<<<back


*1971 in Viña del Mar, Chile/ žije a pracuje v Paříži, Fr/ www.ignaciogumucio.net

vzdělaní/rezidence
2004/ Master of Visual Arts, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile //1994/ Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.

samostatné výstavy
2007/ Mass game,Galeria Florencia Loewenthal,Santiago,Chile;Lagunas Mentales,Galería Animal, Santiago,Chile. //2006/Golden Year,Canvas International Art, Amsterdam //2003/ La jaula por dentro, Galería Animal, Santiago, Chile //2001/ Mis Cosas Favoritas,La Albaca, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico //2000/ Divididos por la felicidad, Galería Nemesio Antúnez, Santiago,Chile//2000/ Ignacio Gumucio:Visual Invention,Canvas International Art, Amsterdam

              
foto: Pavla Ortová a Tomáš Souček
·····································································································································································

"Built to be destroyed"
Ignacio Gumucio`s statement

Before setting out to become a painter, I was attracted to the idea of having a studio.  Sometimes I think I started to paint mainly in order to one day have this place all untidy, with loud music and an old couch.
I painted small paintings for years at home with this goal in mind
When I finally did get a place, I started working in all directions at the same time, here, each idea was pinned to the wall and had an opportunity.  Some works moved slowly, others fast, many got half finished, others changed completely.  This space, of complete impunity and experimentation, was truly important in this time.
Later I began to travel and the studio became a burden and I sought lighter ways of painting.

When Galeria Parasito invited me to work in Meet Factory, I immediately thought about the possibility of re-conquering a studio.  Later I realized that the invitation was to work for 15 days.
Because of this, I thought of making a mural, which is easier to delimit, but I refused to let my first idea go.
The outcome was a combination of both ideas, murals made at the pace and risk of a studio, without previous sketches, without a work plan, without any preconceived idea.  Days of frantic painting and days of looking at the wall, thinking of what was to come.

In the room I used I made two murals, the first is called "Everybody knows that our cities were built to be destroyed".  I am interested in the idea of making a fast paced work that will then be destroyed.  This was what, to some extent, Meet Factory was proposing .  I wanted this mural to say something about this, but I didn't want the reading of the same to be too precise.
I started by painting the image I had in my mind of the Diego Portales building (ex Untad).  To this, I added memories of the place and imaginary architectural situations.
The building is rendered open on the painting, as if it were being built or dismantled. No one knows.  I then worked the surface as a site that required delimitation, describing possible scenes that stem from that which was offered by the stains on the wall.

The building I had in mind was a true mystery for my generation of Santiago dwellers.  Very few people knew the inside because, since its inauguration, access was always restricted.
The Untad building was constructed during the end of the Unidad Popular government to hold an international meeting, and was finished in record time thanks to the extraordinary work of volunteers.  This building was meant to be the architectural symbol of the new socialist society in Chile.  Paradoxically, as soon as it was inaugurated, the government was overthrown and the building became the headquarters of the military junta that governed the country during the 17 years that followed, changing its name to that of "Diego Portales building". Once democracy was reestablished, it housed the offices of the defense ministry until a fire almost completely destroyed the building last year.

The difficulty of describing this building in its particular setting is what interests me.  Painting from memory, the place becomes approximate, simplified, similar to many other locations, like following a universal architectural archetype.

On the opposite wall of the painting I just described, I made a mural which I named "La canción de la alegria" (The song of happiness).
This mural was painted with an attitude contrary to that of  "Everybody knows that our cities were built to be destroyed".
If the 15 days I took to finish the first painting contrast with the seven days of life it had before being erased.  With "La canción de la alegría" that proportion was inverse.
I painted this work in one hour, starting from an image I had memorized of a TV set.

I also presented two smaller painting named "Ronda" and "Sitiados" (Under siege)

On September 30 the walls of the room were painted white.

Ignacio Gumucio
Paris, October 2008

<<<back