José Luis Falconi, PhD

Art Projects

Art Projects

“Línea de defensa
(Tres asedios al paisaje)”

Galería Die Ecke
Santiago de Chile, Chile
June-July 2017 ​

The experience of the landscape that is structured around the line of the horizon, visually explicit in places like the desert or the ocean, has been a leitmotiv in José Falconi’s (Lima, 1973) body of work. In his current show at Die Ecke Contemporary Art, in Santiago, the artist invites us to have an experience in relation to the horizon, equating it with the notion of borders: the border that separates the United States and Mexico during the Trump administration, the almost impossible climbing of the Peruvian mountains by the Chilean army during their occupation in the 1880s, the cliché image of the sunset in the Caribbean.
The show, Line of defense (Three Ambushes of the landscape), offers the spectators multiple interpretations of the horizon: the border-horizon, relative to the dominium of the horizon and Cartesian thought, reflected in the aerial view of the omniscient narrator; the epic-horizon, framed in the mountainous topography and the lateral point of view of the human scale; and the poetic-horizon, its frontal view toward the immense beyond, staged in the representation of the sea and sunsets.
“In all of the materializations of the horizon in this exhibit, we have the sensation that it is not about lines but about stages, trenches, structures and planes in space, where we, living subjects, are ambushed and tricked by the landscape, considering that we can never really apprehend the horizon,” says the essayist and curator Nathalie Goffard.

Second Nature

Genie Lift Gallery
Miami, FL
September-October 2015 ​

Second Nature, a solo show by José Luis Falconi, makes clear Jenielift’s aim to challenge the traditional role of the gallery or contemporary project space. Falconi has transformed the four-hundred-square-foot gallery into a more aestheticized contemporary space we don’t often see in Miami. The walls are covered in a sleek digital print of ethereal clouds and bright blue skies, which hover over freshly laid St. Augustine grass. The perfectly manicured lawn and sweeping sky evoke images of suburban life, a democratic emblem that belies its roots in the aristocratic gardens of the 18th century, yet here it provides a brief respite from the largely dilapidated block.

“Axis Mundi” With artist Kyle Huffman

Galería Bogotá Arte Contemporáneo (BAC)
Bogotá, Colombia
July-August 2015

Mercosul Biennale, 10th Edition, 2015

Selected artist for the 2015 Edition of the Biennale entitled
“Mensagem de Uma Nova America”
[Message from a New America]
Porto Alegre, Brazil
October-November 2015 ​

The 10th Mercosul Biennial curatorial project is titled Messages From a New America and focuses only on the art of Latin America, reigniting the initial mission expressed by Frederico Moraes, curator of the 1st Biennial, to “re-write the history of Latin American art from a non-Eurocentric perspective.” More than 20 years later, the Biennial has deeply reevaluated its political perspective by reconsidering the role it plays in the context of hundreds of Biennials existing today around the world. In order to make a more significant contribution to the field of exhibitions, especially those concerning the art of Latin America and including, but not limited to, its reception and legibility, the 10th exhibition brings to the forefront an extensive group of works  representing the immense artistic contribution of the entire region.  

With this innovative approach, the 10th Biennial exhibition includes more than 800 works of art that span from the early 18th century to the contemporary, carefully chosen by the curators to avoid the traditional model of Biennials that tends to prioritize national representation and new commissions over specific artworks. In addition to realigning some canonical works and adjusting their historical context, the exhibition seeks to point to a number of “blind spots” in art history that have been neglected by historiography, criticism and the many curatorial endeavors related to Latin American art. The 10th Biennial also reconsiders critical perspectives on the history of exhibitions of the artistic production of Latin America, as well as a reevaluation of traditional curatorial models of large-scale exhibitions. 

“This Biennial goes against the grain by employing a radically different model for large-scale exhibitions,” Mr. Fidelis said. “It also makes a political gesture by bringing together historical and contemporary works that would never have been considered affiliated by any means, challenging notions of canonicity, cultural hierarchy and historical priority. It will be a unique opportunity to see works that have never been together or connected by any means. It’s a one-time-only opportunity to see these works side by side in one single exhibition; they will probably never meet each other again due to the challenges of cultural diplomacy, conservation issues and logistics. This Biennial is the result of a collaboration of hundreds of museums, collectors, gallerists, individuals and other institutions that generously lent works to make an exhibition that otherwise would not have been possible.”  

