Toshiro Yamaguchi, Memory, 2016. Paper, wire and pigments, 90 cm diameter
Cláudio Garrudo, Black Series #4, 2016. Inkjet print on fine art paper, 30x30 cm
Oliver Czarnetta, Many One Men Meaning, 2016. Concrete, 36x24x22 cm
Oliver Czarnetta, Lethe, 2016. Resin and concrete, 61 cm high
Cláudio Garrudo, Purple Series #2, 2016. Inkjet print on fine art paper, 30x30 cm
Toshiro Yamaguchi, Lotus, 2016. Paper, wire and pigments, 100 cm diameter
In tumultuous times where we live traumatic experiences, we feel how the foundations of our identity are shaking before an evident change. And I mean both individual identity and the identity that transforms human race into unity.
It is probably part of the so-called life-cycle, of the evolution of the species, of climate change, of the crisis, of the unbalanced distribution of world’s resources, of religious and non-religious wars, of existential doubts, of the change of personal relationships, of the emergence of new sexual identities, of the doubtful sustainability of the political and social systems that rule the world, it is surely consequence of a little bit of everything. And, what is also true is that it is the speed of the technological progress the one that has accelerated this process of change that we were used to live more gradually.
We are short of time for reflection.
Let’s think about it.
Oliver Czarnetta was walking around a flea market when he found a box with old photos from the 50s, 60s and 70s. They were images that reflect the life of a family in the German Democratic Republic. On the back of some of them appeared certain details. He inspected them meticulously with a magnifying glass and he hung them on a wall, giving them an order.
Claudio Garrudo, Toshiro Yamaguchi and Oliver Czarnetta bring up, taking this group of photos as a basis, different ideas about the concept of identity.
Thus, the three artists approach in a totally independent way, from different disciplines –sculpture, photography and painting– to the same premise, stimulated by that group of images on which this project is built.
This way, a profound meditation emerges about the basic concepts that define our personality and our relationship with others and the environment that surrounds us. The individual identity, the social identity, our relationship with the passage of time, the ego, the Ku (Japanese concept of everything and nothing), the Big Black Nothing, the historiography, the fragmentary identity…
