Sobrenatural, Solo Show, Galeria Extra, Guatemala City.
Curated by Pablo Ramírez
Curated by Pablo Ramírez
March 2018-April 2018
Sobrenatural-Supernatural
Chocolate elicits a universal desire. In Mesoamerican cultures, cacao was associated with the underworld in much the same way that maize was associated with the day. Archeologic registers in the region tell the story of cacao as an fundamental element to Mayan culture. Its importance was found not only in its monetary value, but also as a sacred object that was used during funerals and spiritual ceremonies.
Theobromine is a Greco word that means: Food of the Gods. It’s an alkaloid compound found in cacao that stimulates the release of endorphins, which are associated with happiness. However, this specific cultural value has been displaced by the sensuality of trendy marketing; disciplining the desire from specific forms of what today we know as chocolate. We have silently witnessed, since the first have of the twentieth century, the universal Simulacrum of cacao.
In 2014, the Christinger De Mayo Gallery in Zurich presented the exposition Chocobanana Game, by the Honduran artist Adán Vallecillo, presented — by no accident — in one of the world’s chocolate capitals. Industrialized cacao has represented a sort of organic fetish, one that has been symbolically stripped of the framework of the political economy that it gave rise to. In this way, the global market presented it as a universal product of consumption, leaving intact its supernatural characteristics. Could there be a more deliberate cultural exoticization than this?
This supernaturality could be thought of as the Oompa Loompa effect - that is to say - it’s no coincidence that Willy Wonka kept these magical beings hidden for so long. Not only do they work tirelessly day and night, but they also seem to enjoy their exploitation. They are the silent lovers of chocolate, though they appear to barely be conscious of their role as workers. They are without question the secret to the “success” of the industry, like the psychoanalytic symptom of chocolate. Without them, nothing could have been produced.
Chocolate elicits a universal desire. In Mesoamerican cultures, cacao was associated with the underworld in much the same way that maize was associated with the day. Archeologic registers in the region tell the story of cacao as an fundamental element to Mayan culture. Its importance was found not only in its monetary value, but also as a sacred object that was used during funerals and spiritual ceremonies.
Theobromine is a Greco word that means: Food of the Gods. It’s an alkaloid compound found in cacao that stimulates the release of endorphins, which are associated with happiness. However, this specific cultural value has been displaced by the sensuality of trendy marketing; disciplining the desire from specific forms of what today we know as chocolate. We have silently witnessed, since the first have of the twentieth century, the universal Simulacrum of cacao.
In 2014, the Christinger De Mayo Gallery in Zurich presented the exposition Chocobanana Game, by the Honduran artist Adán Vallecillo, presented — by no accident — in one of the world’s chocolate capitals. Industrialized cacao has represented a sort of organic fetish, one that has been symbolically stripped of the framework of the political economy that it gave rise to. In this way, the global market presented it as a universal product of consumption, leaving intact its supernatural characteristics. Could there be a more deliberate cultural exoticization than this?
This supernaturality could be thought of as the Oompa Loompa effect - that is to say - it’s no coincidence that Willy Wonka kept these magical beings hidden for so long. Not only do they work tirelessly day and night, but they also seem to enjoy their exploitation. They are the silent lovers of chocolate, though they appear to barely be conscious of their role as workers. They are without question the secret to the “success” of the industry, like the psychoanalytic symptom of chocolate. Without them, nothing could have been produced.
The present exposition starts with this
permanent tension between the simulation of the product and the chain of
re-semantization. Let’s assume that Adán went in search of the Oompa Loompasand found them. In 2013, the artist took an investigatory trip to Quetzaltenango,
the southern coast of Guatemala and the Caribbean coast of Honduras. During
this time, he paid close attention to the distinct stages of the production of
chocolate, from the cacao plantations where the plant is harvested, all the way
to its industrial and artesian transformation.
The works that comprise this exposition are presented as similar to the abstractions of the market’s tech-language, but with one fundamental difference: its proposition, more than to simulate, is to unveil.
Filogramaexemplifies this. The piece is a simple work of architectural design that emulates the patterns of chocolate bars, counterposing them to texts that suggest an anthropological look at the Mayan civilization. On the other hand, the drawings Telúricos, made from chocolate pigment, reveal an enticing encounter between image and material.
Sobrenatural is a project about the enigma of cacao and the complex relation between shape and desire. To observe the drawings that result from an abstraction of chocolate, or to travel through its architecture, represents inverse shapes of sensuality, a subtle conspiracy between pleasure and terror; an image of Becoming chocolate.
Written by Pablo Jose Ramirez
Translated by Sam Simon
The works that comprise this exposition are presented as similar to the abstractions of the market’s tech-language, but with one fundamental difference: its proposition, more than to simulate, is to unveil.
Filogramaexemplifies this. The piece is a simple work of architectural design that emulates the patterns of chocolate bars, counterposing them to texts that suggest an anthropological look at the Mayan civilization. On the other hand, the drawings Telúricos, made from chocolate pigment, reveal an enticing encounter between image and material.
Sobrenatural is a project about the enigma of cacao and the complex relation between shape and desire. To observe the drawings that result from an abstraction of chocolate, or to travel through its architecture, represents inverse shapes of sensuality, a subtle conspiracy between pleasure and terror; an image of Becoming chocolate.
Written by Pablo Jose Ramirez
Translated by Sam Simon