The 10th Biennial is conceived around four major conceptual fields over seven exhibitions dealing with several aspects of Latin American art. Those fields and exhibitions include: The Journey of Adversity (exhibitions on this section are: The Biography of Urban Life and Modernism in Parallax); The Insurgence of the Senses (exhibitions are: Neobaroque Anthropophagy, Olfactory: Smell in Art and Body Apparatuses); The Undeleting of the Tropics (exhibitions are: Dust and the World of Objects and Marginália of Form); and The Journey Continues (including the Experimental School of Curating and the Educational Project).

“Aproximaciones a una misma línea”
[Approaches to One Same Line]

Galería Die Ecke
Santiago de Chile, Chile
November-December 2014 ​

Die Ecke Contemporary Art has the pleasure of announcing the second individual show of the Peruvian artist José Falconi entitled “Approximations of the Same Line” which invites us to have a sublime experience in relation to the horizon as ageographic component of the landscape. This installation exhibition will be comprised of both analog and digital photographs, arranged in a sculptural way. In the words of the artist himself: “Generally speaking, the theme of the landscape, place of the horizon, has been, since the romantics, including them, a central problem of the genre given the instability of the aesthetic experience, whether it is because it became too big like in the case of an enormous mountain or because too many things happen in the space, as in the case of a storm. The twentieth century transferred this instability of the natural landscape to an artificial one, characterizing the modern city as a jungle. And here is the problem: Speaking of the landscape in some way, we are always confronted by the question of what can or cannot ‘be grasped’ in reality or until what point we can ‘gather up’ this experience and how it can become communicable. So, what does it mean to be confronted with the desert? For me, it means, or it meant, the almost continual repetition of the same line. The divided horizon is repeated infinitely, and in all cases, it is distinct, since we are confronted by a horizontality that reduces our size and that can make us go crazy. Given this, the images in the exhibition ‘Approximations of the Same Line’ are almost on the verge of not saying anything at all because they don’t have a reason to say it, because they cannot learn it. For me, it is better to transmit the sensation through accumulation than thinking about capturing it, given that I consider that as an impossibility. If I make the gallery ‘feel’ like the dessert, I will be happy.”

“Paralelos Urbanos,”
[Urban Parallels]

Curated by Rodolfo Andaur
Matucana 100
Santiago de Chile, Chile
August-October 2014

“Urban Parallels” is the name of this group of work selected by the curator Rodolfo Andaur. The show will appear in the Visual Arts Gallery Matucana 100, from August 26th through October 5th. The curator Rodolfo Andaur presents a show that reflects on the concepts of habitat, architecture, and landscape. The boundless growth of cities, changes in the ecosystem, and urban policies are some of the themes that are sketched out in this selection of photography, video art and installations. The works were created by 20 artists of distinct nationalities, and are exhibited in the Visual Arts Gallery of the Cultural Center Matucana 100. After traveling across Chile, what called Rodolfo Andaur’s attention was that in Santiago the local imaginary wasn’t talked about from the urban perspective; “what has happened in the cities isn’t talked about, how they have configured these situations that have generated, on one hand, great hubs of development, and on the other, impoverished cities,” the curator
explains about what motivated the show. The artists that are participating in the exhibit come from distinct cities in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Spain, not only because of a decentralizing zeal, but because
ultimately, Lima has similarities with La Paz as much as Puerto Montt. “All of these places deal with an aesthetic and architecture that connect the urban and the inter-urbanity with places that succumb to a casual and uninterested story. And if we start by analyzing those places from a cultural conception, we believe that the urbanistic modernity has been fictionalized by an increasingly bloody real estate market,” Andaur explains.

Resident, Consejo Nacional de la Cultura

Iquique, Chile
July 2013

“José Falconi (Peru), Rosell Meseguer (Spain), and Ute Meta Bauer (Germany), will give training workshops to those interested in boosting their creations and research in Tarapacá, Valparaíso, and the metropolitan region.
These will be the three international specialists that will travel from the north and center of the country to share with different visual arts professionals from the regions of Tarapacá, Valparaíso, and the Metropolitan area. José Falconi (Peru), Rossell Meseguer (Spain), and Ute Meta Bauer (Germany), will give training workshops to those interested in boosting their creations and research in Tarapacá, Valparaíso, and the metropolitan region.
[…]
On July 10th and 11th, the prominent curator and researcher for Harvard’s Department of the History of Art and Architecture, José Falconi, will give a workshop directed at artists and curators in Valparaíso’s Cultural Park. Then he will travel to the Tarapacá region, where he will participate in two training workshops together with Rosell Meseguer, with the collaboration of the curator located in Iquique, Rodolfo Andaur. To finalize the journey in the north, he will arrive at the village of Pica, to work on creating a report that will allow residencies to be carried out in the region.”

