweig merchant D. W. Krause had the architect Peter Joseph Krahe build the Villa Salve Hospes for his adopted daughter Helene Hollandt, who, together with her family, subsequently inhabited this house with its view of the lavish garden known as “Hollandt’s Garden”. An openness to narrative in much of Wilfredo Prieto’s work supple-ments the levels of meaning that exist in his objects and installations with art-historical and socio-political references that add a further perspective.
Wilfredo Prieto (born 1978 in Zaza del Medio, Province of Santi Spiritu, Cuba) lives in Havana, where he studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte. He was awarded the 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Grant for New York and has already participated in numerous international exhibitions, such as the Havana Bi-ennial (2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012), the Singapore Biennale (2006) and the Venice Biennale (2007). The Kunsthalle Lissabon dedicated a solo exhibition to his works in (2011) and S.M.A.K. in Ghent pre-sented a retrospective in the summer of 2014. The View of the Garden of Helene Hollandt at the Kun-stverein Braunschweig is Wilfredo Prieto’s first solo show in Germany.
Along with copious illustrations and comprehensive essays, the catalogue Wilfredo Prieto: Works 1995–2012 features a conversation between the artist and Thibaut Verhoeven. The English/Spanish publica-tion was produced in collaboration with S.M.A.K., Ghent; the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; and the Kunstverein Braunschweig.
The exhibition is supported by: Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen Financial Services