BODYLAND

The body remembers…

Bodyland, through its abstract meaning, its earthy colors, its openness to interpretation, allows the viewer to connect with whatever they want, to revive or bury whatever they need. To disturb, to make present that realities are not erased or stored in memory, they are there, like those pieces of recycled fabric, tied and bound that resemble tortured and silenced human forms. A territory that has experienced a totalitarian dictatorship – and the Chilean viewer undoubtedly knows this very well – produces an extremely rich memory of human evil. 

The archetypal sculptural forms of the 20th century passed, at the hands of the experimental avant-garde artists of the interwar period, to the informal, to minimalism or to poor art. As our memory of World War II faded, so did the references to archetypes, let’s say, from the essential to the aesthetic. The increasing ephemerality of the reality we live in, however, returns precisely this singularity to the scene in universal and surprisingly reassuring ways.

Walking through Balázs’ installation, on the other hand, is more natural, open to other (all) possibilities, allowing free trajectories and events, without discipline, without the need to look at a map.

The installation was built in Chile, by the author herself along with a Chilean assistant. The fabrics were all recycled in Antofagasta.

Exhibited at Fundación Minera Escondida,  Antofagasta, Chile, Saco Biennial, 2023

Curators: Dagmara Wyskiel, Richard Gregor