Exhibition "darkroom/The Assassination of Viviana Gallardo"
Dates: 6 June - 30 June, 2018, Bus Projects, Melbourne, Australia.
On July 1, 1981, Viviana Gallardo Camacho (1963-1981) was murdered in one of the cells of the Central Police Station in San José, Costa Rica. She is accused of terrorism and dies without being judged by the judicial system. Prior to her incarceration, her figure is constructed by the media and the police, as the leader of a Marxist-Leninist organisation. With only 18 years, Gallardo and her case, are listed as one of the most controversial crimes in the history of Costa Rica.
On the other side of the world, Svetoslav S. (1909-1985), also known as R. Tuhn, artist born in Battonya, between the borders of Hungary and Romania. His painting style changes throughout his lifetime for various reasons: his subversive inclination when it came to art and representation, inspired by multiple sources that included the media, propaganda (Socialist Realism) and even the Cubist movement. All along his career, he uses several pseudonyms and identities not only for his radical artistic thinking but for his association with two extreme political ideologies: the Magyar Nemzeti Szocialista Párt (a Hungarian facade of the Nazi party) and the Hungarian Communist Party.
From the reconstruction of the lives of these two characters, one real (Gallardo) and the other fictional (Svetoslav S.), my project proposes to evidence the multiple variations that constitute the construction of history and the particular narratives of their contexts. Through the collection of documents (photos, files, newspaper clippings, audios, etc.) the construction of two files is intended. These, in turn, serve as the basis for the production of paintings and objects (such as sculptures and videos, for example). These art objects will then be used as accessories within spaces or installations - montages that pursue to motivate multiple readings and create associations between historical concepts or facts, be they real or fictitious.
This research is based on the interest in questioning painting as an artistic practice, as an active subject in the construction of narratives, in history and collective memory. Moreover, it intends to polemicise the role of art in the contemporary discussion of political, ethical and social issues; The present project aims to serve as a basis for future artistic research.
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List of images from left to right:
Image I. Installation view. Photo by Christo Crocker.
Demolition, video, soundtrack, fragments of autopsy report # 81-0821, 36:24:04, 2018.
Untitled, various archival material. 2016-2018.
Schema, Oil on canvas, 198 x 152,5 cm, 2018.
Image II Patafísica, Oil on cardboard mounted on ply, 18,1 x 13,1 cm, 2018.
Image III Patafísica and No. 169 711 A1, A4 paper, 1982 (2018). The following is an excerpt, translated from the original document in Spanish:
(Appeal to sentence # 49) [...] Third persons - that if necessary I will later disclose their names - coerced me to say or to declare false statements. For which I request for the letter that I sent to Ms Gloria Navas, head of the Office of the Public Defenders of San José, where I stated how the events occurred truthfully. On the day of the trial, my wife asked me to show them this document, but I could not do, as a warning from the Public Defender, who told me to keep the same statement I gave in the Fourth Court of Instruction of San Jose.
Image IV Untitled, various archival material. 2016-2018
Image V Untitled, various archival material. 2016-2018.
Image VI Schema, Oil on canvas, 198 x 152,5 cm, 2018. Photo by Christo Crocker.
Image VII Demolition, video, soundtrack, fragments of autopsy report # 81-0821, 36:24:04, 2018.
Untitled, various archival material. 2016-2018.
Image VIII Demolition, video, soundtrack, fragments of autopsy report # 81-0821, 36:24:04, 2018.
Untitled, various archival material. 2016-2018.