Sebastian Mahaluf: Gravity, inversion of the matter

An AC Institute Curated Exhibition
June 30 – July 30, 2011
Opening Event: Thursday, June 30, 2011 6-8pm

Contact: [email protected]

Sebastian Mahaluf: Gravity, inversion of the matter
Sebastian Mahaluf reflects on the relationships between societies and the world, between objects and space. In this way, he finds a treatment to approach all things that surround him: geometry and its relationship to his body and objects.

Geometry is the main object of research in Mahaluf’s artistic production. This research is divided in two lines of work. The first one refers to the analysis of shapes in order to highlight specific features of the exhibition space. The second one is the study of the body understood as a performance tool. In both elements, the artist looks to focus his work on simple or pure geometry, to demonstrate in the experience the ephemeral objectivity of artistic production.

The object of the installation, Gravity, inversion of the matter, is to construct from silver elastic rubber bands hanging from the ceiling beams, triangles that in their totality constitute an inverted volumetric structure. The beams of the room of exhibition will transform into the support and foundation of the work.

Through the art installation, where the geometric construction is used to understand the concrete and the real, the concepts of reality and fiction have been significant.

This construction is understood as an inverted architectural element, like our capitalist social structure, and understood as a space of protection which is vulnerable at the thought of the possibility of its non-existence or in the complete loss of all in the vertigo that implies the inversion of the matter. In Gravity, inversion of the matter, the idea of protection is altered and subjected and put under another reality.

BIO:
Sebastian Mahaluf (1976) lives and works in Santiago de Chile. He is an artist and professor in visual arts, Master of Visual Arts Degree © from University of Chile. Mahaluf’s work has been exhibited since 1998: at the Bronx Latin American Art Biennale, Bronx Museum of The Arts, New York (2010); Space Made Live, Glasgow, Scotland (2010); 798 Beijing Biennale, Beijing, China (2009); 10th International Festival of Performance Open, Beijing, China (2009); Platform China, Beijing, China (2009), Die Ecke Gallery, Santiago, Chile (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago de Chile (2008); National Museum of Arts, Santiago de Chile (2007), among others. His work is in public and private collections and he has received awards and honors in recognition of his cultural achievements from the Chilean Ministry of Education and other organizations. Most recently, Mahaluf`s work has been selected by The World Bank Art Program “The Change”.