Article entitled “Three Prominent International Curators Arrive to Chile.” The article is published on July 10th, 2013 on the Chilean Government’s Ministry of Culture, Art, and Patrimony webpage.

“Wanderings”

Y Gallery New York, NY
June-July 2012

WANDERINGS: 
Alberto Borea, Travis Boyer, Ryan Brown, José Luis Falconi, Andrea Galvani, Greg Lindquist, Liz Magic Laser, Jules Marquis (Colin Snapp & Daniel Turner), Mie Olise, Aurora Pellizzi, G.T Pellizzi, Rona Yefman, Hennessy Youngman, Bryan Zanisnik
 

wan·der (w n d r)
v. wan·dered, wan·der·ing, wan·ders
v.intr.
1. To move about without a definite destination or purpose.
2. To go by an indirect route or at no set pace; amble: wander toward town.
3. To proceed in an irregular course; meander.
4. To go astray: wander from the path of righteousness.
5. To lose clarity or coherence of thought or expression.

“Geometría Temprana”
[Early Geometry]

Galería Die Ecke
Santiago de Chile, Chile
September-October 2011​

In the framework of the Ch.ACO 2011 Festival, the Die Ecke Gallery presents José Luis Falconi’s first solo exhibit in Santiago de Chile. On this occasion, the artist presents us with a group of photographers that are looking to recreate the sensation of precarity and the contained void that become detached from each one of his fractured and precise landscape photographs, beginning with the detailed choreography in the gallery space. In this way, and as its title suggests, Early Geometries is an invitation to the spectator to contemplate—to observe and ponder at the same time—their own fragility and contingence on the delicate tragedy that the irremediable erosion of geometry produces. For the last fifteen years, José Falconi has been using photography to capture details of contemporary life that seek to reveal the irremediable fragility of its apparently solid structure. To that end, the images that he has been forging over these years—and that are now partially reunited in Early Geometries—are, above all, an assembly of commentaries (minimal, partial) around the deceptive nature of appearances.

Fotourbe 5.11 5ta Muestra de Fotografía y 1er Festival Regional de Fotografía

Pereira, Colombia

Falconi’s presentation is entitled “photography and design,” and it is given as a section of the event entitled “Photography as Product and Design.”

“It has been said that photography has lost its capacity to reveal truths. The advances made by images regarding technology have enabled the photograph to transcend its language in order to survive as a medium. Because of this, this proposal seeks to define the limits of the photographic image, recuperating qualities such as depth, narration, and position. This determines new creative processes, appealing to the sculptural, to volume, and to text, from the very perspective of the image; the image itself maintains a role, capturing moments that allow for a glimpse of diverse narratives that speak of a determined context, giving its results, and under this premise, they are inserted into design. Specifically, they articulate visual messages that constitute their grammar, as a result of the production of a series ofimages and texts.”
José Luis Falconi

“Proyecto Ideal [Ideal Project]"

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Chile,
Santiago de Chile, Chile
August-October 2010
[Travelled to: Itaú Cultural. São Paulo, Brazil, June 2011]

