El Colgado is a retrospective of the Colombian-French graffiti artist Chanoir that accounts for his journey as a plastic artist, sculptor, graffiti artist and video artist. He founded the 1980 Crew , one of the most active groups in the “Golden Age” of Barcelona street art in the early 2000s. His career of more than 20 years in the urban, museum and major galleries of Europe, the United States and Colombia brings a much broader vision and iconic influence to her work. This exhibition explores and invites you to reflect on the forms of appropriation that your work has had in different artistic spaces, in order to become part of a process of inclusion of graffiti in the institutional, communal and local field of Bogotá.
The figure of the black cat, an icon and a reference that has been reflected in different streets of the world, is the common and coherent thread of Chanoir in his life as an artist, his cats adapt to spaces with a naïf style characterized by their strong colors . It becomes a child’s game that also explores from sculpture and video, taking up characters from North American and Japanese pop culture such as: Mickey Mouse, Winne Pooh, Mazinger Z, among others, Pablo Neruda said well, “the child who does not Playing is not a boy, but the man who does not play forever lost the boy who lived in him and who will miss him very much. In other words, it is an invitation to play, to return to our childhood and not stop being those children that we have always been and that we have forgotten because of destiny.
Graffiti is created as a weapon of peaceful resistance to an oppressive system in the different cities of the world, originally in NYC, where walls, train stations and subways are the appropriate spaces that come to life and, most importantly, begin to coexist with the community that inhabits or transits these places.
In the town of Engativá, especially in the Barrio Minuto de Dios, this artistic practice is quite strong, to the point of living with its inhabitants, it is common to see its facades clandestinely intervened, but it is also very common to find cases in which the owners lend their facades to be painted, this shows that step by step it has been interacting in a much closer way with graffiti.
“A fundamental part of the urban is the space that we usually call the public, the ways of interrelating in it, towards it and with it. Culturally and legally we obey behaviors in this space that on many occasions are not consistent with its dynamics, some with a long tradition and others that appear out of necessity. The street, as part of the public space, It is the place par excellence for the exchange, for the meeting and the tour of any kind. There we carry out constant exchanges of products, experiences, knowledge, emotions, flavors, smells, colors, images.”
Museum of Contemporary Art Bogotá
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá, located in El Minuto de Dios, was founded in 1966, has a permanent collection of Colombian and latinamerican artists, and some Europeans and North Americans.The collection has over 1,000 works since the second half twentieth century to the present.
Within the project to develop fully human person, culture plays an expanding role, invigorating and renewing society and understood them Father Rafael Garcia Herreros to gestate social and evangelizing work of “El Minuto de Dios”.
The works that make up the MAC acquis mark a view of contemporary art in Colombia from the 60s to the present day through a collection of more than 1,000 works and constantly increased with new donations.
From this set organize thematic exhibitions reviewing genres and trends contemporary art practices to promote various readings museum collection.
In its programming MAC performs annual exhibitions aimed at promoting young talents and new trends in partnership with universities, institutes culture, foundations, embassies and cultural organizations.