BACKDROPS FOR GHOSTS

Carlos Amorales at Nils Stærk

31 August – 13 October, 2018

The Copenhagen-based gallery Nils Stærk recently swung open its doors to its first solo exhibition by Mexican artist Carlos Amorales. Entitled Backdrops for Ghosts, the show contains a series of new three-dimensional paintings with silkscreen ink on wooden panels, an installation of maquetas from the film The Cursed Village, and site-specific shadow paintings directly on the walls of the gallery space. Not only is Backdrops for Ghosts an invitation to discover the realm between reality and fantasy, it is also an exploration of the way we perceive and interact with art, constantly oscillating between multiple possible meanings. We stopped by Nils Stærk to further investigate this universe. Get ready to set your world into oscillation, initiated by the multi-disciplinary artist, the storyteller, the puppet master, and the explorer of life in the folds: Carlos Amorales.

Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts, 2018, Installation view, Nils Stærk. Photo: Malle Madsen

A master of movement
Movement is at the core of Carlos Amorales’ practice, be it literally in the form of sounds, video and animations, or metaphorically through symbols and compositions that challenge our preexisting vision of the world, gently moving the viewer forward. This subtle rhythm is also at play in his current exhibition Backdrops for Ghosts at Nils Stærk, where he pushes visual abstraction into figuration, thus constructing a narrative that brings the viewer into a painting exhibition surrounded by a large puppet show. As such, Amorales plays with the classical notions by inverting form and background. The characters in the exhibition are transformed into shadow paintings on the walls, whereas the backgrounds where they normally would be placed to perform, hang forward as a series of large-scale painted wood collages. By placing the backdrop in the foreground, the exhibition points towards a contemporary world that appears as upside down, not with an intention to put forward any right or wrong answers, but as a way for Amorales to challenge the viewer to inhabit the gallery space in a new way. As he puts it in an interview with Mousse Magazine in relation to his presentation for the Mexican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2017: “I am not taking a position defending one against the other, but rather using both to see what happens when the two collide.” Backdrops for Ghosts is exactly that: a collision between modes of expressions.

Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts, 2018, Installation view, Nils Stærk. Photo: Malle Madsen
Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts, 2018, Installation view, Nils Stærk. Photo: Malle Madsen

Life unfolding
In 2017 Amorales represented Mexico at the Venice Biennale with the project Life in The Folds – a project that created new vocabularies, languages and settings through which life can reinvent itself. Starting out with paper cut-out shapes, Amorales created a series of abstract colorful collages – these abstractions became an illegible alphabet and a series of musical instruments that gave sound to each letter. All aspects were combined in the production of the puppet film The Cursed Village – a film telling the story of an immigrant family, whose destiny ends with being lynched in the foreign town. The maquettes from the film are placed as the central installation in the gallery and allow the viewer to become immersed in a fairytale world, that nevertheless points to urgent political issues. Clearly, it is important for Amorales to take a stance against the unfolding of world events and confront the status quo. In his own words, he believes that “we are at a time when it is crucial to discuss freedom of thought if we want to live in a society in which different points of view can mingle and substantiate our understanding of equality and justice.” Backdrops of Ghosts offers several viewpoints for the visitor to be explored. Amorales never judges, rather he raises questions and turns things upside down in order to shed light on the life in the folds.

Experience the exhibition in 3D here.

Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts, 2018, Installation view, Nils Stærk. Photo: Malle Madsen
Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts, 2018, Installation view, Nils Stærk. Photo: Malle Madsen
Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts, 2018, Installation view, Nils Stærk. Photo: Malle Madsen

About Carlos Amorales
Born 1970 in Mexico City, MX
Lives and works in Mexico City, MX

Download CV here.


About Nils Stærk
Nils Stærk is a contemporary Copenhagen-based art gallery with an international profile, established in 1997 and dedicated to presenting contemporary art. The gallery represents mid-career and established national and international artists working in different media, approaches and genres. The artists share a conceptual narrative and an interest in investigating and exploring critical dissemination of current values and conflicts in today’s globalized society.

Address
Glentevej 49
2400 Copenhagen
Denmark

Opening hours
Tues-Fri: 11-17 Sat:11-15

Website: nilsstaerk.dk


Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts III, 2018, Silkscreen ink on wooden panels, 192,4 x 142 cm. Photo: Malle Madsen
Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts I, 2018, Silkscreen ink on wooden panels, 214 x 158 cm. Photo: Malle Madsen
Carlos Amorales, Backdrops for Ghosts IV, 2018, Silkscreen ink on wooden panels, 178,3 x 129 cm. Photo: Malle Madsen

Text by Anne-Lill Brok
Photo by Malle Madsen

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