Artists
Canada
César Forero
Bustrofedon’s book
22.10.12 09.11.12
Born in Colombia, Canadian citizen César Forero has been since 2006 a full-time artist, with an artistic practice that mixes sculpture, painting and textile work with performance and video. He has been selected within the International Residency Program 2012 to carry out the project The Book of Boustrophedon.
The word boustrophedon (meaning “like the ox plows”) describes a form of writing in which the letters run across the page until they reach the end of the line, and then turn, like an ox plowing a field, to start a new line that faces in the opposite direction. This is a form of writing that takes the reader through the story in the same way that a scroll unrolls.
Inspired by this visual-written form, the artist planned to work during his residency in an installation that will be built with a series of rolls of fabric that will cover the walls. The gallery will be transformed into the ox turning effect, which is also The Book of Boustrophedon. These scrolls will reveal a series of drawings, paintings, and writings that tell the story of man’s continuing relationship with the earth. The scrolls will follow the inexorable progression for real, but at the same time the translucency of the material will reveal the shadows of images behind it. Dual images and changing chronology admit that nothing is lost and that somehow we are all attached to the ground that we must protect.
BIO
César Forero
1966 | Colombia.
Lives in Ontario, Canada.
STUDIES
2006 | Master of Fine Arts, University of Waterloo. Ontario, Canada.
2002 | Master of Art, Minnesota State University. USA.
1990 | Bachelor in Architecture, Pilot University. Bogotá Colombia.
EXHIBITIONS
Colombia, Canada, USA. and Japan.
OTHERS
Professor of architecture, design and art at the University level in Colombia, the United States and Canada.
Related Activities
Exhibitions
Bustrofedon’s book
César Forero
07.11.12 29.11.12
The Bustrofedon Book (by Alicia Candiani)
The Bustrofedon Book was produced entirely by the Colombian-Canadian artist César Forero during his residence in ´ace that took place during October-November of 2012.
This monumental artist’s book is made up of 16 scrolls with transparent fabrics over 6 meters long, each of which -installed in the Polyglot Hall- constitutes an allegory against the killing of animals, whether they are killed for commercialization or entertainment as it occurs during cockfights or dogfights, that are still common in Latin America.
Bustrofedon (in Greek: βουστροφηδόν) designates a type of writing that consists of drafting alternately one line from left to right and the following from right to left. It appears in numerous archaic inscriptions, including Greek ones. The voice comes βου (bou): ‘ox’, στροφή (strofée): ‘turn’ or ‘turn’ and στρέφειν (stréfein): ‘turn around’, in such a way that the composition of the term refers to the similarity of this way of writing with the trajectory formed in the farmland with the plow drawn by oxen.
This ancient way of writing is popularly known as snake writing, drawing attention to the visual similarity it has with the ancient Hindu game Moksha-patamu, spread in the West as the game of Serpents and Ladders. In its original version this game raises ethical values, since it symbolizes the moral journey throughout a lifetime, until reaching heaven. The stairs represent virtuous acts that shorten the journey of the soul until reaching a state of ultimate perfection. Snakes are, on the contrary, the representation of human evil, and condemn us to reincarnations in lower forms, represented by silhouettes of different animals.
Forero’s work is imbued with both concepts, the idea that the fabrics can be read as bustrophedon (accentuating the effect of the transparencies between them) and also of the struggle between the forces of good and evil in their sometimes spiral compositions that explode along these canvases / paths / snakes showing us -like an oxymoron- beauty, discovering the harshness in the background and finally reflecting on the attitude of humanity in relation to nature.
´aceNITE
Shared Conscience
Forero, Stelini, Coimbra
07.11.12
Save the date! On Wednesday November 7th at 7.00pm join us for the opening of Shared Conscience, an exhibition that brings together three artists whose interests are linked from the concept of the collective, the community and the experimental.
The Boustrophedon book, an installation by César Forero, will be exhibited in the Políglota Gallery. Forero, a canadian citizen who was born in Colombia, produced this whole body of work during his residency at ´ace, which took place during the month of October.
At the Central Hall, there will be a video projection, Como Mecca, an urban intervention led by the Brazilian artist Cecilia Stelini. This project was filmed in the City of Buenos Aires on November 3rd, 2012 and involved the participation of fifty people. As the artist says, “This is a work in collaboration, it is a shared piece”.
As part of the In Dialogue Program, we will introduce the collaborative work of Brazilian photographer Amanda Coimbra. Her project Brazil in the collective consciousness brings together more than 20 Argentine artists who reflected and worked on the various ideas we as Argentines have about the artist’s country, Brazil.
We are grateful to the Embassy of Brazil in Buenos Aires for the patronage of the Brazilian artists, as well as to the Botanical Garden, the German and British Cemetery, the Market of the Flowers and the volunteers who took part of the project Como Mecca. Also to the artists and neighbors of the city that participated in both projects amongst the Brazilian artists.
ABOUT ´aceNITE
Is an event that occurs periodically, on Wednesdays from 7pm to 10pm. During these time ´ace opens its doors and exhibition spaces to the community to show projects made by the artists in residence as exhibitions, installations and audiovisual presentations, art works of Argentine and Latin American artists selected in a free way through Fusionarte Contemporaneo, present books, art critics, hold performances or to do everything together!
´aceNITE, Exhibitions
4 x 4 End of Year 2012
End of Year
05.12.12
A new ‘aceNITE will gather us in this occasion in order to celebrate the end of the year 2012. This was a special year in which we received more than 25 national and international artists in residence and more than 20 invited Argentine artists who enriched us with their artistic and cultural diversity. Thanks to everyone for this wonderful year!
On Wednesday December 5th we invite all of you to 4×4, a new ´aceNITE in which 4 international artists from USA, Brazil, Germany and Canada will exhibit their works. In the Central Hall, From a Corner of the Past the work made by the artist in residence Beth Fein (USA) will be exhibited, and in the Print Workshop, Alejandro Scasso’s (Argentina/Germany) Open Studio.
We will also have the pleasure to continue with the exhibitions Brasil in the Collective Consciousness by Amanda Coimbra (Brasil) and The Book of Bustrophedon by César Forero(Canada/Colombia).
Related artists
ABOUT ´aceNITE
Is an event that occurs periodically, on Wednesdays from 7pm to 10pm. During this time ´ace opens its doors and exhibition spaces to the community in order to: show projects made by the artists in residence in forms of exhibitions, installations and audiovisual presentations; art works of Argentine and Latin American artists selected in a free way through Fusionarte Contemporaneo; present books, art critics, hold performances or to do everything together!
