WHAT IS HOME, WHO IS HOME, WHERE IS HOME?
Felipe Aguila, born in Chile
Space, on the other hand, is the central element of the work that Felipe Aguila has created specially for Appocundria and which will continue to evolve until the end of the exhibition. The artist, in fact, first drew his own idea of home, then asked a series of friends who live far away to do the same thing on the same sheet of paper. To depict heimat / hogar / home. A letter in drawings, therefore, one that crossed the world, sometimes getting lost, sometimes not reaching its destination, sometimes not returning to the sender. The title of this work is Nyumbani, a word that means home in Swahili, a language especially disseminated in Africa but also common in communities far distant from the African continent, in virtue of its links with maritime commerce. The reference to temporal and spatial distances continues in the drawings of the series called Urbanización de la memoria. Here the reference to architecture, society and politics becomes more explicit. Drifting through these sheets of paper of varying weights and background tints are buildings and landscapes that seem suddenly to disappear, whether for the lightness of the pencil strokes, or for the precariousness of the structures portrayed – lacking foundations, propped up by scaffolding or threatened by natural disasters. These visions take as their starting point real buildings that the artists has seen personally or in photographs. Some of these places no longer exist, however, or have been altered over time, and Felipe Aguila rebuilds them, as in a dream, relying on his memories. Allusion to duration and distance, to stable points of reference, is limited to a small number of these drawings. Their removal from the others implies the presence of a constellation of other times and spaces.
Aleksander Velišček, born in Slovenia
The prepustnica was a pass that enabled those living close to the border to cross between Slovenia and Italy, before the former country entered Europe. A document that avoided long queues at the frontier, enabling holders to move freely between the two states. For Aleksander Velišček it is inevitably linked to childhood memories. His work also becomes a socio-political reflection on the sense of frontiers, on the shared conviction that a historical moment and its features have been left behind, whereas in reality they are reappearing today. The twelve canvases painted by the artist portray this document, decomposed between figuration and abstraction. They tell the story of a single family, but of many nations. The installation opens up at the corner between two walls, just like the pass itself. Above it is the one painting that does not have this document as its subject: a European flag unfurled against a leaden sky.