Exhibit made up of 9 international artists (5 have exhibited in the Venice Biennial and they all have exhibition spaces of great international renown) that stress philosophical, religious, aesthetic, and urbanistic reflection on the concept of the “ideal.” The works—installations and site specific pieces works—are articulated as a curatorial platform, without a specific curator. Those who are part of the Ideal project include: Albano Afonso (Brasil), Jota Castro (Peru/France), Sandra Cinto(Brazil), Darío Escobar (Guatemala), Regina José Galindo (Guatemala), Carlos Garaicoa (Cuba), Patrick Hamilton (Chile), Santiago Sierra (Spain), and José Falconi(Peru/United States). Ideal Project is an open proposal organized around a reflection from diverse points of view—philosophical, religious, aesthetical, economical, and urbanistic—on the concept of the “ideal.” The exhibit takes place within the activities of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Bicentenary, so the concept of “ideal” can also be read as a critical and revisionist gaze on the independence ideals that drove the birth of the republic. The project emerges from the need for dialogue, reflection, and exchange between artists of different nationalists—there is no curator–, and it lays out a horizontal platform of gazes crossing one another and of critical thinking surrounding each artist’s diverse proposals. The works are presented as installations and/or site specific works, by those who use drawing, mural, photocopy, photography, objects, and video. From the philosophical point of view, the concept of the “ideal” could be understood as a principle or an unachievable but desirable value; it speaks of un ideal world, a world of Ideas, a Platonic concept for a world that would be true, perfect and unchanging, in contrast to the world in which we live. We often also talk about ideal economic models, cities, routes, and societies. In a globalized world—dominated by spectacle—and in the midst of a strong economic, environmental and social crisis, the concept of the “ideal” and its duplicities or other faces are the point of departure for the aesthetic and visual reflection on the ensemble of works that are brought together in this exhibition. The included proposals take on the following topics from different angles: the great failed urban utopias (Carlos Garaicoa); the great idols that constructed western thought and culture (Jota Castro); the expectations of triumph and of failure (Darío Escobar); the reverse of the “ideal” body promoted by channels of mass media, presented as a sacrificial body (Regina José Galindo); and over-aestheticized touristic landscape as a gaze that domesticates reality (Patrick Hamilton); religious ideals and fighting fanaticism (Santiago Sierra); the logics and paradoxes of the monument (José Falconi); the ideal landscapes of a dreamlike nature (Sandra Cinto), or the concept of post-modern vanity reflected by Albano Afonso.

A la intemperie: Dos versiones de la precariedad por José Falconi y Kyle Huffman”
[Out in the Open: Two Versions of Precarity by José Falconi and Kyle Huffman]

Guatemala City, Guatemala
Proyectos 9.99 Gallery
October-November 2010 ​

Two Versions of Precarity

Through installations and photographs, artists show Latin American fragility.A foreign duo that is based out of the North American city of Boston will present their work this Friday in the Guatemalan Gallery 9.9/proyecto. Out in the Open/Two
Versions of Latin American Precariousness will be the first formal exhibition of both Kyle Huffman, United States nationality, and Peruvian José Falconi.

Amid the Transitory

The white walls of 9.9/proyecto will house the creative proposal of this duo, that seeks to address precariousness as a permanent state of things. Falconi comments that the term precarity always implies a phase that is prior to a final, concrete, and real solution. ‘It is a transitory state that we never truly leave in reality. An example of this could be hanging a plastic bag to replace the space left by broken glass in a window,’ explains the South American.
The theme of the six photography series that Falconi will present this Friday is conceptual. One of them relates a pictorial history that questions the contrast between the ‘pristine’ nature of a Brazilian biennial and the dirtiness that it leaves on the walls when everything has finished. Huffman relates the concept to quotidian life by incorporating the world their art and ensuring a “landscape of residues.” To produce their work, Huffman utilizes plastic bags as their primary material, leftover fabric, newspaper photographs, balloons, and other materials. Moreover, the artist has given themselves to the task of collecting phrases observed in the streets in order to embroider them on items of clothing and reflect social contexts. This Friday some coats will be on display with captions such as: “Take care of me please,” and other phrases that relate to the economic crisis and unemployment. Huffman’s series is complemented by direct installations on the wall, paintings and pieces created with quotidian materials.

The Big Leap

The two exhibitors have forayed into academic life and shown their work outside the borders of the United States, but never before in a gallery. Falconi has been  acting as the curator of the Harvard University museum and the Latin American Art Forum. Huffman has also worked closely with Harvard’s Department of Aesthetics. Falconi made the decision to show his artistic work and set aside the title of curator because he believes that “when one is an artist and there are things to be said, this cannot be postponed.” The Peruvian affirms that he would love to work as a poet because that is his first passion. But he recognizes that it is very difficult to make a living from this art, which is the reason that he preferred to become involved during ten years in work as a curator and as an academic. Three months ago, he proposed to change his role in order to exhibit his work together with Huffman and bring to the  public “the most intimate and personal” of the human experience.

Lucia León