Gisela Colón Catalogue D'exposition, 68 Pages

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Gisela Colón Catalogue D'exposition, 68 Pages HYPER-MINIMAL GISELA COLÓN 26.04.19 > 27.07.19 Exposition présentée par / Exhibition presented by La Patinoire Royale | Galerie Valérie Bach, Bruxelles CONTENTS 7 PRIMITIVES ÉNERGIES VITALES 58 par Valérie Bach et Constantin Chariot 58 10 PRIMITIVE VITAL ENERGIES 58 by Valérie Bach and Constantin Chariot 58 13 OEUVRES EXPOSÉES | EXHIBITED ARTWORKS 58 58 58 46 A PROPOS DE GISELA COLÓN 58 48 ABOUT GISELA COLÓN 58 50 BIOGRAPHIE 58 55 EXPOSITIONS MUSÉALES | SÉLECTION 58 58 58 58 58 6 PRIMITIVES ÉNERGIES VITALES par Valérie Bach et Constantin Chariot Pour sa première exposition en Europe, et en particulier à Bruxelles, à La GISELA COLÓN Patinoire Royale | Galerie Valérie Bach, Gisela Colón déchire le grand voile blanc Portrait de l’artiste dans son atelier, | Los Angeles, Californie, États-Unis de l’art contemporain avec des œuvres qui, disons-le clairement, relèvent du «jamais vu». Ces extraordinaires formes bombées que prennent ses tableaux, faits de plexi thermo-moulés, relèvent de l’anticipation futuriste, jouant de leur iridescence, c’est-à-dire de leurs infinies variations de lumières et de couleurs en fonction de l’angle de vue, qui ravissent l’œil autant qu’elles bousculent toutes nos certitudes. Du croisement entre le minimalisme californien et l’art cinétique des années 60 est né toute la géniale production de Gisela Colón qui vit et travaille à Los Angeles. Son travail réside précisément dans cette recherche de forme et de couleur pures, en parfaite résonance avec le «Light and Space Movement» des artistes de la Côte Ouest au début des Sixities tels James Turell, Bruce Nauman, Craig Kauffman, Robert Irwin, etc… Leurs œuvres d’alors étaient (et sont toujours) telles qu’en elles-mêmes, des objets parfaitement autonomes, directement inspirées des lumières et des couleurs de la Californie : elles apparaissent aux yeux du spectateur dans leur toute puissance, dans leur pureté absolue, sans engager la subjectivité du sujet regardant. Les œuvres de Gisela Colón, en revanche, font intervenir le spectateur ; par ce biais, elle fait citation de l’art optico-cinétique des années 60, directement inspirée de Carlos Cruz-Diez (auquel La Patinoire Royale | Galerie Valérie Bach consacre concomitamment une grande rétrospective, en raison de cette proximité avec son œuvre, précisément, et dont elle revendique l’héritage), 7 Horacio Garcia Rossi, Gregorio Vardanega, Karl Gerstner, Antonio Asis, Rafael Soto ou Julio Le Parc. Par son mouvement corporel devant l’œuvre, le sujet regardant modifie l’objet regardé ; de cette dialectique entre sujet et objet naît la notion d’œuvre participative, le spectateur devenant acteur de l’œuvre d’art. Sa position modifie et subjective la perception ambiguë et individuelle, personnalisée, qu’il a de l’objet. Le mouvement, qui est aussi le temps du mouvement, modifie sa vision : il s’agit bien ici d’art cinético – optique, introduisant dans l’art la quatrième dimension, celle du Temps. Toute l’originalité de l’œuvre de Gisela Colón résulte de cette synthèse entre minimalisme et art optique que l’on peut dès lors qualifier de «kinesthétique». Ces cellules essentiellement murales possèdent en elles une vie, une forme d’organique capacité de mutation, comme une promesse d’avenir, à l’image de cellules, de plasma placentaires, d’œufs cosmiques, très attirants et fortement inspirants. Fascinantes et mystérieuses, ses œuvres sont également très apaisantes, renvoyant à d’archétypales formes vitales, allant réveiller en nous, au plus profond de notre inconscient, l’image même d’une vitalité, d’une biologie secrète, très féminine, avec des formes rondes, maternelles, confortables, légèrement indéfinies. Certains y verront des cellules, d’autres des matrices, d’autres encore des yeux, … toutes ces rondeurs caressent nos rétines dans un flou chromatique extrêmement séduisant et particulièrement interpelant, qui n’élude pas la poésie, la fantaisie et le rêve. Gardant les procédés de fabrication et les composants technico-matériels totalement secrets, Gisela nous invite à nous abandonner à la rêverie devant ces œuvres d’art du futur, s’inscrivant définitivement dans une post contemporanéité où les citations du passé renvoient vers de nouvelles recherches, de nouveaux résultats, rendus possibles par de nouveaux matériaux aux effets aussi inédits que touchants. Ces toutes récentes créations de «monolithes» statiques ouvrent une nouvelle dimension encore dans son travail, organisé autour du thème du genre, puisque ces «menhirs», faits des mêmes matériaux, des mêmes techniques que ses pods, renvoient immédiatement aux formes phalliques de la plus lointaine préhistoire. Si d’une part ses cellules parlaient d’une féminité enfouie, ses monolithes tout aussi iridescents, sont quant à eux des allusions assumées et manifestes aux 8 puissances créatrices viriles, dont émane une énergie vitale. D’une certaine manière, ses deux productions sont intimement liées puisqu’elles utilisent la lumière et la couleur pour réduire la fracture entre les deux genres. L’universalité de la