Opening: Wednesday September 13th 7pm The artistic exploration of light, colour and space has a long and rich tradition in Latin America. Artists such as Lucio Fontana, Carlos Cruz Diez, Jesús Soto, Helio Oiticica, and more recently Karina Peisajovich, have explored from multiple perspectives the infinite possibilities of modulating space through colour and the physical and sensorial alteration it produces in our perception. In the wake of this still-vibrant tradition lies the work of Juan Ignacio Cabruja, who focuses on the investigation of the fundamental and intangible matter of light in the field of visual arts. Cabruja is particularly concerned with the way in which light and colour modulate our surroundings, affect our sensitivity, and interact with architectural spaces.
Trace Drive is a site-specific installation conceived especially for the Complejo Histórico Cultural Manzana de las Luces, one of the oldest sites in the city of Buenos Aires, named after the cultural institutions that were once located there. Almost like a loop in time, Cabruja attempts a poetic and sensitive activation of the historical temporalities within this space. We know that colour-light acquires a physical presence that occupies the space but, at the same time, we are also aware that colour does not exist, that it is not present in things but in the illuminating light. Paradoxes aside, can this history-laden space find its own motivations and thus breathe new life into itself over time?
Florencia Battiti
