Luis Felipe Ortega | Noche larga en el presente

23.09.16 - December, 2016

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Central to Luis Felipe’s research are the themes of silence and the void as devices for subjective construction. The artist approaches these subjects from a philosophical standpoint that then becomes an individual political position.  But for this exhibition he decided to invert the equation:  beginning with the political position of what it means for the Mexican state to make something invisible, the task is to place the spectator before this void, making it a fixed axis for his or her critical subjectivity.

The principal work of the show addresses the disappearance of the 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa. Luis Felipe Ortega is interested in defining the ways in which contemporary art can approximate the construction of critical discourse without becoming a propaganda statement or an illustration.  The works create a path that goes from the dangerous space created by silence (quoting Pasolini, Nono and Abbado) to the vertigo and darkness of the present.  Fundamental in this exhibition is the company of writers such as William S. Burroughs, Céline Beckette, Jean Genet, and Truman Capote whose presence is echoed throughout the gallery.