New Viewings #1
Curated by Barbara Thumm
At Galerie Barbara Thumm, Hernandez, for the first time, exhibits paintings and sculptures that began their existence as virtual objects within his Instopia.
Instopia is a radical and timely show for this moment of flux in which the boundary between the virtual and physical worlds is becoming increasingly porous. It is the first physical manifestation of Instopia, Hernandez’s Instagram art project, begun in 2015, which he explains thus: “The process begins with me finding an image of one of these luxurious spaces on Instagram or online. Then I design a virtual artwork, it could be painting, a mural or a sculpture, that I think would look perfect in that particular, photographed space. Then I digitally place my artwork into the image of that space and post up this new picture onto my Instagram account. The work only becomes Instopia only when makes you believe that it’s ‚real’.” Transgressing conventional notions of copyright and private property, long-since projected into virtual space, Instopia has caused, for some, outrage and offence. Hernandez’s intent was indeed to question the wholesale colonisation of digital space, believing „that transforming images and the values they embody is one way of transforming our reality, culturally and socially. I want people to interact more thoughtfully with images and to create ‘better’ pictures.“
Instopia foregrounds the politics of the ontology of virtual space, an increasingly urgent concern as the digital and meatspace melt, ever faster, into one another.
Diango Hernández (Part I)
Diango Hernández, *1970 in Sancti Spíritus, Kuba,
works and lives in Düsseldorf and Havanna
With NEW VIEWINGS we want to provide an experimental form of presentation through which we can build a network of diverse artistic positions and ideas. Staying creative and keeping the gallery as a safe-space for art is still our main focus.
Diango Hernández
„…, there is something changing, and that is the way we experience things. Our exchange with the “reality” has been fundamentally altered (…)
There will be a life after this extraordinary period and I would like it to be and feel more like a clear cut, a new beginning of some sort. After years of working internationally with many different people I have decided to take a closer look into every single working relationship of mine. If before the concept of “zeitgeist” played a big role in my work and my sensitivities, now it will define alone who will I work with.
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