Dominance
Two lower legs are standing. No shame in putting his legs in silk tights and his feet in leather shoes with a wide brim. Everyone knows he has money and good taste. He is allowed to boss everyone around. He has arranged his house, his country, his colonies for his dominance. People are proud of him and immortalized him in a bronze statue.
But this medieval man is now not sure of his life. It is the time of falling statues. Dominance is out. Attention is focused on the oppressed, the minorities, those who come out of the closet. Will they become the new dominants? Are we moving towards a time of balance between groups?
Who? asks Ivan Argote. I allow myself the same question. Who will be the new dominants? I expect that the minorities will get a slightly better place in our society, but that there will be new dominants, perhaps those with capital. Perhaps without silk and leather, but I see the rest of the first paragraph return quickly.
By Theo, artatsite.com.
Dominantie
Staan daar twee onderbenen. Geen enkele schaamte om zijn benen in een zijden maillot en zijn voeten in leren schoenen met een brede rand te steken. Iedereen weet dat hij geld en goede smaak heeft. Hij mag de baas over iedereen spelen. Hij heeft zijn huis, zijn land, zijn koloni n ingericht op zijn dominantie. Mensen zijn trots op hem en vereeuwigd hem in een bronzen beeld.
Maar deze middeleeuwer is nu zijn leven niet zeker. Het is de tijd van omvallende standbeelden. Dominantie is uit. De aandacht gaat uit naar de onderdrukten, de minderheden, diegenen die uit de kast komen. Worden zij de nieuwe dominanten? Gaan wij naar een tijd van balans tussen groeperingen?
Who? stelt Ivan Argote. Ik permiteer mij dezelfde vraagstelling. Wie worden de nieuwe dominanten? Ik verwacht dat de minderheden een iets betere plek in onze samenleving krijgen, maar dat er nieuwe dominanten zijn, misschien degenen met kapitaal. Misschien zonder zijde en leer maar de rest van de eerste alinea zie ik snel terugkeren.
Door Theo, artatsite.com.
www.visitbruges.be:
Statues take you through history. They tell a story about the city in which you find them. As a result, they bear an important responsibility. What figures do we entrust that task to? Iv n Argote wonders aloud about this. He installed a weathered pair of bronze boots on the Speelmansrei. Whose are they? As a visitor, you fill in those blanks yourself. In doing so, Iv n Argote is feeding a current debate.
Countless statues of mostly white, influential men stand around the world. In Colombia too the artist's homeland many monuments refer to white colonisers and rulers ... and not to local residents. This is what Iv n Argote makes you think about. Who? is the first work in a bold series of statues.
www.thisiscolossal.com:
A pair of sizable bronze boots have paused in a Bruges canal, the whereabouts of their owner unknown. The striking bronze sculpture titled Who? by Iván Argote appears as if an 18th-century statue has been shorn at the knees, inviting speculation about the wearer s identity.
Argote s work references the toppling of monuments depicting those with ties to colonialism, seen today as memorializing dark legacies of human enslavement, violence, and abuses of power. Belgium has a long and brutal colonial history, primarily in Africa.
www.visitbruges.be:
A classic pedestal is wasted on Iván Argote. Therefore, he placed his bronze statue atop the reflecting water. His boots wander the city's historic veins there, as it were. By the way, did you know that the Speelmansrei is part of Bruges' first city ramparts? It was constructed at the beginning of the 12th century.
www.wikipedia.org:
Iván Argote (born 1983) is a Colombian artist and filmmaker based in Paris. Using humor and staged interventions, his performance pieces and installations challenge dominant political ideologies.
Iván Argote was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1983, and was raised in a family of militants who were heavily involved in the armed conflicts during La Violencia. As a result, he became a human rights activist focusing his artwork on social justice issues. Argote's awareness of historical processes and social policies (particularly in Colombia) are what informs his work. At the age of 22, he worked as assistant director at Colombo Films in Bogotá where he learned about filmmaking, video, and photography. Until 2005, Argote had been living in Colombia where he spent time studying Graphic Design at the National University of Colombia. Soon after graduating, he moved to Paris, and made it his home. The move gave Argote the opportunity to meet Emmanuel Perrotin, a French gallery owner, who inspired him to seek a career in the art world. Argote's collaborations with Perrotin started his art career. In 2011, his first collaboration was his first solo exhibition at Galerie Perrotin in Paris called Caliente.
Over the years, he has had several show and screenings at Galerie Perrotin, including his 22-minute film As Far As We Could Get (2017) which features people from two antipodes, the town of Palembang in Indonesia and the city of Neiva in Columbia. The resulting work is a commentary on transnational cultural relations. He works primarily in mediums of sculpture, installations, and videography.
www.visitbruges.be:
Iván Argote (b. 1983, Colombia) lives and works in Paris. Through his work, he debates who gets a voice in the public space. With fictional elements, he adds new meanings to our heritage and draws a mind shift. You can view his work at New York's Guggenheim Museum and the Centre Pompidou, among others.
