Marcel Duchamp Prize, Iván Argote

Marcel Duchamp Prize, Iván Argote, 05.10.22 — 02.01.23 For the Marcel Duchamp Prize, the artist reconsiders the way in which we experience the “memory of forgetting” in three European public squares. Iván tackles our colonial past by altering the destiny of three symbolic monuments in Paris, Madrid and Rome as a part of the history that has remained until today. In the exhibition, obelisks dismembered with velvet, playful and poetic anti-monuments, serve as a foundation for what the artist calls anticipation films. The artist’s work explores the relationship between history, politics and the construction of our own subjectivities. He develops strategies based on tenderness, affection and humor through which he suggests critical approaches to the dominant historical narratives. He does this by presenting an installation that incorporates videos and sculptures. The trilogy of actions and films that Ivan Argote made in three different European cities around colonial monuments are accompanied by a set of soft sculptures and ruins, in which people have the possibility to lie down and contemplate the films, in order to raise questions about the topic. The intention of this installation is to create a place where one can reflect on how our public places are marked by symbols of power and domination. The artist explores the idea that city’s symbolic monuments are often related to a dark past and reflects on how they shape urban design, in order to shed a light on how we behave, how we understand our local environment, and how it is connected to history, traditions, art, politics and power.

05.10.22 — 02.01.23

For the Marcel Duchamp Prize, the artist reconsiders the way in which we experience the “memory of forgetting” in three European public squares. Iván tackles our colonial past by altering the destiny of three symbolic monuments in Paris, Madrid and Rome as a part of the history that has remained until today. In the exhibition, obelisks dismembered with velvet, playful and poetic anti-monuments, serve as a foundation for what the artist calls anticipation films. The artist’s work explores the relationship between history, politics and the construction of our own subjectivities. He develops strategies based on tenderness, affection and humor through which he suggests critical approaches to the dominant historical narratives. He does this by presenting an installation that incorporates videos and sculptures. The trilogy of actions and films that Ivan Argote made in three different European cities around colonial monuments are accompanied by a set of soft sculptures and ruins, in which people have the possibility to lie down and contemplate the films, in order to raise questions about the topic. The intention of this installation is to create a place where one can reflect on how our public places are marked by symbols of power and domination. The artist explores the idea that city’s symbolic monuments are often related to a dark past and reflects on how they shape urban design, in order to shed a light on how we behave, how we understand our local environment, and how it is connected to history, traditions, art, politics and power.

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