DARK MATTER

Dark Matter exhibition attempts to introduce viewers to the speculation field that has arisen within the scientific community the hypothesis associated with the Dark Matter findings. Therefore, uncertainty is one of the territories to which such studies have led, scientists have combined both physical patterns and analytical numerical methods, which attempt to measure the geometry of the universe.

To measure the geometry of the universe, cosmologists use what is known as standard candles and standard rulers. These are astronomical objects for which we know their intrinsic brightness or size, respectively. The universe is composed of a material that forces gravity to push out and accelerate the expansion. The material that sources this expansion is called Dark Energy; the scientists who made the observations leading to dark energy’s discovery have recently been awarded the Nobel Prize 2011.

Supernovae explosions test our understanding of the universe on large scales and reveal that Dark Energy is a major component of our universe. There is a significant amount of mass in a galaxy that is not visible. This invisible component is known as Dark Matter; Fritz Zwicky postulated its existence in the 1930s based on observations of the Coma Cluster.

The simplest models for dark energy assume that it does not cluster. In other words, gravity does not produce dark energy clumps. Dark matter, on the other hand, can cluster. Therefore, as the universe evolves, the dark energy stays smooth throughout, while the dark matter gets more and more concentrated as gravity pulls matter onto initial over-densities. These large concentrations of dark matter are where galaxies eventually form.

This terminology and the influence of entering to an unknown area has stimulated the group of artists that are taking part in this exhibition project.

Participant artists:

Ivonne Villamil
Giovanni Randazzo
Juliana Duran
Frey Español
Héctor Cataño

The artworks exhibited in Dark Matter mostly are experimenting with materials and formats of visualization. These artworks are not intended to be a literal illustration of astrophysical theories, but rather can play with the digression, fluctuation, and affinity for the unknown.

Scientists have long considered how global variations—like climate change and irresponsible exploitation of energy resources —might relate to changes in human activities. Giovanni Randazzo spots this subject as a pivotal part of his film “Selva Oscura”—displayed at the end of the gallery hall, in front of this he suspends from the ceiling a number of black painted branches that can be associated with the uncertain future of the humanity, where we might find ourselves replacing our valued natural resources by inanimate forms of life.

Ivonne Villamil is interested in exploring both tangible and intangible places incorporating methods of observation, reconstruction and narrative production. The visual results of these carrying out tests are unconventional landscapes and imageries entitled "Stellar Field" these pieces can be comprehended- as if they had been collected from a varied set of astrophotography arcades. With this gesture, Ivonne expects to blur the boundaries between the visual possibilities of the matter she entails and the poetic dimension that is her core subject of investigation.

Frey Español displays “One thing above other” work that combines documentation, publishing elements, among other resources of site-specific installation, which are intended to broaden the notion we have about the book of artist; in order to accomplish this objective, he pushes the possibilities of this technique by troubling their traditional formats of display within the exhibiting space; therefore he sets up his screenprints, on the wall of the gallery pursuing to spawn a simulation of a rough wall made out of screenprints.

Juliana Duran presents part of a larger project entitled “Suspensions” this piece is the mixture of four drawings, one light installation and a sculpture that is planned to work as a metaphor’s of the Wu Wei action. Dark Matter also resides within mankind essence; this can be experienced through different subtle acts such as contemplation, sparseness, and silence, this concept can be understood as a retrospective undertaking. Thus hypothetically is the equivalence between the universality of our insights and the particles of the universe. Suspensions installation explores cessation of matter and the passive combat of nature laws.


Hector Cataño makes series of photographs appropriating cinematographic high-speed shooting procedures. The results of this series are photographs that seem to be explosions of dense rocks that were captured in the precise moment when the bits fall apart. The printing paper’s texture offers to the surface of these pieces a subtle suspension effect. One might think inadvertently that the picture is a hologram or has a light box behind, instead of this apparatus display, the piece comprehends a well conceived set up that smoothly combines observation, precision and a detailed production -as if the artist had recurred to scientific methods of experimentation.

Dark Matter exhibition features unique and fresh artworks of five artists living and working in Bogota-Colombia, which investigations explore the myriad conceptions of our Universe, from the theoretical to the technological.



*Technical text and extracts inspired by the Ph.D. Thesis:

Dark Matter Dynamics
Phillip Gregory Zukin
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Mayo 2012


Curated by: John Angel Rodriguez