Territorios Forjados Andrey Zignnatto 1981, Jundiaí, Brasil
Elementos Filtrados | Mario Gioia, Septiembre de 2016
Es central en la obra de Andrey Zignnatto, artista paulista, el estudio de las relaciones humanas frente al espacio. Mediante la implementación de diferentes lenguajes y enfoques, su obra evoca algunas contradicciones, preguntas y situaciones peculiares de la compleja estructura social, económica y urbana del paísdonde vive.
En Territorios Forjados, su primera exposición individual en Colombia, Andrey usa la fotografía, el dibujo y la escultura como medios para presentar su reciente interés formal y conceptual; a través de sus memorias familiares Andrey encuentra el impulso para el desarrollo de sus trabajos actuales; los recuerdos y sensaciones vividas de la mano de su abuelo en chircales le ha permitido configurar su trabajo artístico.
“Mi interacción con el contexto de las ladrilleras y chircales es muy importante para entender de manera adecuada mi trabajo artístico. Yo interfiero en los sistemasy procesos de producción de ladrillo, al igual que en los hábitos de los funcionarios, y en el mismo ambiente del lugar, así alterando todo el sistema; de aquí que mis intervenciones desvían y modifican el flujo habitual de esas estructuras ‘.[1] Este es el caso de la serie Estado de Reposo en la que Andreygenera una ruptura en el continuo e ininterrumpido ritmo de la monótona cadena de fabricación de ladrillo. Tanto los materiales como los operarios tienen un ‘locus’ de descanso, buscando pequeños refugios para el descanso; Andrey se retrata en dichos espacios temporales y de ruptura.
En un ámbito mas formal, Andrey busca dar nuevas configuraciones albarro, materia prima que, siendo moldeada en forma de ladrillo funciona como base para la construcción de las urbes y de su trabajo. Sin embargo, este material maleable puede ser transformado de manera más sutil en delicadas esculturas , tales como sus Cachos y Mantas; En estas composiciones escultóricas, Andrey se enfrenta a la rudeza del material y consigue re significarlo, dándole una levedad difícil de alcanzar. En su serie Mantas, él elige un tipo de Cobogó, una ingeniosa creación de la arquitectura moderna brasilera que data del inicio del siglo XX, lo despliega casi como un tejido de encaje, evocando la sabiduría artesanal de las costureras al interior de Brasil que son conocidas por sus famosas ‘rendas’. Estos, son elementos ahuecados que actúan como integradores en la armonía de lo interior y exterior y, por extensión, lo privado y lo publico. En este sentido, Andrey rescata el legado de grandes artistas brasileros como Ivens Machado (1942-2015) o Anna María Maiolino, ambos paradigmáticos por convertir en objetos potentes ésta materia prima rudimentaria.
Andrey nos muestra en Territorios Forjados la influencia que su lugar de nacimiento genera en su trabajo, apuntando al desenfrenado, desordenado y casi salvaje crecimiento de las urbes como São Paulo; Regiones en donde la idea de lo rural y la arquitectura tradicional popular desaparecen frente al ideal utópico de progreso del siglo XXI, haciendo un eco melancólico al paisaje idílico construido en la Brasil actual. Al lado de nuevos nombres como Rodrigo Sassi, André Komatsu, entre otros, Andrey Zignnatto ysus intervenciones poético-espaciales continúan forjando una faceta política dentro del canon de la historia del arte en Brasil.
[1] Entrevista entre Andrey Zignnatto y Galciani Neves, 21.07.2015, Sao Paulo- Brasil. Disponible en http://www.pacodasartes.org.br/temporada-de-projetos/2015/artistas/andreyzignnatto.aspx
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Filtered Elements | Mario Gioia, September 2016
Man’s relations with space are fundamental in Andrey Zignnatto’s work. What makes the production of this young artist from inland Sao Paulo (the most prosperous state of Brazil, once called 'the country's locomotive') even more interesting is how those relations or bonds are deployed by different languages and approaches, besides how the visual impact of his work evokes some contradictions, questionings and peculiar situations within the complex social, economic and urban structure from the huge country where he lives.
