Thursday, February 13, 2014

EXERTION. A Performance Intervention by Soler / Saturday Feb 15th 5-6 pm


Exertion is a concept describing the use of physical or perceived energy. It normally implies a strenuous or costly effort related to physical, muscular, philosophical actions and work.

Soler will do a performance work that responds to the place and time of the show, taking into account his life and its surroundings. He will be making actions tangible in a visceral manner responding to the circumstantial conditions of the exact moment of the action.
As winter storms hit the city of New York and as it gets covered with snow, Soler's ideas and the emotions from his personal life start reaching the time of the performance. The snow gains special significance as an element that can connect us with the ephemeral nature of actions, underlying a confrontation with our own passage through life. A live video projection will exteriorize the moment of the happening while the artist remains in a room adjacent to the interior of the gallery.

Bio:
Soler is a visual artist whose name was taken directly from the surname of a famous Colombian biker who suffered a brutal accident. Therefore the word “Soler” translates as a metaphor for resistance, will, survival and persistence. In this context, the artist gives special value to the processes that come with art making rather than searching for individual recognition. Soler triggers actions in performances and extends them to photography, painting, video and site-specific installations, building spaces where these practices are interwoven and the presence of the body can be read from its absence.

He has a BFA from the University of Brighton and an MFA from UCL, Slade. He has produced several large site-specific intervention projects responding to his life back in Bogotá. His most recent performance "Anticipación/Retrovisión" took place by the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, involving over 1500 people and concluded in a solo Show at the Museum of Santa Marta, presenting a large Installation work, product from this experience.