In this exhibit, Santiago Lara presents his latest painting series individually and, together with Beatriz Coto, their two most recent experimental animations (“Refugio” and “Vulcano”). This collective, Lara+Coto, will simultaneously showcase these two pieces at the “Souvenirs” exhibition at the Bethanien Kunsträum in Berlin (from May 8 to June 21, 2009).
Throughout the entire exhibition, there is an inward gaze toward the personal and, in a way, toward a social and human character. This direct and fresh discourse runs through the exhibition, from the plastic approaches with a clear narrative to the two digital proposals, which extend the pictorial discourse. The painting is presented here with a contemporary language that, at the same time, finds its foundation in tradition and craftsmanship, from which it evolves toward new concepts.
In the two spaces of this room, we find a symbiosis or hybrid between technology and traditional media, where sound, gesture, and concept share time and light as raw materials. Just as the concept of the exhibition, “with bare feet,” appears, a serene, revised, lived, and grasped gaze is given, where painting and video are one and the same. Above all, a freedom has been sought that does not leave anyone indifferent.