Thanks to the young curator Silvia Cuervo, public in Bogotá was able to discover one of the most important young artists of the Latin American scene. Within its curatorial project «Shared Fragments«, that took place in the Museum of Art at the National University during the month of June 2010, a group of colombian and cuban artists that who worked on the subject art and politics.
The group was formed by Juliana Ladrón de Guevara, Silvia Cuervo and Juan Bocanegra from Colombia and René Quer, René Francisco and Duvier del Dago Fernández from Cuba.
The work of the lattest artist interested me greatly, not only for the formal device but also for its conceptual contents. The artist appropriated one of the museum room, completely dark and installed wall to wall a series of threads to make a support and then draw on them with other thick threads a tank M1A2, which was illuminated with black light that the artist himself installed at key points in the ceiling. With a video projector, Del Dago Fernandez, planned a series of numbers that refer to arms manufacture and marketing.
One aspect worths highlighting in this installation and is the reference to holograms, in fact its main battle tank developed hologram is a true low-technology and few resources. This reminds us the matter of art and its technological development remains a pure preception and optical illusion. The battle tank drawn by threads cross each other, seems to float in space becoming a three-dimensional.
The act of drawing in this case, is central in the work of Del Dago Fernandez. This is important to keep in mind, because often and mistakenly, some artists, curators and art critics have dismissed the picture, considering not contemporary.
However, in this case the curator presents this work as a perfect example of someting contemporary because it is not defined by a technique itself, but as an ability to interpret the present. Because what really makes this work interesting is not technical support (draw) but its conceptual significance.
It is frequent to find artists who draw but do not dare to leave a certain area. This artist however, does not draw on a surface: paper, fabric or wall he draws in space. Therein lies the formal strength of this work which mixes fine art and design.
This ingenious procedure questions from the bottom the idea of high technology, it reminds us that the arms trade is the mainstay of the economy of developed countries and that war that looks beautiful (remember Walter Benjamin made a critical look at the apology for the war in Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto) is absolutely disastrous for the balance of the planet.
The art either is political or not, this is what seems to be the premise of this work, especially in times like this where the artists are called, not to change the world, but to assume a critical and definite position regarding contradictions in the present time. Without any doubt the work of Duvier Del Dago Fernández will continue giving to much to talk about.
Ricardo Arcos-Palma
Theorist and Art Critic. Director Museum of Art, National University of Colombia.
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