Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

Sebastian Betancur Montoya, Abi Green

Fata Morgana

Vidéo | hdv | couleur | 12:18 | Colombie, Royaume-Uni | 2021

Us, humans, the one species present in every latitude of the earth have never really settled, from hunters and gatherers to refugees and expats. Throughout human history reasons for exploration vary; trade, fear, ambition, or curiosity. Still nomads, our quest to chart every reachable corner has been fundamental to the dissemination of symbolic structures growing from wealth and power into different forms around the globe. Fata Morgana balances between that primal urge to explore the unknown and the instinctive need to make a home and belong... Pulling or being pulled? Coming, going or returning? The physicality of struggle, disappearance and emergence within this piece becomes a metaphor reflecting on Poetics and Politics, Geography and Geometry, Dreams and Death, as well as memories of Future and Past. With the uncertainty and hope of new beginnings across the ocean, the transient figures glimmer and nearly blend into their surroundings, flirting with symbolisms of ritual: the platonic geometry, immersion/ascension, and their perpetual journey. These travellers move oblivious of any limits but their own, challenging the very notion of borders; which are, anyway, invisible and futile drawings of power onto an ever-shifting landscape defiant of any divisions. Inspired by the artists own attempts of somehow always carrying home with them, the piece is a video loop meditating on the emotional ebb and flow of the many departures and the inevitability of a return. A return home, that whether it be a place, memory, feeling, or a word it is always a reflection of oneself.

SEBASTIAN BETANCUR MONTOYA: A common conceptual thread legible in his artwork is the constant preoccupation for the body[ies] and its relation with[in] the surrounding space and its limits/conditions; the themes of home, language, migration, belonging and uprooting have become unavoidable for someone as him, who has lived on the move, away from his birth place half of his life. Sebastián´s work has been part of exhibitions, publications, art residencies, and art fairs in Colombia, The Bahamas, Qatar, Russia, and Germany and participated in other events such as The 2015 Oslo Architecture Triennial, the 2015 Kuwait pavilion for the Venice Biennale, NYT art for tomorrow 2016, and the 2018 Istanbul design Biennial. ABI GREEN: Born and raised in London, she was educated at Fine Arts College, Chelsea College of Arts and went on to graduate with a BA (Hons) in Photography from Middlesex University London. Abi’s work has been featured on Vogue and Vogue Italia online, Le Book and It’s Nice That. Nominated to exhibit at the D&AD, New Blood Awards, London, in 2009 and Mother London’s, Open Book in 2015, she has also been published both in the UK and the Middle East, including magazines such as Notion, Crack, Elle and Twenty-six. Driven by interests in colour, light art, and sculptural objects, she is often influenced by surrealism, modern and industrial design, which enhances her contemporary visual style. Her projects carefully balance a minimalist approach with a graphic, colourful aesthetic resulting in a distinctive eye-popping quality. A key part of her image-making is the humorous twist that underpins her creative concepts, with this unique approach she hopes to leave her audience with a taste of her playful nature.