Group Exhibition University of Worcester 5 Dec 5 Jan 2024
En el mismo río - The art house
En el mismo río ('On the Same River') is a multi-media exhibition at The Art House, University of Worcester, which addresses the environmental and social impact of illegal mining in the Venezuelan Amazon. The project draws together work by Ana Alenso (Venezuela), Katherine Di Turi (Venezuela), Santiago Méndez(Venezuela), and Piers Veness (UK).
En el mismo río (2023) Installation view at Art House, University of Worcester.
Di Turi & Veness, Green Screen installation, colour detail, 2023.
Lothar Baumgarten, Venezuela: Map of indigenous societies (1985) from LB Autofocus Retina edited by Macba 1993.
Poster for Wegwurf, Lothar Baumgarten's exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, 1986.
Ana Alenso, Lo que la mina te da, la mina te quita (2020- 2021). Installation view at Galerie Wedding -Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin.
Santiago Méndez, stills of Mercurio Orinoco, 3D Animation, 2022.
In 1986, German artist Lothar Baumgarten staged an exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Venezuela. Titled Wegwurf ('Throw away'), the exhibition aimed at bringing attention to the illegal mining in the Amazon, subtly suggesting that it was a catastrophe for the indigenous population as well as for the local environment. Now, almost 40 years later, the very same illegal mining continues unabated. En el mismo río builds on this topic, the ecocide still fresh on the very same river that Baumgarten focussed on in the 1980s.
En el mismo río brings together a majority of Venezuelan artists whose work is directly or indirectly concerned with these environmental issues that affect the Venezuelan Amazon.
Green Screen (2023) by artist duo Di Turi & Veness is a minimal geometric installation which presents layers of green inspired by the natural lush of the tropics, creating an abstract scenography of the concept of the Amazon and its fragility.
In Lo que la mina te da, la mina te quita (2020), Ana Alenso explores the subject of illegal mining and the connection between the wealth of natural resources in Venezuela and the country’s long-standing crisis.
Santiago Méndez’s Mercurio Orinoco (2022) uses 3D modelling to represent the course of the Orinoco in the Amazon jungle in Venezuela and the environmental impact of the mercury spills by illegal mining.
En el mismo río is curated by Katherine Di Turi and Piers Veness by invitation from The Art House director Nathaniel Pitt. An essay by Patricia Velasco Barbieri will accompany the exhibition. Read it here
To coincide with the exhibition Square Art Projects will take part in The Art House Open Lecture series presented by Meadow Arts and the University of Worcester’s School of Arts.
En el mismo río opens on Tuesday, 05 December and runs until Friday, 05 January.
In collaboration with: Pitt Projects, School of Arts, University of Worcester, and Meadow Arts. Special thanks to photographer Henry González for the image of Delta de Orinoco for the exhibition poster.