thespectrum.space presents « Querencia- Spaces of desire » an online group show exhibition, curated by Anne-Claire Mackenzie.
This exhibition attempt to question the nature of desire in relation to space, as to explore the evolving role of desire. Querencia is a neologism most frequently used in Southern America and connects the two Spanish words «Querer» meaning «to desire» and «Herencia» meaning «heritage». It is a metaphysical term to describe a place where one feels safe and from where the strength of character can be extracted; in addition to the vision of getting to, and being in the desired destination. ↡ ↡
As a conceptual framework, Querencia invites artists and audience to explore the relationship between desire, space and culture. Through the setting of the digital space as the exhibition space, we facilitate access to seven spaces where the artist's sense of desire and their art practice comes across in their artworks. This perspective allows us to shape a conversation between the artworks presented in this exhibition. Indeed, the artworks startle the viewer into questioning the plural dimension of desire: a desire capable of creating a dynamic between one thing and another, between the body and the space; between people; between the inner and the outer; between the collective and the sole eye. Querencia, when made visible, attracts another Querencia: A space of desire opens another one... ↡ ↡
...In times when the borders between the physical and the virtual are becoming increasingly blurred, in times where society gets more fragmented and individualist, the show retraces the individual geneses that make one willing enough to translate their desire into actions through the artworks presented. The individual geneses are eminently private, deep, and attributed. That is why desire is so close to projections: they manifest themselves in the most unconscious parts of our minds and become conscious to us through actions. Querencia’s roots are where space becomes a creative material, able to be shaped by our desire ;Space being this metaphysical and abstract world in which we are immersed as human beings. Often the content of our desires are social constructs, thus we are all bound to them: how much does it separates us or closes us from one another? This exhibition attempt to highlight the incarnation and depiction of desire throughout the narratives of seven emerging artists:
Kazemy
To begin with Diana Kazemy’s works invite the viewers throughout the video medium to look at the process behind each of her creative acts, and she explains that desires are always the origin of attempts and acts of creation.
Villa Zertuche
In another manner Camila Vila Zertuche’s space, what is specific is the translations of her desires into physical objects to show the play between personal desires and desires acquired by social standards.
Montagner
In the space of Antoine Montagner, the artist presents their fashion collection "Whatever Wanda Wants". The garment embodies in the collection the transformative process, the passage from Wanda the woman to Wanda the object of desire.
Gocheva
Stella Gocheva’s photographs function as the evidence that retraces a love that never ended; a Romeo and Juliet situation: the impossibility to be with the beloved person, as the impossibility to be without the beloved person.
Remmen
Through filming and epistolary writing mediums, Noor Remmen’s shapes a retrospective around the thoughts pattern, the shape-shifts and motion of desire that travels across their personal life to their artistic life.
Vinkenborg
To continue our journey to Querencia, the artist Marnix Vinkenborg invites you to meet with his alter-ego Martin Malibu. In the context of the exhibition, the performer takes the role of a fictive yet very loving singer and explores a new form of performing.
Table
The dimension of desire through the performative work of Kevin Table appears to us through the medium of the body and dance.For him, desire is a resource and motivation for constant research. Not only is Table researching perfection, but he quests how to lead his own mind.
"Desire is the very essence of human, insofar as it is conceived as determined, as a result of any affection of itself to do something" (ref: Spinoza ̃Ethics-1677). The driven desire in each artist's directions, reflects and brings us back to our individual peregrination towards one's own potential Querencia and space of desire.
Both collectively and individually, they draw out the ambiguous friction that interferes in the flow from desire to imagination to creation.Each artist is reaching and finding the entrances to their space of desire through different means. The exhibition articulates interdisciplinary practices, to enable a wider perspective on the topic.
Through this, the artworks themselves become the observable space of desire for the viewer. They become the vessels that travel us to the intimate space of imagination, whereas the artist's vision extends into the representation of the self in the desired form.
All of these are driven by a common essence: desire. As with Spinoza, who describes desire as the very essence of beings, it is possible to observe a thirst for freedom as the field of possibilities that desire nourishes and expands. Querencia is a fertile soil wherein space has became the equal and ally of the artist’s drive, yet becomes a collective space for research.
Querencia - Spaces of desire is a space bathed in the light produced by the artist's desire and the light produced through the pleasure of discovery from the viewer. As we can grasps and feel, that the objects of our desire are imaginary as we can that imagination itself is desire-driven, the research question here then is: How do we go beyond and reach Querencia? That landmark within us that directed us, kept the self alive, urging, in motion, and inspire.
