28 Aug 2014

KUNSTHALLE São Paulo presents Regina de Miguel

Nature and Knowledge #1

Regina de Miguel
«All knowledge is enveloped in darkness»

Vernissage:
Friday 29 August 2014, 7pm

Exhibition through 27 September 2014

KUNSTHALLE São Paulo invites artist Regina de Miguel (*1977, Málaga, Spain) to present «All knowledge is enveloped in darkness», her first solo exhibition in Brazil, which launches the project Nature and Knowledge.

If we would synthesize Regina de Miguel's artistic practice we would say that she is interested in 'making the invisible visible'. Just like Michel Foucault, who scrutinizes the hidden network of power present in society through the study of its institutions, the artist delves into the relations of power that arise from knowledge construction. Approaching different fields of science and making parallels with other humanistic disciplines, Regina de Miguel questions our acceptance of scientific theories as a granted truth, and points to how knowledge is constructed through speculative situations.

Her works are usually the results of long term projects that she develops in collaboration with scientists and artists, as she believes that knowledge is so specialized that the only possible way to achieve something closer to the truth is to build it through the combination of several expertises. Thus, each work is composed by many different layers, bringing several theories that she combines in order to questions specific scientific and social paradigms.

In the exhibition «All knowledge is enveloped in darkness» the artist presents a small retrospective of the projects she has been developing in the last years, which can be perceived as a progression of her investigation.

Nouvelle Science Vague Fiction (2011) is a two channel video work in which the artist questions how we construct reality through the use of what is assumed as proved as truth by science, but that is actually only based on fragments and appearances. Embracing Science Fiction in her work, she shows that it has been a better tool than historical sciences to critically analyze and represent futuristic technologies, thus making evident our difficulty to think about the future and to deal with otherness.

The documentary Knowledge never comes alone (2013) was filmed in the Atacama desert in Chile, and shows how the work developed by different scientists are actually subject to the power and interests of capital and state policies. In the film, it becomes clear that recent studies on dark matter and dark energy caused a big change in the way we may understand the cosmos from now on, which is used by the artist as an analogy to the need of change in the paradigms when dealing with the production of knowledge.

The work Voices of Vanishing Worlds (2013) addresses language as one of our technologies and perceives communication as emitted waves. The works is a narration that deals with the history of humanity wanting to understand itself, and is bound to the sentence by poet Sylvia Plath: 'Can you understand? Someone, somewhere, can you understand me a little, love me a little? For all my despair, for all my ideals, for all that - I love life. But it is hard, and I have so much - so very much to learn'. Departing from the idea that we are communicating with the space since the first radio transmission, and that these waves are faster than any spacecraft, Regina de Miguel questions the NASA space exploration programs from the 1970's, which sent probes to the space containing information about humanity in order to be found by aliens. To symbolize the lack of communication in a more personal level in society, she creates an inverted mirror between languages that are threatened to disappear and stars that have disappeared in the space.

Concluding the exhibition, the artist presents the documentation of the investigations she has started during her residency in São Paulo, which points to future projects. These researches approach several fields of the Brazilian scientific community with which she has had contact, such as: the botanical work of taxonomy and conservation in vitro of endangered species, the anthropological work of translation of indigenous languages, the story of recent memory produced by institutions; all relating to her recent investigations on non-anthropocentric forms of technologies and philosophical considerations on what we contemplate as living beings.


Curated by Marina Coelho

Supported by:
ACCIÔN CULTURAL
ESPAÑOLA

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About Regina de Miguel

Regina de Miguel (*1977 Málaga, Spain). Lives and works in Berlim. Among the exhibitions in which she presented her work are: Rencontres Internationales (2013 and 2014), at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in Berlim, and at Palais de Tokyo, in Paris; Lo que ha de venir ya ha llegado, at CAAC (2014), in Sevilla; Media Art Biennale, at Telefónica Foundation (2013), in Santiago de Chile; Arqueológica, at Matadero Cultural Center (2013), in Madrid; the solo show Nouvelle Science Vague Fiction, at Maisterravalbuena (2012), in Madrid; at Montehermoso Cultural Center (2012), in Vitoria; at General Public (2011) and Altes Finanzamt (2010), both in Berlin; Gravity and Disgrace, at CGAC (2012), in Santiago de Compostela; Desire Lines, at Espai Cultural Obra Social Caja Madrid (2012); Expeditions to the Void, at Can Felipa (2012), both in Barcelona; Film Program: Of Time & Place, at Gasworks (2012), in London.


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About Nature and Knowledge

The project Nature and Knowledge consists of a series of exhibitions of foreign artists at KUNSTHALLE São Paulo, whose research are approach science or are similar to scientific experiments, connecting art to nature, to human knowledge and to the scientific knowledge.


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About KUNSTHALLE São Paulo

Opened in September 2012, KUNSTHALLE São Paulo is an independent contemporary art space. Holding projects and exhibitions of national and international artists, the space is characterized by experimentation, community formation and the creation of discussions around current social and contemporary art issues.



KUNSTHALLE São Paulo
Rua dos Pinheiros, 411
05422-010 - São Paulo - SP - Brasil
T + 55 11 2339 8586
www.kunsthallesaopaulo.com
info@kunsthallesaopaulo.com

Opening hours:
Wednesday to Saturday from 11am to 7pm
Closed on holidays.