In Territorios Forjados, his first solo exhibit in Colombian galleries, Andrey makes use of performance, photography, drawing and sculpture to draw forth his recent formal and conceptual search. The artist found in family memories a trigger for various work. Now, he has been able to develop and configure his current work using those memories, principally those lived with his grandfather when visiting brickworks as a young boy. By that time those factories seemed to be ‘amusement parks’ for him and that sense of wonder (capability of sensitive appreciation) and emotional connection with the work in clay catalyzed certain sparks and shards of thoughts, feelings and memories that helped him set current works. This is the case of the photographic series Estado de Repouso in which Andrey stresses a rupture in the continuous, uninterrupted line of assembly in the almost monotonous brick production process, containing emotional figures such as splinters, tears and cracks captured by the moments when both materials and workers have a place of refuge where they can interrupt their labor in order to take a rest. Andrey portrays himself in these intermediate spaces of safeguard and disruption, even when they are just temporary. The performance / action that the artist presents in the opening of his solo exhibition at Sketch also evokes times of production, so as the piece Empilhamento deals with the disposal concept through the emotion transmitted by those discarded bricks that didn’t make it to be wall but found in Andrey’s nostalgia an opportunity to become something more.
“My integration in the context of brickyards is vital to the understanding of my artistic practice which consists in finding the ideal moment in which I must act creatively when interfering with established systems close to my experience that operate within the factories, the bricks production process, workers habits and the atmosphere provided by the characteristics of the workshop itself. Hence, my action offers a deviation from the common path of these systems by my own insertions, changing its regular flow”1, told the artist to art critic and curator Galciani Neves.
At a more formal level, Andrey has sought new results from raw materials like clay which for instance, modeled as a brick, evokes the foundations of architectural construction, sort of a keystone of large cities today conflagrated and noisy. However, it can also serves a kind of more subtle, delicate and nuanced purpose when transformed into non-utilitarian representations (objects) as his Cachos and Mantas; In these sculptural compositions, Andrey faced the coarseness of the material and through a respectful but confrontational vision got to re-signify it, giving it a whole new sensation of lightness and movement very difficult to reach. In some of his Mantas compositions he chooses to work with a type of Cobogó, an ingenious creation of modern Brazilian architecture dating from the early twentieth century, it unfolds almost like a lace fabric, evoking the artisanal wisdom of seamstresses within Brazil that are known for its famous Rendas. These are hollow elements able to integrate harmoniously the interior with the exterior, and by extension, the concepts of public and private. Cachos also has this permeable side, but does not fail to also refer to the popular universe of street fairs and trade of any city in the country, no matter how small it is. In that sense, Andrey rescues the legacy of great Brazilian artists such as Ivens Machado (1942-2015) and Anna Maria Maiolino, both paradigmatic for generating a visual impact from raw and rudimentary materials, which are taken away from traditional conceptions and given with a completely transforming sense.
Andrey shows us with Territorios Forjados how Sao Paulo (his place of birth) greatly influences his work. By pointing out how cities are configured in Brazil under an untidy structure but faithful to a utopian ideal of progress, these exciting pieces in clay bring a bit of nostalgia for those humble dwellings that portrait that non-idyllic and almost savage landscape of Brazil in the twenty-first century. Thus, besides new names like Rodrigo Sassi, André Komatsu, among others, Andrey Zignnatto’s poetic spatial interventions continue to forge a political facet within the canon of art history in Brazil, an undoubted artistic quality in present times.
[1] Interview between Andrey Zignnatto and Galciani Neves, 07.21.2015, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Available in: http://www.pacodasartes.org.br/temporada-deprojetos/2015/artistas/andreyzignnatto.asp