Arantxa Etcheverria and Carlos Caballero at Sector 1 Gallery

Artists: Arantxa Etcheverria and Carlos Caballero

Exhibition title: Frame

Curated by: Domenico De Chirico

Venue: Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest, Romania

Date: October 22 – December 5, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest

Sector 1 Gallery returns to the curatorial program of 2020 with Frame, an Arantxa Etcheverria and Carlos Caballero duo show, curated by Domenico De Chirico. The opening will be in the presence of Arantxa Etcheverria, as both the artist Carlos Caballero and the curator Domenico De Chirico will not be able to attend due to the pandemic crisis. The event will take place on October 22, 2020, from 17:00 to 22:00, at the Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest, 29 Băiculești Street, inside Combinatul Fondului Plastic. The exhibition will be opened to the public between October 22 and December 5, 2020.

Despite the uncertain times we live in, Sector 1 Gallery, like many other galleries and museums, along with its curators and artists, is adapting to the present and is committed to finding innovative solutions to continue exhibiting art during the pandemic. As the current situation continues to redefine our natural course of daily life, what we can do to not get lost is to turn our limitations into a source of inspiration. Let’s create a new normality, in which art is understood and concretely used as an essential space during this period and in which the galleries recalibrate their meaning for as many of us as possible. Visual culture and cultural entrepreneurship may remain or return to a normality that does not need to be affected by ‘social distancing’.

‘… their own logic in which the inner movements follow each time independent rhythms’

‘The liminal approach of the concept of contour – from the Latin limen -mĭnis […] – it seems to be the central point of the formal dialectic established by this exhibition: FRAME is exactly what grants a thing to be, because framing means choosing their contours, designing a perimeter of meaning and structuring their shape’, exhibition curator Domenico de Chirico states. ‘But the contour unleashes its full aesthetic power not when edicts, but by unlatching, muttering the ambiguous utterance of the distinct drawing line and decanting the nature of the work of art itself, which constantly looks at conventional complexity of reality. As Samuel Beckett, the Irish intellectual, said referring to his television play – Quad, a theatrical act based on a geometric structure and the transposition of regular movements it`s the ground level which allows to trace the countless trajectories along which it is possible to carry a continuous process of research and creation, impelling the language to the extreme, through extraordinary narrative paths: complex structures to be dismantled and canceled, then rebooted in order to explore the primary stage of the language, to different chromatic combinations, different diagonals, internal and external, and new stylistic syntheses.

On one hand, Carlos Caballero‘s works seem to manifest an extreme metaphysical rigor, although the ineffable of his shapes breaks up the contours, which seem to sink into the pictorial background, so that, even their perimeter proves to be mobile, and in fact these spots of color appear to move, almost to change into each other, simultaneously weaving to proclaim the indecipherable form. Carlos Caballero’s pictorial avant-scène, oscillating between almost conventional grid systems, seemingly expressionist symbols, modernist abstractions, ludic extravagances and geometric shapes, it definitely stages a meticulous and reflective, vast and autonomous work. Through this perpetual process of making and unmaking, his works escape the traditional frames, thus creating their own logic in which the inner movements follow each time independent rhythms. All the elements witch assemble each work can be seen, as a set of esoteric representations, hermetic images, emblematic objects and abstract diagrams, waiting to be decoded.

On the other hand, the sublime dissolution of matter, subsisting in Arantxa Etcheverria‘s works, breathes into every concave space, into every vacuum created by the material intensity. Her works seem to be true aesthetic manifestos, in which the structure decants, concurrently engendering mystical and occult references. Since 2013, she has developed an artistic practice related to the modernist architecture of her studio in Bucharest. Whether it is painting, objects, installations or video montages, her works are undoubtedly the result of an in-depth analysis of the geometry of space. Arantxa Etcheverria, comprehensively investigating the architecture of the spaces, acquires works with mastery elements of scenography, the inner space being structured as a systematic exhibition scheme. Her art is not at all ascetic, although it indisputably shows Suprematist or even Constructivist associations. In her compositions is established a third dimension, they appear slightly in relief, or with certain overlapping grids that have surrendered their relationship with the wall to pop-up on the floor.’ – Domenico de Chirico, Milano, 2020

Frame is an exhibition part of Bucharest art galleries supporting program developed by Bucharest City Hall through the General Directorate of Landscape Architecture and Public Monuments and Expo Arte Cultural Centre. The exhibition is supported by The Institute.

Arantxa Etcheverria
Arantxa Etcheverria (b.1975) is a French artist living in Romania. She studied fine art at Villa Arson in Nice and set design at the Theatre National in Strasbourg (TNS). Since 2013 she has developed an artistic practice related to the modernist architecture of her studio in Bucharest. Whether it is painting, objects, installations, or video montages her works are the results of a thorough analysis of the geometry of the space.

Carlos Caballero
Carlos Caballero (b. 1983) is a Cuban artist living and working in Ghent, Belgium. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana, 2010, and from the Fine Arts Academy of Camagüey in 2002. For many years his practice developed around painting and drawing, oscillating between quasi formalist grid systems, organic shapes and geometric elements. His approach to painting is slow and reflective. ‘The works suggest a spelling, grammar and vocabulary used to tell stories. Reminiscent of hieroglyphs or cave paintings they appear to portray contemporary or future mythologies looking for fundamental and universal themes that go beyond generations, cultures and languages.’

Domenico de Chirico
Domenico de Chirico is an independent curator from Italy. Born in Bari in 1983, he lives and works in Milan. From 2011 until 2015 he was a professor in “Visual Culture” and “Trend Research” at Milan’s European Institute of Design (IED). He collaborates with a number of international artists, galleries, institutions, art fairs, art prizes, and magazines worldwide. He has been artistic director at DAMA Fair, Turin (2016-2019). He was also a visiting tutor at Goldsmiths, University of London (2018) and a member of the Network Event for Young Curators, LISTE – Art Fair Basel, Basel (2018). Upcoming projects and researches: Swab Barcelona Contemporary Art Fair, Barcelona (committee member); Roma Arte in Nuvola: Fiera internazionale d’arte contemporanea, Rome, Italy (advisor); Lecture at the Academy of Applied Arts, Prague; Lecture at The Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino, Italy; Guest curator at Swiss Institute, Rome (visiting tutor). Upcoming exhibitions in various venues and cities, among which: Prague, Moscow, Turin, Milan, Venice, Florence, Antwerp, Valencia, Barcelona, Rome, Como, Caserta, Košice, Timișoara, and so forth.