El Almacén opened a new visual and fine arts programme on Friday 26 with the exhibitions “Identidad”, by Will Encarnación, in the Sala Cubo; “Antitemática”, by Juan Arranz, in the Sala Aljibe; and the video installation “Arqueología del ciclo”, by Atchen Pounapal, in the Salita. All three can be visited until 26 September, alongside the artistic installation by Laura López Balza already on display.
Curator Nira Cabrera noted that “these three proposals reflect the diversity of languages and perspectives that coexist in artistic creation in Lanzarote today, offering visitors a journey through very different discourses, but ones united by the same commitment to artistic research and experimentation”.
“Identidad”
The Sala Cubo hosts Identidad, a project in which Will Encarnación has spent several years researching the human figure as an expression of identity from a critical perspective. His painting, strongly expressive in character, uses impasto, glazes and washes to move away from the literal representation of the body and to explore questions relating to race, migration, sexuality and the sense of belonging.
The exhibition offers a journey through a series of works in which the body appears transformed, fragmented or in constant construction, becoming a symbolic space from which to address social and personal questions.
Will Encarnación explained that “through these works I try to speak about the experiences and cultural contexts that run through us, using the body as a space where many of those realities become visible”.
“Antitemática”
With Antitemática, Juan Arranz presents a group of paintings linked to contemporary new figuration that champion creative freedom and curiosity as the driving forces of the artistic process. Each work proposes a universe of its own and rejects any linear reading or closed discourse.
The show brings together pieces born of diverse interests, in which different images, references and realities coexist without submitting to a single common thread. The result is an exhibition open to multiple interpretations and routes.
The artist invited the public to “visit the exhibition without looking for a map beforehand, letting themselves be surprised by each work like someone strolling through an unfamiliar city and discovering something new around every corner”.
“Arqueología del ciclo”
In the Salita, Atchen Pounapal presents Arqueología del ciclo, a video installation combining image, sound and objects to reflect on temporality, repetition and the permanence of the four elements of nature: earth, water, air and fire.
The work is completed by two display cases bringing together ceramics, antiques, photographs, costumes and other objects conceived as a cabinet of curiosities that engages with the audiovisual piece and expands its symbolic universe.
Atchen Pounapal explained that “this video installation was born of the desire to abandon conventional representations in order to open up a space where each person can build their own interpretation of time, cycles and those symbols that form part of our collective memory”.
Complementary activities
The three exhibitions will be accompanied by a programme of guided tours led by David Machado on 27 June; 14 and 25 July; 4 and 22 August; and 8 and 12 September, all of them free and open to the public until capacity is reached.
In addition, on 15 July at 19.00 the courtyard of El Almacén will host a performance by Atchen Pounapal, while on 22 September, also at 19.00, the Sala Cubo will be the setting for a conversation between Will Encarnación and curator Nira Cabrera about the exhibition Identidad.
More information about the cultural programme of the Cabildo de Lanzarote (the island government) at culturalanzarote.com.