In the Damme Gallery (La Plata, Buenos Aires) the exhibition was presented “Monstrous Presence”, from the artist Ro Barragan, curated by Alicia Vandamme, Director of the Gallery.
This exhibition invited us to explore how language can be intervened, transformed or even invented, thus opening new meanings and challenging traditional forms of communication through words.
On one of the walls of the Gallery, works generated from posters recovered from the public space intervened by Ro Barragán with letterpress.
This artisanal printing technique consists of the use of movable type, and allowed the artist to experimentally overprint letters and words until generating a stain that obscured the message of the original poster. In this transformation, the words acquired new thickness and new presence, exalting their material aspects, moving away from their merely semantic function.
The exhibition included the series of prints “Bad Prints”, made in collaboration with Jan-Willem Van der Looij at its Mizdruk printing press in the Netherlands.
Ro Barragán has a master’s degree in Aesthetics and Art Theory from the National University of La Plata. He has been developing artistic activities since 1994 and has exhibited his works nationally and internationally, covering various formats such as painting, engraving, object, digital and interactive art.
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In another work of her authorship, linked to electronic art, the artist took the word beyond its visual dimension, making it part of a sound experience.
In ““Oracle”the public became an active participant: the words, as sound waves, were captured by a device that transformed them into electrical signals.
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Consequently, the object produced various enigmatic and cryptic sounds in response that could not be immediately interpreted, but which invited the participant to reflect on the limits of imagination, representation and perception, within the context of contemporary art.
I thank Alicia Vandamme and Ro Barragán for giving me the opportunity to review this exhibition.
Source: Ambito
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