{"id":400,"date":"2009-10-01T15:07:16","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T20:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/?p=400"},"modified":"2022-06-13T15:04:59","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T20:04:59","slug":"adrian-vilar-rojas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"Adrian Villar Rojas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adri\u00e1n Villar Rojas excels at site-specific works that oscillate among historical, symbolic and spatial effects. One brought him wide attention when he represented Argentina at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Since then, he has become a staple at these large international exhibitions. Working mostly in situ in cast concrete with a team of assistants, he may have single-handedly made a complement of \u201cfestivalist art,\u201d originally a pejorative coined for the grandiose installations of such shows.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Emphasizing space over objects, Mr. Villar Rojas\u2019s first solo in a New York gallery transforms two large spaces into abandoned sites. Using only natural light, he has covered the entire floor with cast-concrete tiles (made individually with a jeweler), and all walls and windows with pale, full-length drapes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The gallery\u2019s north space is redolent of an abandoned theater or ballroom. The geometric patterns of the black, white and gray tiles also evoke a sad, emptied-out fashion showroom or a fancy store that could easily have preceded this very art gallery. A dark area of concrete mixed with earth might once have been occupied by a sales counter, but could also be a yard of packed earth. All kinds of detritus embedded in the tiles \u2014 leaves, pebbles, iPods, sun-faced Argentine coins, shattered glass, plastic bags \u2014 imply different forms of decay and neglect.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The south space feels less grim, more Mediterranean, like a crumbling terrace. The tiles ebb and flow among blues and grays, like bodies of water or the sky; bicycle tires and rope break their surfaces. The light, changing throughout the day, improves. A fallen statue here turns out to be Michelangelo\u2019s \u201cDavid,\u201d reimagined as a reclining nude (and 18 inches taller than the original). He rests on two high, narrow bases that raise him disconcertingly to eye level. His sex is obscure; he merges the figures on Michelangelo\u2019s Medici Tomb \u2014 the male Dusk and the female Dawn \u2014 and is more asleep than either. You may also be reminded of Aristide Maillol\u2019s reclining bronze female nude, \u201cThe River,\u201d in a similar pose, facing the same direction a few blocks south in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014by Robarta Smith — Sept 26 , 2015, Friday NYTimes<\/span><\/p>\n

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Adri\u00e1n Villar Rojas excels at site-specific works that oscillate among historical, symbolic and spatial effects. One brought him wide attention when he represented Argentina at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Since then, he has become a staple at these large international exhibitions. Working mostly in situ in cast concrete with a team of assistants, he may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacan.com\/perfumeblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}