perception visuelle unifie ici les formes pourtant définies sexuellement, comme un puissant liant faisant s’évaporer les frontières. Toute l’œuvre de Gisela Colón est traversée par ces questionnements tellement humains et contemporains, autour de la nature, de sa perception, de la sexualité et de la vie, qui sont, en somme, une seule et même chose. Ces formes pures et ces couleurs célestes, empruntées à l’arc-en-ciel, sont des projections philosophiques d’une pensée dont la seule finalité est de répondre à elle-même, désincarnée de toute fonction, amenant la perception pure, désincarnée, à être sa propre justification. Mais il serait réducteur de considérer les œuvres de Gisela Colón comme une simple manifestation d’un état de la perception, comme une phénoménologie matérialiste à des fins d’émerveillement ou de satisfaction esthétique. Il s’agit, bien au-delà, d’y déceler les arcanes de la vie, et d’interroger la mystérieuse énergie créative du Big Bang, qui ne se résume ici plus qu’à de la lumière, dans une explosion primitive de couleurs. Par cette exposition Gisela Colón affirme son statut d’artiste démiurge, à l’instar de Râ, ce dieu égyptien dont la lumière assure le cycle de la vie. Quelle plus belle référence peut-on donner à un artiste que celle du dieu créateur de la première civilisation ? 9 PRIMITIVE VITAL ENERGIES by Valérie Bach and Constantin Chariot During her very first exhibition in Brussels (and incidentally in Europe) which was hosted at La Patinoire Royale | Galerie Valérie Bach, Gisela Colón has ripped apart the great white veil of our contemporary art world with her, truly groundbreaking works! These extraordinary iridescent curved shapes, made of her own take, on blow-molded acrylic techniques, reveal tangible futuristic anticipation, toying with our visual perception using the very properties of light. Here the infinite variations of light and color show themselves as one moves around, depending on the angle from which it is viewed. The eye is delighted while all our certitudes come crumbling down. Gisela’s brilliant production has grown from the crossover between Californian minimalism and the kinetic art of the sixties, taking shape in Los Angeles where she lives and works. Her work resides precisely within this research of pure shape and color, perfectly aligned with the «Light and Space Movement» started in the early sixties by West Coast artists such as James Turell, Bruce Nauman, Craig Kauffman, Robert Irwin, etc. Their artworks were then (and continue to be) true to their own nature, perfectly autonomous objects, inspired by the light and colors unique to Southern California: these shapes appear in all their glory, in their absolute purest form, without engaging the viewer’s own subjectivity. Gisela’s works, on the other hand, call upon the participation of the viewer. Through this shift she engages the optical kinetic art of the sixties, directly inspired by Carlos Cruz-Diez (to whom La Patinoire Royale | Galerie Valérie Bach concomitantly devotes a significant retrospective, precisely due to his proximity with Gisela’s work which she acknowledges and claims as her own heritage), 10 Horacio Garcia Rossi, Gregorio Vardanega, Karl Gerstner, Antonio Asis, Rafael Soto or Julio Le Parc. Through the physical movement in front of the artpiece, the spectator modifies the contemplated organic objects; from this dialectic between subject and object raises the notion of participative work, the viewer becomes an actor of the work of art. His very position modifies and subjectively alters the ambiguous and individual way the viewer perceives the object. The movement, which is also the time of the movement, modifies his vision: we are indeed concerned here with optical kinetic art, which introduces a fourth dimension, the Time dimension. The whole originality of Gisela Colón’s work resides in this synthesis between minimalism and optical art, which we may therefore qualify as «kinesthetic». These essentially wall-suspended cells possess their own life from within, an organic-like capacity of mutation, an oath taken on the future, mirroring cells, placental plasmas, cosmic eggs, incredibly attractive and equally inspiring. Mesmerizing and mysterious, her works also have a soothing quality linked to archetypal vital forms, awakening deep inside our unconscious mind the image of vitality itself, a secret biology, so feminine with its rounded, maternal, comfortable, slightly undefined shapes. Some will see cells, others might see matrices or even pairs of eyes… All these womanly curves caress our retinas, tangled in an extremely seductive and appealing chromatic blur, not eluding either poetry, fantasy nor dream. In keeping the various manufacturing procedures and both the technical and material components completely secret, Gisela invites us to surrender ourselves to a day-dream state of reverie while facing these art works from the future, definitely adhering to this post-contemporary era where quoting the past throws us forward, toward new researches, new results, all made possible by innovative materials with a fresh and sensitive, touching impact.
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