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Villar Rojas in Bregenz

On the occasion of the Kunsthaus Bregenz 20th anniversary, Adrián Villar Rojas has transformed the museum into a concrete bunker, in which ultimately the art objects are rescued.

The ground floor provides Adrián Villar Rojas’ exhibition with a completely empty stage. Even the ticket counter has been removed. Colored light streams through the windows. A reproduction of the painting Madonna del Parto (1450–1475) by Piero della Francesca extends across the floor, depicting a pregnant Madonna.

Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theater of Disappearance, 2017. Exhibition view ground floor, Kunsthaus Bregenz Photo Jörg Baumann. Courtesy of Adrián Villar Rojas, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York | Paris | London and kurimanzutto, Mexico City. © Adrián Villar Rojas, Kunsthaus Bregenz Adrián Villar Rojas, The Theater of Disappearance, 2017. Exhibition view ground floor, Kunsthaus Bregenz.

Villar Rojas’ exhibition has already secured its place in the history of Kunsthaus Bregenz. The artist has conceived a passage through human culture from its origins to its apotheosis, transforming Kunsthaus Bregenz into a concrete bunker, in which ultimately the art objects are rescued. Villar Rojas, born in 1980 in Rosario, Argentina, has become renowned for his site-specific work. At the “Bienal del Fin del Mundo 2009” in Patagonia, a lithic whale lay stranded in a forest.

For the 2011 Venice Biennale, the artist erected a forest of stone creatures, extending to the ceiling like surreal pillars. He thinks in terms of geological periods, equating prehistoric history and the distant future in his imagery. The first floor is darkened, flora hanging from its ceiling, the floor space paved in brown marble, the fossils within it meticulously exposed. Is this an ancient place of worship, at the origins of man, or the vaults of his tragic existence? The second floor is likewise darkened, a copy of Picasso’s Guernica (1937) located in the middle.

Villar Rojas adds a bar of fire, flickering along its lower edge. An image of a bearded hunter is displayed adjacent to one of two dinosaurs. An iron basket hangs from the ceiling. Humans exist in the world and, with them, carnage and violence. The atmosphere changes on the predominantly white upper floor. The legs of Michelangelo’s David (1501-1504) are enthroned on a ramp. Humanity has arrived in Olympus, abandoning Earth, a cyber spider is the last remaining witness to humanity’s disappearance – a post-apocalyptic scenario.

Villar Rojas in Bregenz

Details

  • Venice, Metropolitan City of Venice, Italy
  • Adrián Villar Rojas