Federico Aguirre "Presence"

THE BLACK PILLAR
presents

"Presence" (2009)
by Federico Aguirre

Thursday 16th April 2009. 9:00 pm.
at Polyester
Travesía de San Mateo, 10.
Madrid


"Presence" insists on the artist previous works and pictorical series:
demithologyze, usually ironic, facts, events or main characters from the
cultural, social or political reality in our global world. To do it, he uses
the same regular ways from mass media to mythologyze: the portrait,
adaptation, copy and difussion of created cult images of the contemporary
events chosen. In "Presence", he makes a multiple reading: in one hand, The
Black Pillar itself take up again his monumental and monolith condition, in
a conceptual game that even include "2001: A Space Odisey" (Stanley Kubrick)
or Led Zeppelin, from where he tooks its title; in the other hand the work
is also a "future archeology": it came from the classics, since ancient Rome
to Renaissance, since neoclassic to pop art, but with the aesthetic canon
subtly updated. It shows a nowadays´ hero, president Barack Hussein Obama,
portrayed from the future and by his possible political heroic deed. The
work is so critical with the heroism (the need of a hero) in western
thinking, as well with the great expectations that citizens put on it when
this fictional idea becomes reality. The final result, where the president
takes the appearance of an intangible presence, despite this sculptorical
inspiration, directly refers to his improbable messianic and prophetic
condition.
Federico Aguirre(Montevideo, 1977) studied building techniques at the
Instituto del Trabajo in Uruguay, and visual arts in several art schools.
Founder member of actually disappeared collective "Movimiento Sexy", who
brought together the young uruguayan artists, his work is mainly pictorial,
but he also has developed happenings, actions or video art, by himself or in
the company of other artists. His work has been shown in Centro Cultural
Recoleta (Buenos Aires), Subte Montevideo, Centro Cultural de España en Lima
and in Casa de América, Madrid. This is his first solo show in Spain.
Federico Aguirre lives and works in Madrid since 2008.




The Black Pillar.
Testimonial Art for a Flat Black World
an Espinosa/Cañellas project
at Polyester
Travesía de San Mateo, 10.
theblackpillar@gmail.com