Viewpoints @ 29th Street | Clemencia Echeverri & Adriana Pauly

Can and should the horrors of war be represented? According to Adorno and his “Essay on Cultural Criticism and Society” poetry after Auschwitz can be seen as an act of barbarity since by representing the civilization responsible for the extermination camps one automatically promotes the culture that led to World War II. In later writings he adds that silence on the other hand is a passive act of compliance addressing the aporia artists face with regard to the representation of the, by definition, unrepresentable.

Colombia has been a country plagued by horror and violence between state security forces, right-wing paramilitaries, leftist guerillas and drug cartels ever since its own independence in 1810. With about 7,124,829 victims, of which the majority has been victimized after the 2000s the question arises, whether the artist takes on a partial responsibility to fight against the mass repression of memories.

The sound and video installations by artist Clemencia Echeverri explore the armed conflict in Colombia, its victims as well as rituals and traditions of rural Colombian societies. Videos such as Supervivencias (Survivals) deal with the significance of distance, that which we can only strenuously perceive and recognize in the region, what we have not fully witnessed but have heard about, through the imagery of the Colombian Andes and their thick fauna. The work Nótulo on the other hand presents the viewer with the imagery of an empty house invaded by the ghostly presence of a bat. The invisible presence of the bat becomes representative of the countries socio-political conflict. The images in the artist’s videos emerge from the fringes of official narrative, from those silences, to reflect on what goes unseen notwithstanding an excess of visibility. It is the reverse of glittery mediatic fanfares, the counter-narrative of the documentary and the newscast.

Clemencia Echeverri lives and works in Bogotá. She did her undergraduate studies in Colombia and, along with specialized studies; she earned a Masters degree in Fine Arts at the Chelsea College of Arts, London. She has worked as an arts professor in Colombia, at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in the University of Antioquia and the National University. Having dedicated herself to sculpture and painting until the mid-nineties, Clemencia then decided to change course and started developing installation, video, sound, photography and interactive works inspired by the political and social conditions that have marked her time. In latter years she has produced multichannel video-installation projects that appeared in multiple national and international events, the most outstanding of which are: Waterweavers Visual and Material culture at The Art Museum of The Americas, Washington, Conde Duque, Madrid and Bard Graduate Center, New York, England’s Liverpool Biennial; Switzerland’s Daros-Latinamerica Museum; the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Poland; the Delfina Foundation in the UK; and the VI Biennial of Havana, Cuba. Recently in Colombia, she produced Nóctulo  a multichannel video installation at NC-Arte, Bogotá. She has participated with other colegues in electronic arts festivals such as the ISEA in Helsinki-Stockholm and Tallin; the Festival de Artes Electrónicas Banquete in Madrid; Ars Electronica in Austria; Artrónica in Bogotá; and Metal in London. In 2014 she has been invited to participate at the I International Biennal de Cartagena, Colombia. In 2013 she participated in several events as: Instants Video Festival Marselle, France 50Ans dÁrt Video with Juegos de Herencia. The 43 Salon Nacional de Artistas with the recent work Sacrifice,”. In 2012 she attend to Kratkofil Plus Video Festival with the video Frontera (Border). Baria Luka, Bosnia Herzegovina. And at Screen Video Festival. Barcelona. Arts Santa Monica. Frontera (Border). Clemencia has been the recipient of awards, honorary mentions, and national and international fellowships such as those given by the Arts Council, London; Canada’s Daniel Langlois Foundation; and the Premio Bienal de las Artes de Colombia. In Colombia she has received research-creation fellowships from the Ministerio de Cultura, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the Instituto Distrital de Cultura de Bogotá. Her work has been acquired by the collections of Daros–Latinamerica; the Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles (MOLAA); the Museo MEIAC, Spain; the Latin American Art Collection at Essex, England, as well as private collectors. At the time she has been commissioned by the National Bank Museum of Colombia to develop a work on Cultural Landscape.

Adriana Pauly is a curator and art writer with a MFA in Contemporary Art from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, based in New York. She specializes in artwork by emerging female artists as well as Latin American art. She has been published by Missy Magazine, Autre Magazine and is currently the Content Coordinator of Art Report. Her curatorial projects have been shown at galleries as well as non-profit organizations and art fairs.

*Housed in the 29th Street New York City studio of Robert Wilson, Viewpoints @ 29th Street is a conversation series aimed to create intimate opportunities for artists and art enthusiasts to gather and discuss creative themes vital to the historical record of the contemporary moment. Advanced reservations are encouraged due to limited seating capacity.

Image Credits: Headshot of Adriana Pauley by Francesca Beltran; headshot of Clemencia Echeverri

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