TESOROS DE LA SOMBRA - PAGANA ART GALLERY 

06/07/2019

Exhibition of Alejandro Somaschini at Pagana Art Gallery

Fortunes of Hermits and Suggestions for Embarking on the Journey

Art is a tool for organizing the void. Through sublimation - which involves engaging with the symbolic - something new is born. Thus, the experience of art is an escape, a break from the monotony of everyday life; it is also a way of resolving discomforts. The symbolic provides us with a "parenthesis" for the discomfort of the known, the conventions we inherit, the inertia of operating in a system where affections seem pre-molded. The artworks appear as a guarantee of suspending the anguish produced by living within a hegemonic logic of values that does not represent us.

Because within the parenthesis, a force in a state of latency lives freely. Imagining - perhaps the most essential and molecular aspect of the creative act - is to have that strange force already in the body, unable to name it yet, formless: a latent force. Imagination is the living force that bursts into given forms. Imagination is a faculty of the body; it is bodily knowledge. It is creative thought.

The Shadow shares with art this state of latency. In the deep cave of our being, eyes no longer serve us, which is absolutely expected: for our culture, eyes are synonymous with rational thought. "The gaze and logic, conquering the world since we learned to draw in caves." In the Shadow, everything is amorphous, which is why we fear getting lost inside. In the production of honest and brave works, there is also a moment of tuning into what still does not exist but is intuited. It is like the latent image in photography, which requires certain chemicals to develop and stop completely. Shadow and art: two ways of accessing the unknown, which still has no assigned words to exist but is nevertheless very real (for both the artist and the alchemist). So, what force would be pushing to produce signs, to search more among the shadows?

It is brave to show your shadow; it is kind to tell and propose simple strategies for each person to make their own way. In this exhibition, a part of the journey that Alejandro embarked on is shown. It remains only a part, within a possible interpretation, inside a story. An accurate reading key is that of the "Hero's Journey," as a companion for those who engage with these pieces to continue their own personal investigations. In Treasures of the Shadow, Alejandro delves into the archetype of the hermit: that person who, with a hood, a staff, and a lantern, goes on a journey into the depths of their own cave to remain there in a silent internal dialogue. A journey to recycle oneself. This is how the hermit becomes an alchemist, showing us how everything transmutes, how they create their own commandments through art, just like a religion, until bringing them to the pedagogical level where they transmit with much love and dedication everything they learned about life, about the shadow.

The journey of this hermit inspires us to ask ourselves: What treasures are in my shadow? What treasures are in each individual shadow? And in the collective shadow of the people we are? If the existing systems of interpreting reality do not represent you, what options are left? For Alejandro Somaschini, the answer is very simple, while not being so in reality. Your only option is to imagine new systems and then materialize them, living under these new inspirations.

Suggestions to embark on your own journey to the Shadow:

  1. Allow yourself to be surprised. The head alone is not enough to fully understand.

  2. Breathe and enter with your whole body.

  3. Take reference points because - we anticipate - you will get lost: it's good to remember a place to retrace your steps and choose another option.

  4. Because if you feel openly lost, that wasn't the most favorable path for this moment.

  5. To recognize the point where you got lost and return, remember when was the last time you perceived something as an "integration of things."

  6. Your senses are fundamental; they refine your intuition: trust what you feel.

  7. You can choose instruments and devices; a few, but don't let the backpack weigh you down.

  8. Remember to bring elements to make a fire. Fire has its own intelligence: contemplate.

  9. Clear and bold self-criticism is necessary. Listen to yourself.

  10. Remember that there is always a reward. And no one regrets being brave.

May this exhibition inspire us to embark on the journey to our shadow, filling us with courage and curiosity to go after our own treasures.

by Jesica Ferro, Mariana R. Iglesias, and Ayelen Ruiz.

Curators