Fragmentation – a Rereading of the Contemporary World

Contemporary art constantly calls itself into question. Sometimes it might be in relation to its validity as an artistic practice or due to subversive or rebellious attitudes which prove to be shocking or discomforting to different groups within society. The attitudes of the artist themselves provide continual challenges to current norms and stereotypes. This rejection of the established order has led to a redefinition of paradigms; they have been transgressed and all that remains is to rethink them so as to create new platforms and categories for today. This constant struggle between the need to stay within the accepted boundaries and the plurality of ideas does not reveal universal truths, but rather a vision from a number of different perspectives.

          The search for these new perspectives draws the artists into a process of self-knowledge and deconstruction of their own existence. The elements that surround them are understood as a whole. But what happens when the elements break apart and transform themselves? They are no longer parts of something else – they become independent entities, that is, they themselves become a whole. The fragmentation merely provides a new meaning, whether it be conceptual, formal, interpretive or of some other nature, thereby bringing autonomy to each element.

          The artists ask themselves about the way in which their reality is structured and arrange a new way of managing it. They look for objects, symbols or icons of all kinds to engage dialogue between the established vision of the world and the values that they assign to it, whether intentionally or at random, depending on their artistic process. From a fragment, a new entity can be built up, at that moment when reconstruction begins from deconstruction.

          In this exhibition, curated by the Enrique Guerrero Gallery in Mexico City, Santiago Borja, Manuel Cerda, Rubén Gutiérrez, Miguel Ångel Madrigal, Quitarte&Ornelas, Ricardo Rendόn and Pablo Helguera put on show their ideas and their respective visions of the contemporary world. The works of these artists deliver their own messages but they are also interrelated and they share concepts that each one renders in a different way. The exhibition serves as a conceptual and formal dialogue between the different works that, taken together, support the same thesis; fragmentation as a creative process, in which with the rupture of elements as a starting point, new objects and artistic creations are realized.

JakArt secretariat: Jln. Lebak Bulus II / 20 A, Cilandak – Jakarta 12430, INDONESIA
Tel/ fax: + 62-21-75907687, Tel: + 62-21-70830742, email: proseni@indosat.net.id