Litoral Pacífico Sulamericano, 2011
© Courtesy Galery Vermehlo, São Paulo
Collection
Cardboard collage on alucobond, 1974 maps and wood
Diptych, each 500 x 85 cm
Central to Jonathas de Andrade’s focus as an artist is his diverse educational background – including studies in law, sociology, photography, and filmmaking. Declaring himself a “fiction maker,” in Litoral Pacífico Sulamericano (South American Pacific Coast) the artist prefers to let the viewer decide which elements are factual and which have been authored by him – ultimately raising questions about the potential significance of distinguishing fact from fiction. In his solution to the delicate and unresolved histories surrounding the loss of land by Bolivia to Chile during War of the Pacific in the late 19th century, the artist imagines that a massive earthquake has erupted over the Andes, setting Chile adrift in the ocean and restoring the lost Pacific coastline to Bolivia. The aesthetic of collage allows the work to not only visualize this fantasy, but also to explore the notion of truth as an ideological construction and the document’s trustworthiness in the face of historical resentment.
Jonathan de Andrade about this work: “In a recent trip to Bolivia, I was affected by the way the loss of the sea to Chile in the bloody Pacific War (1879-1884) was a delicate subject, unresolved, a real historical taboo. Even the smallest Bolivian bookshops sell educational material for schools that didactically speaks about the injustice of what was done, ideologically speaking of the ‘Chilean cowardliness,’ and the need to regain the lost sea and to defend the coast’s sovereignty. In Chile, the existence of the war is not emphasized: generally, people speak as if the whole coast has always been Chilean. The work experiments with delirium for what only could be possible with war and violence. The sea is given back to Bolivia as if the Andes had suffered an earthquake and the whole Chile displaced to the ocean becoming an island. This aesthetic approach allows me to touch upon some other topics: the notion of truth as an ideological construction, the document’s relative trustworthiness, the historical resentment as a social feeling, and the fabrication of mass commotion/emotion as political artifice."
–Alicia Reuter
* 1982 Maceló, Brazil | Living and working in Recife, Brazil
Diptych, each 500 x 85 cm
Central to Jonathas de Andrade’s focus as an artist is his diverse educational background – including studies in law, sociology, photography, and filmmaking. Declaring himself a “fiction maker,” in Litoral Pacífico Sulamericano (South American Pacific Coast) the artist prefers to let the viewer decide which elements are factual and which have been authored by him – ultimately raising questions about the potential significance of distinguishing fact from fiction. In his solution to the delicate and unresolved histories surrounding the loss of land by Bolivia to Chile during War of the Pacific in the late 19th century, the artist imagines that a massive earthquake has erupted over the Andes, setting Chile adrift in the ocean and restoring the lost Pacific coastline to Bolivia. The aesthetic of collage allows the work to not only visualize this fantasy, but also to explore the notion of truth as an ideological construction and the document’s trustworthiness in the face of historical resentment.
Jonathan de Andrade about this work: “In a recent trip to Bolivia, I was affected by the way the loss of the sea to Chile in the bloody Pacific War (1879-1884) was a delicate subject, unresolved, a real historical taboo. Even the smallest Bolivian bookshops sell educational material for schools that didactically speaks about the injustice of what was done, ideologically speaking of the ‘Chilean cowardliness,’ and the need to regain the lost sea and to defend the coast’s sovereignty. In Chile, the existence of the war is not emphasized: generally, people speak as if the whole coast has always been Chilean. The work experiments with delirium for what only could be possible with war and violence. The sea is given back to Bolivia as if the Andes had suffered an earthquake and the whole Chile displaced to the ocean becoming an island. This aesthetic approach allows me to touch upon some other topics: the notion of truth as an ideological construction, the document’s relative trustworthiness, the historical resentment as a social feeling, and the fabrication of mass commotion/emotion as political artifice."
–Alicia Reuter
* 1982 Maceló, Brazil | Living and working in Recife, Brazil