Two lower legs are standing. No shame in putting his legs in silk tights and his feet in leather shoes with a wide brim. Everyone knows he has money and good taste. He is allowed to boss everyone around. He has arranged his house, his country, his colonies for his dominance. People are proud of him and immortalized him in a bronze statue.
But this medieval man is now not sure of his life. It is the time of falling statues. Dominance is out. Attention is focused on the oppressed, the minorities, those who come out of the closet. Will they become the new dominants? Are we moving towards a time of balance between groups?
Who? asks Ivan Argote. I allow myself the same question. Who will be the new dominants? I expect that the minorities will get a slightly better place in our society, but that there will be new dominants, perhaps those with capital. Perhaps without silk and leather, but I see the rest of the first paragraph return quickly.
By Theo, artatsite.com.
Dominantie
Staan daar twee onderbenen. Geen enkele schaamte om zijn benen in een zijden maillot en zijn voeten in leren schoenen met een brede rand te steken. Iedereen weet dat hij geld en goede smaak heeft. Hij mag de baas over iedereen spelen. Hij heeft zijn huis, zijn land, zijn koloni n ingericht op zijn dominantie. Mensen zijn trots op hem en vereeuwigd hem in een bronzen beeld.
Maar deze middeleeuwer is nu zijn leven niet zeker. Het is de tijd van omvallende standbeelden. Dominantie is uit. De aandacht gaat uit naar de onderdrukten, de minderheden, diegenen die uit de kast komen. Worden zij de nieuwe dominanten? Gaan wij naar een tijd van balans tussen groeperingen?
Who? stelt Ivan Argote. Ik permiteer mij dezelfde vraagstelling. Wie worden de nieuwe dominanten? Ik verwacht dat de minderheden een iets betere plek in onze samenleving krijgen, maar dat er nieuwe dominanten zijn, misschien degenen met kapitaal. Misschien zonder zijde en leer maar de rest van de eerste alinea zie ik snel terugkeren.
Door Theo, artatsite.com.
www.visitbruges.be:
Statues take you through history. They tell a story about the city in which you find them. As a result, they bear an important responsibility. What figures do we entrust that task to? Iv n Argote wonders aloud about this. He installed a weathered pair of bronze boots on the Speelmansrei. Whose are they? As a visitor, you fill in those blanks yourself. In doing so, Iv n Argote is feeding a current debate.
Countless statues of mostly white, influential men stand around the world. In Colombia too the artist's homeland many monuments refer to white colonisers and rulers ... and not to local residents. This is what Iv n Argote makes you think about. Who? is the first work in a bold series of statues.
www.thisiscolossal.com:
A pair of sizable bronze boots have paused in a Bruges canal, the whereabouts of their owner unknown. The striking bronze sculpture titled Who? by Iván Argote appears as if an 18th-century statue has been shorn at the knees, inviting speculation about the wearer s identity.
Argote s work references the toppling of monuments depicting those with ties to colonialism, seen today as memorializing dark legacies of human enslavement, violence, and abuses of power. Belgium has a long and brutal colonial history, primarily in Africa.
www.visitbruges.be:
A classic pedestal is wasted on Iván Argote. Therefore, he placed his bronze statue atop the reflecting water. His boots wander the city's historic veins there, as it were. By the way, did you know that the Speelmansrei is part of Bruges' first city ramparts? It was constructed at the beginning of the 12th century.
www.wikipedia.org:
Iván Argote (born 1983) is a Colombian artist and filmmaker based in Paris. Using humor and staged interventions, his performance pieces and installations challenge dominant political ideologies.
Iván Argote was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1983, and was raised in a family of militants who were heavily involved in the armed conflicts during La Violencia. As a result, he became a human rights activist focusing his artwork on social justice issues. Argote's awareness of historical processes and social policies (particularly in Colombia) are what informs his work. At the age of 22, he worked as assistant director at Colombo Films in Bogotá where he learned about filmmaking, video, and photography. Until 2005, Argote had been living in Colombia where he spent time studying Graphic Design at the National University of Colombia. Soon after graduating, he moved to Paris, and made it his home. The move gave Argote the opportunity to meet Emmanuel Perrotin, a French gallery owner, who inspired him to seek a career in the art world. Argote's collaborations with Perrotin started his art career. In 2011, his first collaboration was his first solo exhibition at Galerie Perrotin in Paris called Caliente.
Over the years, he has had several show and screenings at Galerie Perrotin, including his 22-minute film As Far As We Could Get (2017) which features people from two antipodes, the town of Palembang in Indonesia and the city of Neiva in Columbia. The resulting work is a commentary on transnational cultural relations. He works primarily in mediums of sculpture, installations, and videography.
www.visitbruges.be:
Iván Argote (b. 1983, Colombia) lives and works in Paris. Through his work, he debates who gets a voice in the public space. With fictional elements, he adds new meanings to our heritage and draws a mind shift. You can view his work at New York's Guggenheim Museum and the Centre Pompidou, among others.