Artists Tania Candiani and Elkin Calderón and Diego Piñeros García reflect on their filmic explorations of how technologies intersect with Colombia’s rivers and territories.Narrated by a DC-3 plane, Calderón & Piñeros’ film Volando bajo(Flying Low) reminds us how territories resist processes of modernisation. Despite their obsolescence and constant threat of crashing, these World War II airplanes still connect Colombian communities living in remote areas and have become metaphors of thwarted promises of progress.Tania Candiani’s video takes us on a journey down the Magdalena River, to the city of Honda, through the infrastructure works that have shaped the landscape. Her film reflects on the role of modernisation and technological advancements, mediated through the artist’s personal experience in a narrative reminiscent of a diary or passage through the river.
This event is in English, moderated by Emilio Chapela.
Image: Calderón + Piñeros, still from Volando bajo, 2020.
Tania Candiani
Tania Candiani
Mexico, 1974
Tania Candiani (Mexico, 1974) is an artist whose practice spans various media and practices, exploring the complex intersections of phonetic, graphic, linguistic, symbolic, and technological languages. She frequently develops site-specific projects due to her particular interest in researching historical and social links that are triggered by place. Candiani has been a fellow of the National System of Art Creators of Mexico since 2012, she received the Guggenheim Grant for the Arts in 2011, and the Research Grant for Artists awarded by the Smithsonian Institution in 2018. The artist represented Mexico at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. Her work has been exhibited in museums, institutions, and independent spaces around the world and is part of important public and private collections. Key publications on her work include Cinco variaciones de circunstancias fónicas y una pausa(2014); Habita Intervenido (2015); Possessing Nature. Pavilion of Mexico:Venice Biennale (2015) and Cromática (2019).
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Calderón & Piñeros
Calderón & Piñeros
Colombia, 1975 & 1981
Elkin Calderón Guevara and Diego Piñeros García are a Colombian collective that have worked together since 2013. Their research-based artistic projects question hegemonic forms of knowledge and power materialised in technologies, infrastructures and landscapes. They are interested in displacement as a metaphor of encountering other realities, and creating connections between memory and ruins of the past. In 2019, they were nominated for Colombia’s X Premio Luis Caballero, and in 2020 were awarded a scholarship by the Ministerio de Cultura and Escuela Taller Cartagena de Indias (Etcar) to produce the film and installation EKOBIO (2021). Among their other prizes, in 2018 Calderón & Piñeros won the V Bienal de Artes Plásticas y Visuales FUGA and the Premio Residencia Villa Ruffieux / Pro-helvetia. Their film works have been shown in major international festivals and they have had solo shows in Latin America and Europe.
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Live Streams is curated by Lisa Blackmore (School of Philosophy & Art History and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Essex), Diego Chocano (Assistant Curator of Essex Collection of Art from Latin America/University Art Collections) and Emilio Chapela (Artist and Research Assistant at the University of Essex). This website was built by David Medina.
Art Exchange is the University of Essex’s on-campus gallery dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art from emerging and established international artists. It is directed by Jess Twyman.
